Community Needs

Assessment Tools

Charlie French
Community & Economic Development Specialist
 “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.
Community Needs Assessment
A way of gauging opinions, assumptions,
needs, key issues, and/or assets within a
defined community.
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

Community Assessment Tools
• Focus Group Interview
• Public Issues Forum
• Secondary Data Analysis
• Community Survey Questionnaire
• Interviews
• Asset Mapping
Source: http://ctb.lsi.ukans.edu/tools/EN/chapter_1003.htm
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 Disadvantages
• easy to conduct • ideas generated not
• Provides detailed info necessarily prevalent
• allows for issue probing • small sample for effort
• stimulates thinking and • difficult to analyze
discussion • quiet folks suppressed
• requires participation
Public Issues Forum
Community forums are public meetings that
involve residents to express their concerns about
community issues, problems, and needs.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Diverse members can • requires skill/time
share ideas • opinions obtained only
• Provides quick look at from those who attend
community issues • may generate more
• involves local citizens questions or conflict
• inexpensive
Steps: Preparing for the Forum
1. Form representative steering committee (5-15 people)
2. Identify pressing issue(s) to form the focus of forum
3. 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)
5. Publicize the forum
6. Hit all the major media outlets
 Steps: Conducting the Forum Event
1. Facilitator outlines process, what the results will be used
for, and their role as facilitator.
2. Do an ice-breaker to build trust.
3. Brainstorm: The purpose of brainstorming is to generate
ideas (if issues have already been identified go to step 5)
4. Prioritize issues (you may want to do this via voting)
5. Once issues have been identified, next step is to mobilize
action groups (allow time for groups to meet and plan).
6. Provide each group with action planner worksheet which
gets them to write goal, objectives, planned activities,
timeline, and persons responsible for activities.
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

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 Disadvantages
• data already exists • representative sample
• fast & easy to access may not be accurate
• data available for many • gaps in data
geographic levels • requires inferences
• Lack of Data Richness
 Strafford Coos
Age: < 6 Years 9,429 8.60% 2,452 7.5%
6-11 Years 8,961 8.20% 2,728 8.4%
12-17 Years 7,865 7.20% 2,904 8.9%
18-24 Years 15,532 14.20% 2,311 7.1%
25-34 Years 17,529 16.00% 4,158 12.8%
35-44 Years 17,228 15.80% 5,140 15.8%
45-54 Years 12,579 11.50% 4,140 12.7%
55-64 Years 8,204 7.50% 3,268 10.0%
65-74 Years 6,513 6.00% 2,914 8.9%
75-84 Years 4,146 3.80% 1,873 5.7%
85+ Years 1,305 1.20% 712 2.2%
Median Age 32.3 38.4
2000 Per Capita Income
General Demographic Data
http://factfinder.census.gov/ General data on housing,
demographics, business...

http://www.nhes.state.nh.us/elmi/index.html Look 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=Statistics This 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.
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 Disadvantages
• wide distribution • expensive
• good for data analysis • requires skill/time
• strong sample of the • suffers low return rate
population • poor qualitative tool
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
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 Disadvantages
• detailed information • Time-consuming
• allows for clarification/ • requires skill/time
followup on questions • Information is hard to
• personal contact builds summarize
rapport • Little quantitative value
 Steps in an Interview Process
1. Form a Steering Committee to guide process
2. Determine who is to be interviewed
3. Select a skilled Interviewer
4. Select questions
5. Decide on an interview format/delivery method
– Formal or informal structure
– Face-to-face, telephone, or email delivery
6. Inform the participants
7. Practice
8. Steer / guide the interview session (take notes)
9. Write a summary report
10. Thank the interviewees
Steps in an Interview Process
1. Form a Steering Committee to guide process
2. Determine who is to be interviewed
3. Select a skilled Interviewer
4. Select questions
5. Decide on an interview format/delivery
method
– Formal or informal structure
– Face-to-face, telephone, or email delivery
6. Inform the participants
7. Practice
8. Steer / guide the interview session (take
notes)
9. Write a summary report
10. Thank the interviewees
Developing and Asking Interview Questions
• Don’t ask defensive questions.
• Avoid the two-in-one question.
• Avoid complex questions.
• Keep it short.
 Asset Mapping
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.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Focuses on what • Community assets may
community already has. not match key issues.
• Provides diverse look • People tend to respond
at community assets. to crises rather than
• Involves multiple possibilities.
stakeholders.
Assets Come in Many Forms
• Human Assets
• Associational Assets
• Institutional Assets
• Local Business Assets
• Outside Resources
 Asset-Based Community Development
Step 8 Step 1
Identify Opportunities & Form a Steering
Mobilize Community Committee

Step 7 Step 2
Cross Reference Needs Commit Resources
with Assets
Step 3
Step 6 Identify your
Develop Resource List Community

Step 5 Step 4
Administer Asset Decide on Inventory
Assessment Tool Method
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
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
Factors for Choosing your Assessment Tool
 Purpose of Assessment
 Type of Data Needed
 Time Commitment
 Cost
 Skills needed
 Target Audience
 Sources of Bias
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
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.
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
 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