What’s in a Needs Assessment?

1. What’s in a Needs Assessment? Gathering and Using Qualitative and Quantitative Data

2. What’s in a Needs Assessment? Background

3. The Results Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA) Cycle ASSESSMENT Of Needs and Resources PLANNING EVALUATION Use assessment data Analyze data, compare and mission statement to with benchmarks identify results and strategies ACHIEVE RESULTS IMPLEMENTATION Observe and report progress Of strategies and services

4. What is in a Needs Assessment? The process of identifying Community Needs so you can match your strategies to address the needs, must be systematic and purposeful. It begins with knowing/ understanding the community, by creating a community profile, and then moves through the ROMA Cycle: -- analyzing what you know, -- establishing priorities -- making decisions regarding identifying strategies (advocacy, service, etc.), -- developing a comprehensive plan for operations that will lead to results -- implementing the plan and observing results

5. Creating a Community Profile and responding to legislation… • In addition to assessing “needs” you also need to assess “resources” to create a complete community profile. • There is some guidance to help us begin to think about conducting a “community assessment.”

6. Legislative directives OEO Instruction (1970) “A CAA’s effectiveness, therefore, is measured not only by the services which it directly provides, but, more importantly, by the improvements and changes it achieves in the community’s attitudes and practices toward the poor and in the allocation and focusing of public and private resources for anti-poverty purposes. “CAA(s) must develop both a long-range strategy and specific, short-range plans for using potential resources… In developing its strategy and plans, the CAA shall take into account the areas of greatest community need, the availability of resources, and its own strengths and limitations.”

7. Elements of the “community action plan.” from:CSBG Act – Section 676 (b)(1)(A) & (B) Support activities designed to assist low-income families and individuals, homeless families and individuals, migrant seasonal farm workers and elderly low-income individuals/families; ● remove obstacles and solve problems that block achievement of self-sufficiency ● secure & retainmeaningful employment ● attain adequate education, ● make better use ofavailable income ● obtain & maintain adequate housing ● obtain emergency assistance ● achieve greater participation in the affairs of the communities AND Address the needs of youth in low-income communities through youth development programs that: ● support the primary role of the family, ● give priority to the prevention of youth problems and crime, and ● promote increased community coordination and collaboration in meeting the needs of youth, and ● support development and expansion of innovative community-based youth development programs – preventing or reducing youth crime, ● after-school child care programs.

8. Is this good “Community Action”? Let’s say your Community Action Agency decides it is important to provide free food baskets to the community. You secure funds to purchase and distribute the food. Does this represent good Community Action Practices? Or is it just a “business decision?” (Who else was involved in identifying the need? Who was involved in the strategy decision? What data did you use to inform the decision? )

9. What is a Community Assessment? • Gathers information on current strengths, concerns, needs, and conditions of the community. • Focuses on local assets, resources, and activities. • Focuses on gaps, barriers, or emerging needs. • Views community from multiple perspectives. • Incorporates partnerships with other organizations and segments of the community.

10. Importance of Community Assessment • It is important to create a “true picture” of the community or “community profile” – including a comprehensive range of the needs, issues, resources – not just the needs and issues the agency has programs to address. • Remember, the CAA does not have to address all unmet community needs by itself, but must contextualize the needs it WILL address.

11. Create a Community Profile The first activity in the creation of a “community profile” is to make an assessment plan. You must decide what kinds of data to include in this description. What demographics? For example: age breakdowns, gender breakdowns, education breakdowns. What demographics do you feel are most important to help you understand your community, specifically the causes of poverty in your community? Which are most important? Which can be affected by the CAA? A community profile provides the data which will include the resources available and the gaps identified. This provides a decision making framework for ROMA activities (the ROMA Cycle).

12. Developing an Assessment Plan There are many tools available for gathering data to determine and measure community needs and resources. To avoid becoming overwhelmed with data, you must have an Assessment Plan.

13. Important questions when planning a community assessment: Who is the assessment attempting to inform, influence, or persuade? What purpose is the needs assessment intended to accomplish? Whose needs are to be assessed? What community resources need to be identified? What questions need to be asked? Do you already think you know the answers? How will the information be used? What resources are available to do the assessments? (e.g.: Staff time, copy and postage costs, consultant fees)

14. What’s in a Needs Assessment? Qualitative Data

15. Ask someone Qualitative data is primarily used when you want to find the depth and breadth of an issue. It provides you with opinions, observations, and other rich, subtle information that you can’t get any other way. Qualitative data can also be characterized as data that is presented in “words.” This is often called “primary data.” We usually collect qualitative data by asking someone what they think about the topic.

16. Ask the Experts • Who are the “experts” who would know about community needs and resources? CAA Staff Staff of other service providers (They work with the issues in daily activities.)

17. Ask the Customers • Emphasis is often placed on making decisions and setting priorities based on information gathered from the people likely to be affected by these programs. • Who is this likely to be ? Primary Customers Supporting Customers (from Drucker)

18. Who else can you ask? • Board • Volunteers • Businesses • Elected officials • General public • Others?

19. How do you ask them? • Survey • Questionnaire • Focus Group • Forums • Interviews (in person, via phone, etc.) • Suggestion Box • Other

20. Use existing tools for gathering qualitative data. • When you conduct interviews/forums (especially for you staff, clients, and stakeholders), find other CAAs who have done similar projects, and review their questions. • Partner/collaborate with other community organizations to conduct a community-wide project. • Use results of interviews/focus groups/forums conducted by other community organizations (as appropriate and/or timely).

