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What Spokane is asking for

People come to the Spokane Community Assistant with a need. This page shows, in aggregate, what those needs are and how well the community's services answered them. It is meant for residents, service providers, funders, and the city: a live, anonymous needs assessment.

Last 90 days · updated hourly · 437 requests in 118 conversations

Requests
437
Weak or no match
8%
a service gap signal
Crisis responses
71
hotline script shown
Rated helpful
—

By kind of help

The dark part of each bar is requests that got a weak or no match.

Health & Wellness
93
Utilities & Financial Assistance
51
Family & Youth Services
48
Housing & Shelter
46
Food & Nutrition
40
Immediate Emergencies & Crisis
33
Legal Aid & Clinics
29
Immigrant, Refugee & Cultural Services
28
Employment & Education
25
Crime Victims, Domestic Violence & Hate Crimes
22

Specific needs

Finer labels; one request can carry several.

food pantry
41
mental health counseling
39
legal aid
34
utility assistance
27
disaster or wildfire relief
20
domestic violence support
20
senior services
17
immigration help
17
other
16
emergency shelter
16
interpreter or translation
16
childcare
14
disability services
13
cash assistance
12
primary care
12
health insurance
12
job search
12
affordable housing
11
caregiver support
11

By area

Where people searched from, by ZIP code rolled up into ten regions. Shown only when a ZIP was entered.

Northeast Spokane
78
South Hill
59
West Spokane & West Plains
46
Spokane Valley
35
North County
22

Language

5% of requests were spoken rather than typed.

en
353
es
19

Urgency

How soon the help was needed, as far as the request made clear.

unknown
331
planning
32
emergency
31
today
18
this week
16

How this is made

The assistant never stores what a person typed or said. Each request is reduced to fixed labels (the kind of help, how urgent, which services were suggested and how well they matched, the ZIP code if one was entered, and the language) and the words are discarded. Nothing about who is asking is recorded. This page shows only groups of 10 or more requests.

The same numbers are available at /api/needs (JSON, updated hourly). You may share them for non-commercial purposes with credit to Ask Spokane, under the license named in the terms of use. Read the privacy notice for the full rule. Service providers who see a gap in their area and want to be listed can write to vivek@plainwords.io.

A product of Plain Words LLC, built by Vivek Patil. In an emergency call 911. For crisis support, call or text 988.