The Center for Transforming Lives (CTL) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women, children, and families through various services, including health care. Despite operating in a health care desert, CTL has found that the mobile health services provided through its partners are underutilized. This represents a significant challenge as unmet health needs persist in the community.

The current challenge is understanding why these services are not being fully utilized and how CTL can better meet the community's health needs. Possible issues include offering the wrong services, hosting the wrong partners, unmet demand for specific types of care, and barriers to accessing existing services.

The impact of this challenge is that the community continues to face health disparities, and CTL's mission to improve health outcomes is hindered. There is a need to reassess and realign the services offered to ensure they are effectively addressing community needs, thus maximizing the impact of CTL's efforts.

This project offers students the opportunity to address these challenges by conducting a focused needs assessment. Students will explore various phases, including data collection, community engagement, analysis, and reporting, to deliver actionable insights to CTL.

This project is ideal for students as it allows them to apply their academic skills in a real-world setting, enhancing their understanding of public health and sociology. It provides them with experience in consulting, stakeholder engagement, and strategic analysis, which are valuable skills in their future careers.

Students will gain insights into the complexities of health service delivery in underserved areas, learning how to translate research into practical recommendations. This experience will prepare them for roles in public health, policy, consulting, and other fields where they can make a meaningful impact on communities.