21. Attitude Surveys Information gathered from a representative sample of community residents about issues:  Needs, wants and interests  “Quality of Life” concerns  Performance

22. Focus Groups & Community Forums Identify priority concerns, needs, issues, and/or solutions for specific topics where “in depth” information and “community input” are important. Can be used with small or large groups in different circumstances.

23. Resources for Qualitative Data United Way of Lancaster County • http://www.unitedwaylancpa.org/template.asp?nav_id=176&sec=15 Schuylkill Community Action • http://www.schuylkillcommunityaction.com/ Greene County Find Out • http://www.greenefindout.org/about.cfm# Community Action of the Franklin, Hampshire, and North Quabbin Regions • http://www.communityaction.us/page.php?id=150

24. Needs, Wants or Interests? Needs assessment is sometimes defined as determining if gaps exist between "what is" and "what should be" in terms of the outcomes of programs. How do you identify “what should be?” • What is needed? • What is wanted? • What is of interest? Using the “Five Whys” technique

25. What to focus on? As a Community Action Agency, you will want it to focus on the unique social planning responsibility of a CAA: to analyze poverty problems and to develop solutions to those problems, and to seize other opportunities that will benefit low-income people.

26. Sorting Community Input This exercise illustrates the challenges in just trying to sort out what people are saying, and to organize the information in a way that action can be taken on it. (Material for exercise is from the Community Action Tool Kit, Jim Masters, the Center for Community Futures. Additional material is available at the web site at www.cencomfut.com/toolkit.htm)

27. Exercise -- Categories of Input • Description of Problem (or Condition) • Identification of Causes • Strategies to effect the causes and conditions.

28. What’s in a Needs Assessment? Quantitative Data

29. Gathering Qualitative Data You need to gather quantitative data to add a more standardized dimension to the perceptions you have identified. Quantitative data provides information in specific categories, such as are collected in “Client Characteristics.” This is often referred to as “demographic data.” This is often called “secondary data.” Quantitative data can also be characterized as data that is presented in “numbers.”

30. Statistics Descriptive statistics that provide information about the well-being of people and communities.  Community data  Client/Agency data  Community resources  Statistical data  Mapping

31. Sources of quantitative data? • Census • Police reports • Hospital records • School district data • Business/employment statistics • Other?

32. Data Resources • American Fact Finder (Census) • http://www.census.gov/ • The Center for Rural PA • http://www.ruralpa.org/ • HUD State of the City Data System (SOCDS) • http://socds.huduser.org/index.html

33. Data Resources • Epodunk • http://www.epodunk.com/ • Rural Poverty Research Center at the Rural Policy Research Institute • http://www.rprconline.org/

34. Mapping Resources • Present information at a glance. • Connecting data with locations in the community. • Identify changes & trends. • Helps highlight areas of high need and/or gaps for better analysis, decision-making, marketing, and evaluation.

35. Mapping Tools • PolicyLink Equitable Development Toolkit - Community Mapping • http://www.policylink.org/EDTK/Mapping/default.html

36. Mapping Tools • Community Informatics Resource Center at the Rural Policy Research Institute • http://circ.rupri.org/ • Images of the month - Poverty 1960 – 2000 (animated) • Interactive mapping using selected data elements

37. Mapping Tools • SRC/AnalyGIS • http://65.39.85.13/google/default.htm • FreeDemographics.com • http://www.freedemographics.com/AllocateOnline.srct?commid=&skin=

38. What’s in a Needs Assessment? Final Thoughts

39. You need both qualitative and quantitative data! Statistics about poverty need to be supplemented with “people contact.” In addition to knowing that Ms. Smith makes less than $7,000 per year as head of household, it is also important to know she is reluctant to work more than that because she knows she could lose medical care. It is this “people contact” that puts life into statistics.

40. Also, you need both quantitative and qualitative data! You also need to contextualize the “people contacts” in the overall community profile. Just identifying what experts, customers, and others THINK the issues are, is not enough. You must identify the statistics that support these perceptions.

41. The Twelve Big Problems in Community Assessment • What is poverty -- and what is not poverty? • Who is supposed to do what and why? • Do we start with the individual, the community (local, state) or the nation? • How do you identify the results (outcome measures) that match the CAA’s actions? Center for Community Futures

42. The Twelve Big Problems in Community Assessment con’t • What actually works to decrease poverty? • Does everyone agree that anti-destitution programs are not anti-poverty programs? • What comes first – basic needs or self improvement? Can they come at the same time? • How do you account for the 5% to 10% who will not progress?

43. The Twelve Big Problems in Community Assessment con’t • How does “high level community assessment” relate to the “needs assessment” for a specific program or service? • How do you get the “power people” to agree on the analysis of the data? • How can the different attitudes of the Board (partners, staff, etc.) be reconciled? Can they come to agreement on strategies? • How do you factor into account that “things are always in motion?”

44. Community Assessment Process Identify who will be responsible for the process. Determine what steps and stakeholders to include. Set a timetable. Set up sub-committees to gather and organize the information that is collected.

45. Plan what will happen after gathering the data: Interpret and analyze information/data Identify Geographic and/or Programmatic areas of significance,unmet needs, other issues in the community. Identify which issues require agency support and/or involvement.

46. Remember it is a “community assessment.” After you determine agency capacity to address those needs/gaps/issues, consider the community capacity in these and other areas. Identify community partnerships/collaborations to address needs/gaps/issues. List prioritized Needs/Issues that can not be addressed with existing resources.