Institute on Community and School Partnerships When & How To Assess Community Needs LaDene H. Bowen, CEcD, FM IDM As

1. Institute on Community and School Partnerships When & How To Assess Community Needs LaDene H. Bowen, CEcD, FM IDM Associate Director

2. Session Objectives and Agenda • Provide an overview of UNIs Institute for Decision Making • Define community assessments • Strengthen your knowledge as to: • Benefits to conducting a community assessment • What steps you need to take • Community assessment tools • Tips on how to conduct a community assessment • Moving to the planning process

3. About Us • Background • 25 Years • Practical • Innovative • Professional Community Economic Developers • Partnerships • Clients • EDOs • Government entities • Chambers of Commerce • Visitor/Convention Bureaus • Other non-profits

4. What Do We Offer • Growing new jobs and investments • Existing Industry • Entrepreneurial Communities • Workforce Assessment and Planning • Advance Iowa • Targeted Marketing plans • Industry • Retail/Commercial • Tourism

5. Setting the direction through planning • Are You Ready? – Adaptive Planning • Community Visioning and Strategic Planning • Focusing Organizational Actions • Resolving Issues • Engaging the Community

6. Conducting and applying research for decision making • Economic Impact Analysis • Community Assessment • Targeting for Business Attraction Efforts • Surveying

7. Guiding and managing organizations effectively • Mergers • Spinoffs • Organizational Assessments • Reducing Duplication • Executive Search • Fundraising

8. Building the “How To” knowledge for professionals and volunteer leadership

9. Strengthening regional collaborative initiatives

10. Community Assessments

11. Defining Community Assessments • An assessment is a description of a community and its people. The purpose is to identify problems, needs, and strengths in a community to make decisions, set priorities, set objectives and explore ways to take action

12. Benefits of Conducting An Assessment • Increase understanding • Opportunity to share • Community engagement • Inventory of assets/resources • Identify gaps, strengths, weaknesses • Starting point for developing a shared vision • Data for decision making

13. The Process

14. What Steps to Take • Defining the Scope • What, where, who of the assessment • Determine specific needs you want to address – What do we want to know? • Narrow down the key questions you want answered • What Level of Resources Do You Have Available • Time, Effort, Information • Establish a Coordinating Group - Stakeholders, Staff, Volunteers, Consultants, Board Members • Collaboration Benefits • Engages community • Increases access to more data • More resources to cover expenses • Establishes relationships

15. What Steps To Take • Start with secondary data – data collected by others • Local resources • Focus on quality of data, not quantity • Primary data – data collected by organization conducting the community assessment

16. Data Collection Methods/Assessment Tools • Questionnaires/Survey • One-On-One Interviews – key informants • Community Forums/Listening Circles • Focus Groups • Hot Lines/Suggestion Box • Curb-side Conferences/Walk Abouts • Windshield Survey

17. Ankeny’s Tips on Conducting a Community Assessment 2011 Community Education Betterment Survey ankeny community school district

18. Ankeny’s Tips on Conducting a Community Assessment • Focus Groups • Non-Profits/Churches • Educators • City/Chamber of Commerce • Teens • Parents • Seniors/Retirees Ankeny Community Education Advisory Council Community Betterment Focus Group Agenda Purpose: to engage stakeholder focus groups and gather input for the Ankeny Community Betterment Assessment • Welcome and Introductions • The Situation • Scope of the project • Providing Input • Summary and Next Steps Facilitators: LaDene H. Bowen, CEcD, FM and Aaron Sauerbrei, MPP Institute for Decision Making Business and Community Services University of Northern Iowa

20. Focus Group Process • Overview provided and group operating principles • Purpose • Determine level of awareness of programs and services offered by Community Education and their partners and how they learned about program or service; what can be done to increase awareness • Identify greatest concerns and suggestions to resolve those issues • Smaller groups • Responded to questions on a worksheet • Instructed to share responses regarding top 3 concerns • Asked to reach a group consensus on the top 3 concerns • Reported, noted and IDM clarified for understanding

22. What Steps To Take – Moving to the Planning Process • Develop an Action Plan • What are the issues you want to address • What are the strategies to tackle issues • What do you need to implement (resources) • Who is going to do it • By when • What specific outcomes to you want to achieve • How are we going to measure success • Share what you have learned • Create an outline or executive summary for a community assessment report with findings and recommendations • Share it with local media, elected officials and community leaders • Provide background material

23. QuestionsLaDene H. Bowen, CEcD, FMAssociate Directorladene.bowen@uni.edu319-273-2969