needs assessment ppt
TRANSCRIPT
Community Needs Assessment Tools
Charlie French
Community & Economic Development Specialist
“Community”
A body of persons having a common history,
ethnicity, culture, geography, or interests.
– Communities of Place: Defined by distinct
boundaries and bound by a common political,
economic and social system.
– Communities of Interest: A group of individuals
that share common interests, goals, or knowledge
about something.
Community Needs Assessment
A way of gauging opinions, assumptions,
needs, key issues, and/or assets within a
defined community.
Identify community needs, concerns and issues
Target outreach programs
Empower grass-roots Action around needs
Determine if needs have changed?
Collect communities’ hopes/dreams/desires
Needs Assessment: Why do it?
Community Assessment Tools
• Focus Group Interview
• Public Issues Forum
• Secondary Data Analysis
• Community Survey Questionnaire
• Interviews
• Asset Mapping
http://ctb.lsi.ukans.edu/tools/EN/chapter_1003.htm Source:
Focus Group Interview
The focus group is a way to gather the opinions/
ideas from a small, targeted group of citizens.
The intention of focus groups is perhaps more to
build a synergy of thoughts and ideas than it is to
make projections about the community.
Advantages
• easy to conduct
• Provides detailed info
• allows for issue probing
• stimulates thinking and discussion
Disadvantages
• ideas generated not necessarily prevalent
• small sample for effort
• difficult to analyze
• quiet folks suppressed
• requires participation
Public Issues Forum
Community forums are public meetings that
involve residents to express their concerns about
community issues, problems, and needs.
Advantages
• Diverse members can share ideas
• Provides quick look at community issues
• involves local citizens
• inexpensive
Disadvantages
• requires skill/time
• opinions obtained only from those who attend
• may generate more questions or conflict
Steps: Preparing for the Forum
1. Form representative steering committee (5-15 people)
2. Identify pressing issue(s) to form the focus of forum
3. Select a trained facilitator
4. Set a time and place:
• Seating arrangement should encourage dialogue
• have appropriate acoustics (i.e., microphone)
• make sure the location is neutral (school is a great place)
5. Publicize the forum
6. Hit all the major media outlets
Steps: Conducting the Forum Event
1. Facilitator outlines process, what the results will be used
for, and their role as facilitator.
2. Do an ice-breaker to build trust.
3. Brainstorm: The purpose of brainstorming is to generate
ideas (if issues have already been identified go to step 5)
4. Prioritize issues (you may want to do this via voting)
5. Once issues have been identified, next step is to mobilize
action groups (allow time for groups to meet and plan).
6. Provide each group with action planner worksheet which
gets them to write goal, objectives, planned activities,
timeline, and persons responsible for activities.
Steps: Followup after the Forum
1. Develop a written report • If action is the goal, the report may be used as the basis for
a plan
• If change in policy is the goal, the report should emphasize priorities or final decisions.
2. Disseminate the report using multi-media
Secondary Data Analysis
Secondary data is data that is collected about a
particular audience without having direct contact
with that audience. It can often provide insight
about emerging trends or issues in a particular
community.
.
Advantages
• data already exists
• fast & easy to access
• data available for many geographic levels
Disadvantages
• representative sample may not be accurate
• gaps in data
• requires inferences
• Lack of Data Richness
Strafford Coos
Age: < 6 Years 9,429 8.60% 2,452 7.5%
6-11 Years 8,961 8.20% 2,728 8.4%
12-17 Years 7,865 7.20% 2,904 8.9%
18-24 Years 15,532 14.20% 2,311 7.1%
25-34 Years 17,529 16.00% 4,158 12.8%
35-44 Years 17,228 15.80% 5,140 15.8%
45-54 Years 12,579 11.50% 4,140 12.7%
55-64 Years 8,204 7.50% 3,268 10.0%
65-74 Years 6,513 6.00% 2,914 8.9%
75-84 Years 4,146 3.80% 1,873 5.7%
85+ Years 1,305 1.20% 712 2.2%
Median Age 32.3 38.4
2000 Per Capita Income
General Demographic Data
http://factfinder.census.gov/ General data on housing,
demographics, business...
http://www.nhes.state.nh.us/elmi/index.html Look here for
Labor Market information for New Hampshire.
http://www.granit.sr.unh.edu/ NH natural resource info
http://www.ed.gov/topics/topicsTier2.jsp?top=Research+%26
+Stats&type=T&subtop=Statistics This site contains national
and state-level data on education and test scores.
www.nhhealthdata.org This website is an inventory of health
data that is available to New Hampshire communities.
Community Survey Community surveys help one to gather
info about local attitudes regarding precisely
defined issues, problems or opportunities.
Surveys may be open ended or multiple choice.
