Community Needs Assessment Tools

1. Community Needs Assessment Tools Charlie French Community & Economic Development Specialist

2. “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.

3. Community Needs Assessment A way of gauging opinions, assumptions, needs, key issues, and/or assets within a defined community.

4. Needs Assessment: Why do it? • 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

5. 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:

6. 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

7. 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

8. Steps: Preparing for the Forum • Form representative steering committee (5-15 people) • Identify pressing issue(s) to form the focus of forum • 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) • Publicize the forum • Hit all the major media outlets

9. Steps: Conducting the Forum Event • Facilitator outlines process, what the results will be used for, and their role as facilitator. • Do an ice-breaker to build trust. • Brainstorm: The purpose of brainstorming is to generate ideas (if issues have already been identified go to step 5) • Prioritize issues (you may want to do this via voting) • Once issues have been identified, next step is to mobilize action groups (allow time for groups to meet and plan). • Provide each group with action planner worksheet which gets them to write goal, objectives, planned activities, timeline, and persons responsible for activities.

10. 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

11. 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

12. Strafford Coos

13. 2000 Per Capita Income

14. General Demographic Data • http://factfinder.census.gov/ General data on housing, demographics, business... • http://www.nhes.state.nh.us/elmi/index.htmlLook 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=StatisticsThis 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.

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. Steps in an Interview Process Form a Steering Committee to guide process Determine who is to be interviewed Select a skilled Interviewer Select questions Decide on an interview format/delivery method Formal or informal structure Face-to-face, telephone, or email delivery Inform the participants Practice Steer / guide the interview session (take notes) Write a summary report Thank the interviewees

19. Steps in an Interview Process • Form a Steering Committee to guide process • Determine who is to be interviewed • Select a skilled Interviewer • Select questions • Decide on an interview format/delivery method • Formal or informal structure • Face-to-face, telephone, or email delivery • Inform the participants • Practice • Steer / guide the interview session (take notes) • Write a summary report • Thank the interviewees

20. 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

21. 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. Asset Mapping • 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.

22. Assets Come in Many Forms • Human Assets • Associational Assets • Institutional Assets • Local Business Assets • Outside Resources

23. Asset-Based Community Development Step 8 Identify Opportunities & Mobilize Community Step 1 Form a Steering Committee Step 2 Commit Resources Step 7 Cross Reference Needs with Assets Step 3 Identify your Community Step 6 Develop Resource List Step 5 Administer Asset Assessment Tool Step 4 Decide on Inventory Method

24. 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

25. 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

26. Factors for Choosing your Assessment Tool • Purpose of Assessment • Type of Data Needed • Time Commitment • Cost • Skills needed • Target Audience • Sources of Bias

27. 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

28. 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.

29. 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

30. 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