Community Action Agency of Northeast Alabama, Inc.
Housing, utilities, transportation and food converge as first-tier priorities across all seven counties.
Counties served (7): Blount, Cherokee, DeKalb, Jackson, Jefferson, Marshall, St. Clair
Territory
Service area per ADECA — Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) service areas.
Data readiness
- Source year
- 2026 assessment (2025 community input)
- County indicator coverage
- 100% of counties
- Impact dataset
- Pending
Need snapshot
Regional values from CAANEAL 2026 Community Needs Assessment / 2025 community input. These describe the whole service area and are not applied to individual counties.
- Total survey responses (merged 2025 CNA file)
- 2,523
- Respondents identifying as CAANEAL participants/clients
- 2,073
- Usable responses in the issue-response module
- 963
- Documented county-meeting participants
- 196
- Selected debt, budgeting stress or weak support-system pressure
- 84.8%
714 program participants + 249 community members
135 partners + 61 community members across 8 meeting areas
Share of usable respondents selecting at least one of these pressures.
County comparison
Share of residents with income below the federal poverty level.
| County | Poverty | Median HH income | Broadband | Commute | Living wage 1A | Living wage 1A+1C | Gross rent | Uninsured <65 | Bachelor+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blount | 11.7% | $64,190 | 85.0% | 35.8 min | $19.64/hr | $33.66/hr | $776 | 13.3% | 15.8% |
| Cherokee | 15.4% | $53,863 | 82.6% | 30.5 min | $18.71/hr | $31.47/hr | $762 | 11.7% | 16.5% |
| DeKalb | 21.3% | $51,204 | 86.9% | 24.8 min | $18.65/hr | $31.16/hr | $693 | 15.0% | 14.1% |
| Jackson | 17.0% | $51,908 | 89.9% | 27.3 min | $18.46/hr | $31.07/hr | $780 | 11.9% | 15.9% |
| Jefferson | 14.2% | $66,388 | 90.4% | 24.1 min | $22.07/hr | $36.30/hr | $1,193 | 10.3% | 36.2% |
| Marshall | 15.9% | $62,571 | 90.1% | 25.5 min | $18.84/hr | $31.42/hr | $795 | 11.5% | 21.5% |
| St. Clair | 9.7% | $77,463 | 91.1% | 30.7 min | $21.97/hr | $36.83/hr | $1,084 | 8.9% | 21.4% |
Community voice & listening sessions
Community Voice — meeting votes, not population prevalence. Counts show how many meeting participants raised or endorsed a topic.
Jackson County
- Transportation6
- Utilities4
- Food3
- Childcare2
- Rent2
DeKalb County
- Transportation6
- Housing5
- Food5
- Childcare4
- Employment2
- Utilities2
- Mental Health2
Marshall County
- Transportation5
- Housing4
- Utilities4
- Food4
- Childcare2
- Medication / Health2
St. Clair County
- Housing4
- Childcare2
- Transportation2
- Parent Engagement2
- Mental Health1
- Food1
- Utilities1
Jefferson County — Bessemer session
- Transportation5
- Utilities3
- Food3
- Housing2
- Resource Knowledge2
- Prescriptions2
- Childcare2
- Safety2
Jefferson County — Birmingham session
- Housing7
- Transportation5
- Food4
- Employment3
- Mental Health3
- Utilities3
Planning signals
- 1First-tier regional priority convergenceHousing, Utilities, Transportation and Food emerged as first-tier priorities region-wide.
- 2Household financial fragility84.8% of usable respondents selected at least one of debt, budgeting stress or weak support-system pressures.
- 3Transportation dominates rural listening sessionsTransportation drew the most votes in Jackson, DeKalb and Marshall county meetings.
Needs vs response
Documented need
Housing, utilities, transportation and food
First-tier priorities across the seven-county service area, confirmed by 963 usable issue-module responses and 196 county-meeting participants.
CAANEAL 2026 Community Needs Assessment / 2025 community input · 2026 assessment (2025 community input)
Response data pending
Impact data connection pending
No verified CAANEAL program-response dataset is connected yet. Agency impact measures can be imported through the CNA/Impact ingestion workflow.
Data sources & methodology
- Mixed quantitative and qualitative sources: public secondary data plus local survey and listening-session input.
- County-level comparisons draw on public data and local survey responses; county survey comparisons are directional rather than population estimates.
- 2,523 total survey responses in the merged 2025 CNA file; 2,073 respondents identified as CAANEAL participants/clients.
- 963 usable responses in the issue-response module (714 participants + 249 community members).
- 196 documented county-meeting participants: 135 partners + 61 community members across 8 meeting areas.
- Curated CNA extract from the published assessment — not a live connection to the assessment document.
Territory source: ADECA — Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) service areas — https://adeca.alabama.gov/CSBG/