The Consumer Survey of
Problem-Solving Resources

Low-income, of color, and immigrant communities only rarely have access to trustworthy information about the quality of services provided by those diverse organizations offering problem-solving help. And less frequently still do these communities have access to a reliable sample of consumer views about the quality of services offered by particular service providers. These information gaps impose significant costs – on both these communities and those service providers who hope to serve them well. In the absence of dependable information about the quality and availability of particular problem-solving resources, those people already outsiders to and even victims of our justice system often find themselves needlessly frustrated, badly served, and frequently discouraged from even looking for much-needed help. Meanwhile, service providers – and the organizations, institutions, and coalitions of which they are a part – often lack precisely the sort of comprehensive data necessary to take stock of their own performance and to make genuinely reliable referrals.

In a world where ambitious consumer reviews are available for seemingly every commercial product, vacation destination, higher educational institution, and big city restaurant, we at the Center for Community Problem Solving believe we should no longer accept – much less facilely justify – not having the equivalent of a “Zagat Survey” of problem-solving resources available to low-income, of color, and immigrant communities. Drawing on the groundwork laid by and the information compiled through the Neighborhood Legal Needs & Resources Project, the Center will spend the next several years developing, implementing, and disseminating the Consumer Surveys of Problem-Solving Resources. The first-ever of their kind, our Consumer Surveys will allow New York City residents (starting in Harlem, East Harlem, Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side) to share with one another – in annually-updated, accessible formats – their experiences and their opinions of those to whom they turn for help. At the same time, we hope to convince all problem solvers to embrace responding constructively to what such surveys will illuminate about service delivery systems and our own particular practices.

With the generous support of the Equal Justice Works Foundation, we have spent the past few years researching “consumer surveys,” “evaluations,” and “tester schemes” already implemented across private, public, and civic realms. We have been building close relationships with diverse residents and service providers throughout New York City’s low-income, of color, and immigrant neighborhoods. And we have been drafting and vetting and preparing the implementation of a pilot study of a Consumer Survey to administer to people coming out of jails and prisons and to their families as part of The Reentry Project. We shall develop our Consumer Surveys based on what we learn from this and other pilot studies, and we shall share our results with all interested in learning about the benefits, limitations, and approaches to using such evaluation tools.