needs assessment ppt

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Community Needs Assessment Tools Charlie French Community & Economic Development Specialist

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Page 1: Needs Assessment PPT

Community Needs Assessment Tools

Charlie French

Community & Economic Development Specialist

Page 2: Needs Assessment PPT

“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.

Page 3: Needs Assessment PPT

Community Needs Assessment

A way of gauging opinions, assumptions,

needs, key issues, and/or assets within a

defined community.

Page 4: Needs Assessment PPT

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?

Page 5: Needs Assessment PPT

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:

Page 6: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 7: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 8: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 9: Needs Assessment PPT

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.

Page 10: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 11: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 12: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 13: Needs Assessment PPT

2000 Per Capita Income

Page 14: Needs Assessment PPT

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.

Page 15: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 16: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 17: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 18: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 19: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 20: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 21: Needs Assessment PPT

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.

Page 22: Needs Assessment PPT

Assets Come in Many Forms

• Human Assets

• Associational Assets

• Institutional Assets

• Local Business Assets

• Outside Resources

Page 23: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 24: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 25: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 26: Needs Assessment PPT

Factors for Choosing your Assessment Tool

Purpose of Assessment

Type of Data Needed

Time Commitment

Cost

Skills needed

Target Audience

Sources of Bias

Page 27: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 28: Needs Assessment PPT

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.

Page 29: Needs Assessment PPT

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

Page 30: Needs Assessment PPT

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