Reflections from A Social Work Student Interning for Rep. Behn

Casey Pestona interned for Rep. Behn's legislative office and conducted a community needs assessment for her final project.

As I wrap up my internship with Representative Aftyn Behn, I’ve been reflecting on why I chose to be a social worker and what community means.

Before I got into social work, I was a hairstylist—which really has more in common with social work than I first thought—but that’s a conversation for another day. During the chaos of Trump’s first presidency, I started feeling this pull to do something different and when the pandemic hit, I decided to make a change and go to school for social work. At the time, I figured we’d already hit rock bottom—surely things could only get better from there...

But it turns out I was wrong.

Now I’m graduating into a world where social programs are being gutted, authoritarian policies are picking up speed, and it’s painfully obvious that many lawmakers either don’t know what people need—or they just don’t care.

Interning with a state rep who centers social work values like equity, dignity, and service in every policy she sponsors has been an incredible experience. Honestly, I think it’s the only thing that’s kept me from spiraling over the last few months. But I’d be lying if I said that going to the General Assembly on a regular basis didn’t take a toll.

I was warned that working inside the Tennessee General Assembly would be depressing and radicalizing. That was an understatement. The disconnect between so many of our lawmakers and the people they supposedly serve is massive—and growing. And I think it’s only natural to demand change after witnessing that level of disconnect firsthand.

I’ve sat through committees where legislators proudly admit that their bills were handed to them by corporations—not constituents. One bill, introduced by State Representative Rusty Grills, even aimed to strip people of the right to sue pesticide companies over false or misleading labels. If that doesn’t scream “we work for the highest bidder,” I don’t know what does.

How Do We Make It Harder to Ignore Us?

Most people are just trying to survive—working multiple jobs, caregiving, paying bills that keep getting bigger. Who has time to show up to a town hall or get involved when their job doesn’t even grant them paid leave?

And maybe that’s the point. An overwhelmed public is a quiet public. If we’re too tired to connect with each other, we’re easier to overlook—and a whole lot easier to exploit.

But nothing changes when we’re isolated. Change happens when people come together, get loud, and get organized.

What a Community Needs Assessment Can Do

That’s where community needs assessments come in. They’re not magic, but when done well, they can highlight what a community is facing, what it already has going for it, and what it desperately needs. They give people a way to say, clearly and on the record: Here’s what’s broken. Here’s what we need. Here’s what we want.

Before we can respond in a way that’s actually helpful, we have to start by hearing people out. Listening is the first step toward trust, and trust is what makes real change possible.

A community needs assessment is a structured process—usually involving surveys, interviews, or focus groups—that gathers input directly from the people who live and work in a community. It’s not about guessing what folks need; it’s about asking and listening.

Different people use these assessments in different ways. For elected officials, they can guide smarter policy and resource decisions. Nonprofits and community groups use them to uncover gaps in services and to better align their work with what the community actually wants. And for activists and organizers, they offer a clearer picture of the specific barriers people are up against—making advocacy efforts sharper and more grounded in lived experience.

As a social work student, I’d studied needs assessments, but I’d never actually done one that involved surveying community members. That changed during my practicum with Rep. Behn.

The Madison Neighborhood Survey

For my final project, we created a community survey for a neighborhood in Madison, TN. We asked about everything from safety and education to discrimination, infrastructure, and how folks are dealing with the rising cost of living. We offered it in both English and Spanish, and in paper and digital formats—trying to meet people where they are.

We started canvassing in March and wrapped in May. Our first response rate was low, so we went back out and recanvassed, nearly doubling it. Still, only 7.6% of people responded, which I admit was a little disheartening. (And yes—canvassing in Tennessee spring weather is just as unpredictable as you’d imagine.)

Low survey participation is disappointing, but it also says something. People are exhausted. Distrustful. Burned out. Lots of folks have filled out surveys, attended meetings, or spoken up—only to see nothing change. That kind of disillusionment doesn’t come out of nowhere.

