Garrett Forward Social Services Survey
In late July and early August 2025, Garrett Forward members developed a survey to identify the priorities and concerns that Garrett County residents would for social services, especially those impacted by Federal budget cuts. Our framework for identifying those services was to identify 10 local Community Action programs.
The survey appeared as follows:
Survey Findings
Surveys were presented to Garrett County residents at the Ag. Fair and at a local Ruth Enlow Library location. In total, 554 completed surveys were collected and aggregate counts were found identifying general priorities and top 5 priorities.
In general, no issue stood out as being the highest priority. The top 5 issues were closely grouped.
Tabled total distribution of selected responses:
| Count | % | |
| Meals On Wheels | 365 | 13.5% |
| Emergency | 355 | 13.2% |
| Home Care | 355 | 13.2% |
| Head Start | 329 | 12.2% |
| Utilt Asst | 292 | 10.8% |
| Homeless Svs. | 260 | 9.6% |
| Garrett Transit | 252 | 9.3% |
| Rental Asst. | 187 | 6.9% |
| Weatherization | 170 | 6.3% |
| HUD | 133 | 4.9% |
Chart identifying top 5 responses:
Presentation of Findings
Findings were presented to Garrett County residents during our September 10th, 2025 “State of the County” community informational session.
We presented our findings and talked through important insights using the following summary infographic:
