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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 · 541 requests in 185 conversations

Requests
541
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
107
Utilities & Financial Assistance
71
Family & Youth Services
61
Housing & Shelter
60
Food & Nutrition
55
Immediate Emergencies & Crisis
41
Legal Aid & Clinics
35
Immigrant, Refugee & Cultural Services
33
Employment & Education
25
Crime Victims, Domestic Violence & Hate Crimes
23

Specific needs

Finer labels; one request can carry several.

food pantry
53
mental health counseling
44
legal aid
39
utility assistance
33
disaster or wildfire relief
26
domestic violence support
20
immigration help
18
interpreter or translation
18
childcare
17
senior services
17
emergency shelter
17
cash assistance
16
other
16
disability services
13
job search
13
primary care
12
health insurance
12
clothing
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
60
West Spokane & West Plains
46
Spokane Valley
37
North County
22
Downtown & Core
18

Language

5% of requests were spoken rather than typed.

en
415
es
19

Urgency

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

unknown
420
emergency
33
planning
32
today
28
this week
19

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.