Regional Scan Identifies a Community Driven by Hope

The results of the 2025 Regional Scan, powered by Gulf Coast Community Foundation, have identified affordable housing, protecting our natural environment, and helping people in times of crisis as the top priorities for the region.

Based on input from over 1,500 residents across Sarasota, Charlotte, and DeSoto Counties, the findings highlight both the strengths that define our region and the opportunities we share ahead. Residents identified the arts and culture sector, along with parks and recreation, as key assets that make our region unique. At the same time, they pointed to areas where we can grow, identifying three primary community priorities in the Regional Scan:

• Affordable housing (57%) — The region’s top concern across all demographics, residents listed rising costs and limited availability as major blockades. However, only one-quarter of this group reported that this directly affects their own household, indicating it is widely viewed as a broader community challenge and represents an empathetic community response.
• Protecting our natural environment (36%) — Roughly three out of four respondents (76%) who prioritized environmental issues said their concerns came from personal experience or observation, including overdevelopment (83%), loss of wildlife habitat (47%), red tide (45%), and flooding (40%).
• Helping people in times of crisis (32%) — The strong sense of responsibility for neighbors facing homelessness, food insecurity, and disaster recovery is evident among respondents, with about 42–46% citing systemic barriers such as complex processes, delayed assistance, and uneven access to government support as key concerns.

“Our hope is that our partners and civic leaders will use this data as the foundation for continued work to strengthen our region through meaningful listening, learning, and action.” The survey results also highlight broader themes within community sentiment and include important context for interpreting the overall findings:

• Shared responsibility across issues (65%) —The majority of respondents selected issues that do not directly affect them personally, suggesting a strong sense of shared community responsibility and empathy.
• Sense of belonging (48%) — Nearly half of all respondents indicated that they sometimes or never feel like they belong. Among them, 40% cited a lack of local government listening, and 35% said difficulty finding common ground with others socially, politically, and culturally contributed to that feeling.
• Families with children and caregiving responsibilities — Households with children under 18 earning less than $150,000 were the only demographic who identified a unique set of top priorities. In alignment with the community, they identified affordable housing as the top concern (51%) and then shifted their second and third priorities to public schools (34%) and access to quality and affordable childcare (29%). Nearly all caregivers (98%) said childcare costs are too high, often forcing tradeoffs such as reducing work hours, leaving jobs, or relying on informal care.

“This Regional Scan provides a clear understanding of residents’ experiences and establishes a foundation for a roadmap toward thriving communities with opportunities for all,” said Kelly Carlstein, Gulf Coast’s Vice President of Strategy and Culture. “At its core, this work is about putting community first: grounded in transparency, guided by data with purpose, and focused on responding with care.” 

Gulf Coast is committed to sharing the findings broadly throughout the community to guide and inspire ongoing conversations that aim to result in actionable outcomes. The full Regional Scan results are available on the Gulf Coast website at gulfcoastcf.org/readytoact. If members of the community are interested in more information, they can reach out to Kelly Carlstein, Vice President of Strategy and Culture, at kcarlstein@gulfcoastcf.org.