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Community Foundation presents county needs update: poverty, health access and student homelessness flagged
Summary
Jeff Pickering of the Indian River Community Foundation presented a 2025 community needs update highlighting persistent poverty, health-care access issues, and a record number of students experiencing homelessness, while reporting nonprofit sector revenue and grant activity.
Jeff Pickering, president and CEO of the Indian River Community Foundation, briefed the council on the foundation's 2025 community needs update and the Indian River Indicators data resource.
Pickering summarized three outlier findings: (1) infant and maternal health and the need to preserve local maternity services; (2) a contrast between education performance (some metrics improving) and pockets of dissatisfaction; and (3) a —new face of homelessness— concentrated among children: the point-in-time count found 198 people on a single day, while school reports documented 655 students who experienced homelessness at some point in the school year. He said the foundation and partners produced two perception surveys and a data analysis showing two-thirds of respondents think quality of life is heading in the right direction but that persistent concerns remain around health-care access, early-childhood care, low wages, transportation and housing affordability.
Pickering also gave nonprofit-sector figures: the Community Foundation has awarded more than $150 million since 2008; last year local nonprofits reported about $384 million in revenue with roughly 41% from individual contributions and about $58 million (15%) from government sources.
Why it matters: The update frames policy choices for local officials and philanthropic partners and underscores demands for health services, housing and early-childhood supports. Pickering left copies of the report and said the full material and indicator dashboards are available online.
What's next: Pickering offered to answer questions and provided follow-up materials; council members asked about municipality-level breakdowns and data by census tract.
