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This provides context for collecting data on current issues, history, demographics, geographic, and resources. Program directors and service area managers will welcome this outline for beginning the process for assessing community needs.
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| The following is an excerpt from
Community Tool Box:
Community Assessment, Agenda Setting, Choice of Broad Strategies.
Outline for Assessing Community Needs and Resources: Assessing Community Needs and Resources
- Describe the makeup and history of the community to provide a context within which to collect data on its current concerns.
- Comment on the types of information that
best describes the community (e.g., demographic, historical,
political, civic participation, key leaders, past concerns,
geographic, assets)
- Describe the sources (e.g., city hall,
maps, phone book, library, newspaper) of information
- Comment on whether there are sufficient
resources (e.g., time, personnel, resources) available to
collect this information
- Comment on the methods (e.g., key leader
interviews, observation, ethnography, windshield tour) used to
collect the descriptive information
- Assess the quality of the information
- Describe the strengths and problems you heard about
- Describe what matters to local people
- Discuss how you arranged
to listen to community leaders and members
- Describe who you
listened to and why
- Discuss the methods
(e.g., listening sessions, public forums, interviews, concerns
surveys, focus groups, ethnography, interviews) you used to
listen to the community
- Illustrate the issues of
concern to people in the community
- Explain how important
these issues are to citizens
- Express how satisfied
citizens are with community efforts on the issues
- List priorities based on issues of high importance and low satisfaction
- Describe barriers or
resistance to solving the problem f. Describe the resources
available to problem solving efforts
- Tell of possible solutions and alternatives suggested by the community
- Describe the needs identified by community stakeholders (optional )
- Indicate the target
populations and subgroups
- Specify who the
stakeholders are
- Describe what they
wanted to know
- List the questions you asked
- Describe the methods
(e.g., surveys, interviews, secondary information, small group
discussion) you used to gather information
- If you used a survey, describe the sampling method
- Describe the limitations of the needs assessment
- Compile and describe the evidence suggesting that identified issues should be a priority
- Describe the community
level indicators -- those incidence or prevalence levels of
behavior or events that relate to the issues of concern (e.g. if
joblessness is an issue in the community, you may want to
collect information on the unemployment rate and the rate of job
creation in the community)
- Explain how frequently
it occurs
- Illustrate how many
people are affected by it and in what severity
- Discuss how feasible
attempting to solve it is
- Explain the possible impact and/or consequences of solving it
- Describe the resources available in or to the community that help address this issue
- Indicate what and where
the resources are. Express how we identify and tap into those
attributes that could help facilitate the process.
- Indicate who the
community leaders are. Describe the individuals and
organizations that influence the community.
- Describe how the
networks are organized. Explain how you can build on already
existing networks and effectively foster new ones.
- Depict the community projects currently in progress. Analyze and discuss what this tells us about where the community is invested and how they might be involved in the future.
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“Outline for Assessing Community Needs and
Resources: Assessing Community Needs and Resources”. Community Tool
Box: Community Assessment, Agenda Setting, Choice of Broad
Strategies. Work Group on Health Promotion and Community
Development. University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. 2005. English.
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