But even a small sample can tell a big story. The responses we did get mirror what we’re hearing across the country. People are worried about rising costs, broken infrastructure, lack of healthcare, environmental threats, and widening inequality.

Over 80% of respondents said lowering grocery prices was a very important issue. That tracks. Prices are soaring, and a new round of tariffs isn’t going to help. A bill from Rep. Behn and Sen. Oliver would’ve eased some of this burden by eliminating the state grocery tax and instead taxing giant tech corporations. But surprise—it didn’t pass.

The community needs assessment revealed several other stark disconnects between what residents want and what policymakers are actually doing.

For example, 68.4% of respondents said addressing racial discrimination was a very important issue, and 60.5% said increasing community oversight of the police was very important. Despite that, we’ve seen a sharp rise in racial profiling over the past month as ICE raids have devastated neighborhoods across Davidson County.

If lawmakers were truly listening to their constituents, ICE wouldn’t be kidnapping people off Nashville streets. And yes—if someone is taken without a warrant or due process and disappeared, that’s kidnapping. Call it what it is.

Instead of scapegoating immigrants for problems created by corporate greed and failed policies, we should be investing in the things that actually keep communities safe: affordable housing, healthcare, education, and public services.

Healthcare access was another major concern: over 80% of households surveyed said lowering healthcare and prescription costs was a top priority. Meanwhile, 33.4% of people in the area we surveyed don’t have health insurance—that’s about four times the national average.

And yet, instead of working to close this gap, Tennessee’s Republican supermajority has taken deliberate steps to widen it.

Every year, we leave hundreds of millions of unspent TennCare dollars on the table while people skip care they can’t afford. And recently, all but one member of our congressional delegation—led by Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty—voted to gut Medicaid.

It’s not like they don’t know better. A recent Vanderbilt poll shows that a majority of Tennesseans—including conservatives—support Medicaid expansion. Choosing to ignore that isn’t just poor leadership; it’s a deliberate dismissal of what people actually want and need.

So, What’s the Point?

You might be thinking, “What’s the point of a community needs assessment if most elected officials don’t seem to care anyway?” And honestly, that’s a fair question. I get it.

But I also don’t want to leave you with the impression that no lawmaker cares—because that’s just not true. There are elected officials who are fighting for their communities, and there are also tons of grassroots groups across Middle Tennessee doing incredible, important work.

Community needs assessments show in a very concrete way that your concerns are not only valid, but shared. The same people who are hoarding wealth want us focused on all the ways we’re different instead of what we have in common—because as individuals we are much easier to control, but as a collective we have power.

We’ve Done It Before. We Can Do Better.

It’s easy to feel hopeless under these circumstances. But we’ve faced major crises before—and pushed through.

As weird as it sounds, there really was a time when the government responded to public need with big, structural changes. A lot of that came out of the New Deal—and we’ve got a social worker, Frances Perkins, to thank for much of it. She helped get us things like Social Security, the 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, and an end to child labor.

Now, was the New Deal perfect? Absolutely not. It wrongfully excluded Black folks and other marginalized groups from many services and benefits—injustices that still demand accountability. But still, if we could pass major labor protections during a time when kids were regularly working 10-hour days in factories, I don’t buy the idea that bold change isn’t possible today.

We’ve done it before. We can do better.

Keep Talking. Keep Showing Up.

But we have to get out of our bubbles to do this. We are facing so much uncertainty right now. The only way we get through this is by working together and raising our voices.

That might mean attending protests, volunteering, having a difficult conversation with a family member, filling out a survey from a very tired social work student trying to make sure your voice is heard, or maybe conducting your own community needs assessment. (But please do not approach this haphazardly because there are a lot of ethical considerations.)

Whatever it looks like, we can’t afford to stay quiet. Most of the people in power aren’t listening—which means it’s on us to make it too loud to ignore.