Identifying issues and needs within the community

1. Identifying issues and needs within the community

2. Identifying community issues and needs • Contacting people and conducting an analysis of needs • Bringing people together to identify specific needs • Identifying what required needs are to be met • Identifying goals and strategies • Forming and maintaining the organisation to meet these goals/strategies

3. Identifying community issues and needs • Determining priorities, developing alternatives, designing a plan of action and developing specific strategies • Dividing up the tasks and carrying them out • Feedback and evaluation, and making changes based on feedback (This model is cyclical. It’s a permanent process that becomes routine in the on-going maintenance and functioning of the group)

4. Identifying community issues and needs Here is an alternative model. • Identify the issue or problem: name, define, articulate • Analyse the problem • Identify the aims and objectives (goals) • Put together a plan of action: who is going to do what; when; how; resources required etc (sometimes referred to as the strategies stage.) • Put the plan into action • Evaluate the process and the progress towards goals Where are the similarities and differences?

5. Identifying community issues and needs • These models are a clear indication of the steps involved in community development. If you find yourself getting lost in the terminology, go back to the models! • They can be of use in getting a bearing when the community development terrain becomes unclear.

6. Identifying community issues and needs Alan Twelvetrees is an English academic and community development expert. He cites the amusing and all too common community development tale of two workers on a housing estate in inner-city London. They try to set up a tenants association to lobby local council for timely repairs to the properties. Residents seem interested but ”surprise, surprise” only two people turn up.

7. Identifying community issues and needs The process is repeated twice more with a total attendance of three people!! Some residents then come to the two workers looking for a “hand in setting up a bingo group.” This time the intiative is a resounding success. What does this tell you??? Discuss

8. Identifying community issues and needs This story highlights some of the key “real world” issues in community development • Starting where the people are • The necessity for community members to own the cd strategy • The discrepancy between what a specific community may want to do and what the community worker may identify as the key issue

9. Identifying community issues and needs Community issues or needs are generally one of two types: • Problem based: (eg: toxic dump in an area zoned residential; poor public transport; homeless people on middle class streets, homeless people with winter approaching; youth suicide in a country town

10. Identifying community issues and needs 2. Vision-based (e.g: “What could we do to make this a more healthy community?” “How could we employ our young people within the local community?)

11. Identifying community issues and needs How do we know the issues in a local community? In most instances, the communities are aware of the issues or problems. The task of the community worker is to refine and clarify issues by facilitating group processes, providing information etc.

12. Encouraging involvement When we identify issues, we also: • Identify the issue and describe the extent or parameters of the issue • Refine understanding of the issue • Gather information • Participate in research and analysis • Promote community involvement • Make contacts and develop networks • Motivate others • Lay the foundations for effective development of goals and strategies

13. Identifying community issues informally Alan Twelvetrees suggests the following: • If you have the chance to renew a contact, take it • Think about the impression you are making • Pay attention to what is happening in your local community. Listen. Notice. And if you don’t know how to, then learn

14. Identifying community issues and needs • Get out in the local community; visit neighbourhoods that are new to you. His quote: ‘Walk, don’t drive.” • A nice reminder: People will give when they are likely to receive. • Read the local newspaper • Read the editorial and letters to the editor

15. Identifying community issues and needs • Keep in contact with local community groups • Familiarise yourself with the work; workers and participants of communty houses, libraries, resident groups, lobby groups, local markets • Attend local council meetings • Meet with community leaders and community representatives • Has the issue existed before? What was the action/response? If any.

16. Identifying community issues and needs • Gather as much information as possible • Is the issue the domain of local, state or federal government. What are the implications? • Who are the relevant networks, peak bodies, stakeholders? • Use the internet. Is the issue apparent in other communities?

17. Identifying community issues and needs • Gather formal data • Talk with local politicians. What are their views • Make sure the information you gather is readily accessible to all members of the intitiative. Each member is a potential messenger, recruiter and publicist

18. Identifying issues formally There is a range of formal mechanisms for identifying community needs. Formal means are limited only by imagination and constraints such as time and budget. Common mechanisms include the following: • Conduct a community needs analysis, or community profile

19. Identifying issues formally • Interviews (face to face) • Questionnaires (face to face; phone; mail) • Requests for submissions on a particular issue • Focus groups • Public meetings/forums These mechanisms are important components in the community development workers toolkit.

20. Quantitative research • Information is presented as numbers, percentages, statistics, eg: data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the national census. Quantitative data is often associated with “hard science.”

21. Qualitative Research • Is a means of seeing the world through the eyes of others. Qualitative approaches include focus groups & interviews. It is flexible and more exploratory in nature than quantitative research. Although not dealing with “hard statistics” qualitative research has developed its own discipline, rigour and methodology, particularly through the work of social sciences

22. Sampling • In most instances, we won’t be able to sample all possible community members. For example if we were investigating housing conditions for the aged in Upper Ferntree Gully, we would be surveying thousands of people. Instead we survey a sample of the population, the aim being to identify a representative sample.

23. Sampling • In the case of elderly residents in Upper Gully, the first step is to define the population • Are we talking about nursing homes, the Angliss hospital, home care or are we including temporary residents, visitors etc.

24. Sampling There are a number of different methods of sampling. They include: • Random sampling – out of a hat, or random sample charts • Stratified sampling – identifies categories, the aim being to ensure full representation (e.g. male/female, Australian-born, overseas-born)

25. Sampling • Cluster sampling – e.g: interviewing a particular street, Willow Road. The challenge in cluster sampling is to demonstrate that the chosen cluster is representative of the whole • Judgement sampling, where you give the reasons why you chose this sample • Availability sampling – sampling from those that are available. This is relevant in particular communities (e.g. homeless)

26. Sampling • Snowball sampling: Where the population is unknown and the data is hard to access. In snowball sampling, one contact, may lead to another contact, then a third. • Cluster sampling might be used where people are reluctant to be interviewed: i.e. adults abused as children etc

27. Community needs analysis • Is also know as a community profile, social profile, or needs assessment Hard data – Is quantifiable and includes statistics, age range, education and demographics. It is generally available through councils, ABS, annual reports, Royal Commissions, Social research organisations such as YMCA.

28. Community needs analysis • Soft data – Includes many of the informal means of finding out, such as: • Walking around • Noting issues • Talking with local community members • Contacting community leaders