Advantages
• wide distribution
• good for data analysis
• strong sample of the population
Disadvantages
• expensive
• requires skill/time
• suffers low return rate
• poor qualitative tool
Build a Survey on the Web
The University of Illinois’ Laboratory for
Community and Economic Development has a
database of sample surveys/needs assessments
as well as an an on-line survey-builder. Moreover,
the website provides a flow chart clearly outlining
every step of the survey process. http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~lced/main.html
Interviews An interview is a conversation with a purpose,
designed to help you gather information about
peoples assumptions/perceptions of activities in
your community. They are useful when looking
for in-depth information on a particular topic.
Advantages
• detailed information
• allows for clarification/ followup on questions
• personal contact builds rapport
Disadvantages
• Time-consuming
• requires skill/time
• Information is hard to summarize
• Little quantitative value
Steps in an Interview Process
1. Form a Steering Committee to guide process
2. Determine who is to be interviewed
3. Select a skilled Interviewer
4. Select questions
5. Decide on an interview format/delivery method
– Formal or informal structure
– Face-to-face, telephone, or email delivery
6. Inform the participants
7. Practice
8. Steer / guide the interview session (take notes)
9. Write a summary report
10. Thank the interviewees
Steps in an Interview Process
1. Form a Steering Committee to guide process
2. Determine who is to be interviewed
3. Select a skilled Interviewer
4. Select questions
5. Decide on an interview format/delivery method
– Formal or informal structure
– Face-to-face, telephone, or email delivery
6. Inform the participants
7. Practice
8. Steer / guide the interview session (take notes)
9. Write a summary report
10. Thank the interviewees
Developing and Asking Interview Questions
• Don’t ask defensive questions.
• Avoid the two-in-one question.
• Avoid complex questions.
• Keep it short.
• Focuses on most important findings
• Don’t try to put too much in it
Asset Mapping
Asset mapping is a technique for cataloguing
local community assets/resources to meet
community objectives. The goal is to identify
and utilize assets to better the community rather
than to focus on problems and needs.
Advantages • Focuses on what
community already has.
• Provides diverse look at community assets.
• Involves multiple stakeholders.
Disadvantages • Community assets may
not match key issues.
• People tend to respond to crises rather than possibilities.
Assets Come in Many Forms
• Human Assets
• Associational Assets
• Institutional Assets
• Local Business Assets
• Outside Resources
Asset-Based Community Development
Step 1
Form a Steering Committee
Step 3
Identify your Community
Step 2
Commit Resources
Step 4
Decide on Inventory Method
Step 6
Develop Resource List
Step 7
Cross Reference Needs with Assets
Step 8
Identify Opportunities & Mobilize Community
Step 5
Administer Asset Assessment Tool
Asset Mapping Resources
- Vitalizing Communities, 1999. J. Allen, S. Cordes, and J. Hart.
- The Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI) at the University of Nebraska.
- Asset Based Community Development Institute, Northwestern
University: http://www.nwu.edu/IPR/abcd.html
- Other Community Development Links:
http://www.uwfv.bc.ca/commdev.htm
Community Asset Inventory
1. Personal Skills Inventory
2. Institution/Organization/Business Inventory
3. Previous Efforts Inventory
4. Community Development Opportunities
5. Development of a Plan
Factors for Choosing your Assessment Tool
Purpose of Assessment
Type of Data Needed
Time Commitment
Cost
Skills needed
Target Audience
Sources of Bias
Review: Steps for Conducting an Assessment
1. Form a Steering Committee 2. What need(s)/issue(s) are you addressing? 3. Determine the community you are assessing. 4. Determine assessment tool 5. Develop a plan (who, what, when, where, how). 6. Implement the assessment tool (see next page) 7. Analyze the results 8. Report the results 9. Implement or instigate follow-through
Using the Web to Administer Assessments
The internet is increasingly being used to
administer surveys and other types of needs
assessments. Programs, such as Cold Fusion,
enable one to build interactive web interfaces. In
other words, as people fill out surveys on the web,
the information is sent directly to a central
spreadsheet where it can be analyzed on an
ongoing basis. Web surveys are ideally suited to
statewide or national assessments where on-the-
ground techniques might be difficult.
Presenting the Data
• Clear and Concise
• Combine numbers with text and graphics
• Focuses on most important findings
• Don’t try to put too much in it
Assessment Tool Guides
Asset Mapping: ftp://ceftp.unh.edu/AssetMap.doc
Concerns Survey: ftp://ceftp.unh.edu/ComConSurv.doc
Needs Survey: ftp://ceftp.unh.edu/ComNeedSurv.doc
Focus Groups: ftp://ceftp.unh.edu/FocGroups.doc
Interviews: ftp://ceftp.unh.edu/Interviews.doc
Public Forum: ftp://ceftp.unh.edu/PublicForum.doc