OFFICE ON VOLUNTEERISM AND COMMUNITY SERVICE OCTOBER 23, 2014 Comprehensive Community Needs Assessments

Presentation Purpose/Content ROMA Cycle Why a comprehensive community needs assessment? Tie to the Strategic Plan, including the Board Planning Data/Information Choices and Collection Analysis Action

ROMA Cycle Includes Assessment and Planning

Comprehensive Community Needs Assessment A community needs assessment is a requirement of CSBG Act (Section 676(b)(11), part of ROMA cycle A comprehensive community needs assessment seeks:  Greatest community needs  Available community resources  Organization’s needs/abilities (to meet needs identified)

Why a CCNA? For Strategic Planning (information for making choices) ROMA (targeting) Support community partners decision-making process

Community Needs Assessments and the Strategic Plan A comprehensive community needs assessment isn’t the strategic plan, but it is essential to a good one Feeds yearly goals/outcomes, specific expected improvements in the community long- and short-term Setting Family, Agency, and Community goals requires more than just needs data

Initial Planning Severely underestimated in importance and time required All stakeholders involved in this phase (not staff only)  Board, Mgmt. Staff need to set aside substantial time  Prepare Board for the process  Fresh process, reexamination of how we’ve done this  What do you need to lead?

Initial Planning What are the expectations for a finished product?  Identify needs  Identify partners  Identify big-picture concerns (policy, funding)  Community education (of what the needs are)

Initial Planning What are the expectations for a finished product?  Defining terms  Timetable  How will we use it?  Who will need to see it?

Initial Planning What categories do leaders want to use?  Broad, agency-wide?  Specific CSBG, ROMA?

Planning Assessment Implementation Assessment Leader Assessment Team  Diverse skills/viewpoints, adequate time to contribute  Community, partner, Board, management

Planning Assessment Implementation Refine the work of the Leadership  Needs, categories to look at  What are the indicators?  The data that will be needed  Tools to get that data that you have, needed  Groups you’ll need to target to get the rest

Information/Data Community Profile is the one most often included in every assessment  Target population and its characteristics  CCAP tool can provide you with some of this CCAP tool  Dig deeper, look for trends, emerging conditions that could create need

Information/Data Create a planning tool  What data you want, the place to get it from, and how you will get it?  Identified issues and their indicators  From leadership and Assessment Team Brainstorming Ensure that all goals, expectations, categories, and outcomes are planned out before beginning the collection of data!!

Data Collection Statistical Data (Quantitative)  National Performance Indicator/Outcome Data for your agency  Available Public statistics (census, govt, partner data, PDC, Income, Employment)  Demand for services at your agency, in community  Multi-year databases within the agency or partners for finding trends

Data Collection Qualitative  Surveys  How it’s administered impacts the results greatly (online, mail, onsite)  Keep language simple, with a positive feel, to encourage participation  Question choice needs to be specific enough to be useful Ex. Health Care as a need doesn’t give enough to determine partners, types of services, whereas dental care for kids under 5 is better.

Data Collection Partner Surveys  Looking at the capacity/resources the organization has/needs  The needs of those they serve  Their view of your agency? If anonymous….

Data Collection Qualitative  Community Forums, Community Meetings  Can yield great information, and keep the community in tune with the agency processes Need good outreach to get participation, and careful choices on the issues and where meetings are held matter.  Have a good agenda with flexibility built in

Data Collection Qualitative  Community Forums, Community Meetings  Have plenty of ways to capture input  Community Forum/Meeting could be done first, to educate the survey  Know the audience before the conversation, if possible Strong voices and frequent contributors may lessen input of others

Data Collection Qualitative  Focus Groups  Can be more specific, easier to control, easier to facilitate, easier to plan  Skill of the facilitator greatly increases the outcomes of a focus group discussion  Record and review later

Data Collection  Qualitative  Interviews Target community leaders Leave more room for conversation, less bulleted questions Active listening

Assessment Report Analyzing the Data  Use your Community Profile (from Statistical Data mainly, but can include qualitative)  Find the areas of interest, the places that make sense to focus  Analysis the relationship of community to State/Nation data Comparing your CSBG/program data to more general data Past/present Comparing similar communities

Assessment Report Analyzing the Data  Qualitative  Review results of surveys, interviews, forums, groups  This is where the early planning really pays off Assign this information to an issue from your planning tool/framework You are interpreting the information you’ve collected Not all information collected is good, helpful

Assessment Report Create reports, personalized for the receiver’s need This is a comprehensive set of information, analyzed and made useable  Decisions and an Action Plan come from this  Describe the process for how this will occur  Strategic planning will……?  Presentations will be made to partners by…..?  Community members can hear more about the results at …..?

ROMA Cycle Includes Assessment and Planning

Questions? Matt Fitzgerald (804)   Go to NASCSP for the document from which the ideas in this presentation cameNASCSP