Location
“A workforce challenge that we struggle with in Snohomish County is that we are right on the border with King County, and you can usually make a little more money if you work in King County. The pace at which anybody's job in any field in Snohomish County is is keeping up with that cost of living is just very poor.” - From an administrator focus group participant
Some participants brought up challenges that had to do with their physical location. For many rural communities, access to services is a challenge for others' location reflected in differences in one's work environment.
“Our community is pretty poverty stricken. Our closest hospital to deliver babies is probably it's like 25 min, if the roads are clear. It can take a lot longer if the roads aren't. There's no prenatal care in our little community. A lot of people don't seek prenatal care because of the distance.” - From a direct service provider focus group participant
Call to Action and Connection to Other Topics
Most of the challenges associated with physical location are connected to other root causes like funding models and workforce shortage. Thus, focus group participants did not have specific calls to action on this topic. The chart below shows how Location is connected to other topics. The numbers show how often the topics were discussed together. To solve issues related to location, these topics must be addressed first.
