Purpose

Needs assessment studies are one component of the Results Oriented Management and Accountability cycle.  This process is a key feature of an agency’s planning and evaluation process that relates to ROMA National Goal #5: Agencies Increase Their Capacity to Achieve Results.

Description

Please LET US KNOW if you have suggestions of any COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT items that might be added.

See below for a wide range of Community Needs Assessment Resources.  The following Virtual CAP postings also provide resources that can be used for the development of Community Needs Assessments: Examples of CAA Community Needs Assessments....Statewide Needs Assessment Study....On-Line Needs Assessment Survey.  Additional related information is available through the posting for Strategic Planning Tools including a Strategic Planning Manual from University of Wisconsin-Extension, and the posting for Planning and Evaluation Tools.

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT RESOURCES

• Demographic Resources
• Community Asset Mapping
• Handbook on Community Visioning
• Primary Data Collection Techniques
• Community Assessment Techniques
• Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Tool Kit from the U.S. Census
• Profiling Your Community
• Community Assessment Tool to help gain a better understanding of how young children and their families are faring and where assistance is needed
• Community Toolbox to Promote Community Health and Development
• Assess Your Community and Connect Its Resources to Meet the Needs of Youth and Families
• Conducting a Community Assessment to develop comprehensive school-linked strategies for children and families
• Community Tool Box for Welfare Reform: Building the Bridge from Client to Citizen
• Understanding Your Community

Demographic Resources to assist with community needs assessments and grant proposals

Community Asset Mapping

• Identifying, Mapping and Mobilizing Our Assets (University of Wisconsin-Extension)
• Capacity Inventory (Asset-Based Community Development Institute)
• Mapping Community Assets Workbook (North West Regional Educational Laboratory)

Handbook on Community Visioning (Center for Rural Pennsylvania) 

Primary Data Collection Techniques (Florida Cooperative Extension Service) 

Community Assessment Techniques – Montana Department of Commerce

Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Tool Kit from the U.S. Census Bureau provides a simple, easy approach to obtaining Census information for grant writing and community needs assessment. 

Profiling Your Community - Bibliography        

The Institute for Youth, Education and Families (IYEF) under the National League of Cities has published an Community Assessment Tool to address Early Childhood Needs and Resources that includes three sections:

• Conditions of Young Children
• Inventory of Local Resources to Promote Early Childhood Success
• Open-Ended Questions to help to help focus discussions with various community stakeholders, including parents, early childhood service providers, and others

The University of Kansas has created a Community Toolbox to promote community health and development that includes:

• Learn a Skill: Community Assessment, Agenda Setting, and Choice of Broad Strategies
• Plan the Work: Assessing Community Needs and Resources
• Troubleshooting: Some Problems with Community Action and Planning
• Using Promising Approaches: Implementing Best Processes for Community Change and Improvement

Helping America’s Youth provides several tools to help Assess Your Community and Connect Its Resources.  These items are intended can be used to determine (a) the problems you would like to address in your community, (b) where those problems occur, (c) which youth and families are most affected by those problems, and (d) what resources and strengths your community has to address those problems:

• Conduct a Community Needs Assessment
• Map Your Community’s Federal Resources, Census Data and More
• Gather, Store and Map Your Community’s Resources

Putting the Pieces Together: Comprehensive School-Linked Strategies for Children and Families (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory)

• Building Collaborative Partnerships
• Conducting a Community Assessment

Community Tool Box for Welfare Reform: Building the Bridge from Client to Citizen suggests five tools as a kind of starter kit for a "Community Building Tool Box" including A Capacity Inventory (Tool 1), A Self-Help Peer Group (Tool 2), A Circle of Support (Tool 3), An Associational Inventory (Tool 4), and A Business Inventory (Tool 5). 

CommunityBuilders.nsw provides a clearinghouse of information on community building.  Understand Your Community includes a section on Identifying Community Needs and Strengths that contains tools and templates for creating community profiles.  Sample surveys are also available, along with links to full text guides on community indicators and two interactive online survey development sites.

Outcomes

Needs assessment studies are one component of the Results Oriented Management and Accountability cycle.  This process is a key feature of an agency’s planning and evaluation process that relates to ROMA National Goal #5: Agencies Increase Their Capacity to Achieve Results.