Community Needs Assessment

1. Community Needs Assessment An essential during times of limited funding Presented by: Justine A. Wayne & Sandra Hudspeth

2. Workshop Goals: • Learn how community data may shape programming, even with limited funding • Learn value of careful planning before administering a community needs assessment • Begin planning your own community needs assessment

3. Why Do A Needs Assessment? measure community level indicators improve effectiveness Early Childhood System Development • Caswell County Partnership For Children (CCPFC) includes as part of each three year bidding cycle, regardless of potential budget cuts! • CCPFC’s Board uses the results to address major early childhood needs in Caswell County by: • 1) develop a new three year strategic plan • 2) update or set funding priorities for RFP process • 3) determine uses of funds during allocation process

4. The Caswell County Partnership for Children Needs Assessment comparison • 2013 Background • 89 general surveys collected • 50 at least 1 child age 5 or younger • Over 20 work outside Caswell County • 70% under age 40 • 77% earn less than $36,000/yr • 28 child care provider surveys collected • 78% over age 40 • 71% earn less than $36,000/yr 2010 Background • 109 Community • 39 Child Care Providers • 67 Families • 38 Health • 253 Total Returned • a significant population NOT online • 103 respondents either live or work in 27379, Yanceyville • 55% of those replying work for the government, including public schools, and 24% at a non-profit • roughly half of those responding to the question rely on unregulated care For full details, see 2013 & 2010 Needs Assessment Reports available online: www.CaswellChildren.org

5. Gather Existing Community Data • From Division of Child Development & Early Educationdata posted on SmartNet create star rating charts • Use PBIS and disaggregated data provided by the North Carolina Partnership for Children on Fabrik • For child care data summarized by Child Care Services Association, use county specific “Child Care in [your] County Fact Sheet” childcareservices.org • For health data reported by Action for Children, use county specific “2012 Child Health County Cards: [your county].”

6. Quality Availability by Age Group

7. Other EC Services/Supports needed? • After school programs: affordable extracurricular activities, sports, educational and summer programs • More child care: longer hours, overnight care, more affordable • Transportation • Health related: mental health, OT [occupational therapy], Free Healthcare, Speech • More community outreach, parent education, parent resources/support groups • Workshops/trainings for child care providers

8. Caswell Needs Assessment Conclusions • Families would like to base child care choices on such quality indicators as Star Rating, often must choose non-regulated care such as relative, friend, neighbor, or babysitter. • Slightly less high quality available for the youngest children in the county. • Concern over the cost of and affording to provide and purchase infant/toddler care. • High quality Family Child Care Homes have been closing more than usual in the last year

9. 2013 Needs Assessment Recommendations • Infant –Toddler Initiative: • (NEW) Create ‘Infant/Toddler Bump’ within Professional Development Incentive (PDI) Activity • (NEW) Explore Infant/Toddler (IT) subsidy options: further tiered, higher reimbursement for Infants/Toddlers? • Provide support to Family Child Care Homes: • (NEW) Explore PDI for FCCH & serving IT Bumps • Offer requested trainings • Provide technical assistance and support • FCCH peer group

10. Board Updated funding priorities for RFP based on NEEDS ASSESSMENT Recommendations! • CCPFC has identified six primary focus areas for funding: • • Early Care and Education: • Families have access to high quality infant/toddler care • Families have access to high quality family child care homes • Child care providers working in regulated programs in Caswell County receive adequate compensation • Quality child care is affordable • • Literacy: • Children have access to literacy based programs that have been proven to increase reading skills, which are important to their success in school and work • • Program Support: • Program support is available to ensure accountability and measure impact of funded programs

11. Bidders & then Funding Response • Updated programs according to priorities! • Created new Subsidy Enhancements for 1) Infants/Toddlers & 2) FCCHs • Professional Development Incentives included new I/T & FCCH ‘bumps’

12. Another ExampleGuilford County Partnership for Children • Community Needs Assessment prior to 2015 RFP process • Goals: • Snapshot of county, not expected to be comprehensive • Gain context of programming • Identify if new directions needed • Any holes in county Respondents: 281 Parents, 132 Child Care Providers, 90 Non-CC Professionals Sampling Concerns: • only 7 out of 157 FCCHs participated • 47% of Providers were Directors/Owners/ Operators • 5 Stars sites overly represented

13. Guilford County Partnership for Children 2015 Community Needs Assessment Key Findings • All groups were asked to rate if an item was a challenge “often”, “sometimes”, “rarely” or “never”. Most frequent were: • Access to affordable high quality child care • Availability of high quality child care when needed • Unemployment, underemployment or availability of jobs • Access to affordable dental care • Children with challenging behaviors • Greatest concern about young children & preparing for Kindergarten: • School readiness/transition to K • Social adjustment/behavior • Parent education (behavioral issues, discipline, development, ready skills)

14. Basic Survey Design Steps • Establish purpose – what you want to learn & why? (for RFP & funding priorities) • Determine who will complete survey (all of community, parents, child care providers, health providers, or only some of each?) • Determine when they will complete (timeline) • Determine how survey will be completed/collected (Incentives? Assistance for Spanish speakers) • Determine format/ contents of survey (online vs paper?)

15. How to Plan Carefully: Timeline • Adequate Timeline • Bigger Surveys = more time • Due Date: Work backwards – when is report needed by? committee or board meeting before RFP bid due date • Survey Design: don’t reinvent wheel, but do not rush this step or regret later • Gather existing surveys, base on best wording available • KISS (Keep It Simple, Silly!) & Briefer is Better • Pilot before launch to test readability, ease in completing, time to complete with ‘lay person’ • Survey Window: soft end & hard end to collection time. Extra time in case of low response • Ensure enough time to announce at meetings, in person before launch • Update email, mailing lists ahead of time

16. How to Plan Carefully: Personnel • Key personnel, staff commitment • Is Board & staff clear on the WHY? Include link in email signature! • Is funding available to support process? If not, include MORE time to work around existing responsibilities! • Clear distribution plan with roles defined • who is dropping off? Picking up? • Who has permission to sit in Health Department (for instance) waiting room? • Who posts & shares on Social Media? How often? Who will alert Board & Staff to ‘like’ & also share via Facebook, etc? • Clearly defined responsibilities: consultant(s) vs staff vs interns/volunteers?

17. Things to Remember… • Collect only the data you will use & that are relevant to your evaluation questions & purposes. • Involve all staff involved in the data-collection phase in the up-front question formation. • Revise data-collection strategies based on initial analyses. • What is working? What pieces of data are still missing? • Base changes to existing tracking/data collection strategies on what is learned from evaluation. From the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook, p. 87. Available at http://www.wkkf.org/resource-directory/resource/2010/w-k-kellogg-foundation-evaluation-handbook

18. Questions or Comments? Thank you for your time! justine@JustineCanDoIt.com