1. Comprehensive Community Needs Assessment Web Based Tool: Positioning Yourself as an Expert on Poverty  
Community Action Partnership Annual Convention
August 2015
Presented By:
Jayna Gray, Missouri Community Action Association
Natalie Kramer, Community Action Partnership National Office 

2. Agenda
Why Community Needs Assessment (CNA) are Important for Community Action
Tools for Completing CNA
National Community Commons Tool
MACA Community Commons Tool
Analyzing Your Data
Communicating Your Findings
Developing a State Tool
Q &A

3. Agenda
Why Community Needs Assessment (CNA) are Important for Community Action
Tools for Completing CNA
National Community Commons Tool
MACA Community Commons Tool
Analyzing Your Data
Communicating Your Findings
Developing a State Tool
Q &A

4. Community Needs Assessments
Causes and conditions of poverty
Clarifies the perceived need from mission and stakeholders
Adds numbers to what you know
Evidence for growth and change
Helps compare geographies for benchmarking
Intersection of needs based on geography

5. CCNA History in Community Action
Keeps us accountable and anti-poverty agents: where, how, and why we spend the resources we have to best serve the needs of low income people

6. Assessment and Performance Management
Assessment – NEEDS and RESOURCES
CSBG Organizational Standards – CAPACITY
ROMA – RESULTS
In order to build capacity of agencies and the Network, and highlight the results of our work in fighting poverty, we must clearly understand the specific needs we are addressing and the resources available

7. ROMA and CCNA Purpose Start with Mission
Agency Goal: why you are in business
Assessment 1st and Last Phase of Cycle
Clarify the need
Who’s need is it
What do they value
Identify available resources

8. ROMA in CCNA Report Identify level of Need
Family
Community
Agency
Categorize needs under each National Goal with according NPI’s

9. Organizational Standards – Category Three: Community Assessment
Standard 3.1 • The organization conducted a Community Assessment and issued a report within the past 3 years.
Comprehensive
Report must be shared
Standard 3.2 • As part of the Community Assessment, the organization collects and includes current data specific to poverty and its prevalence related to gender, age, and race/ethnicity for their service area(s).
Up-to-date data
All three areas – gender, age, race/ethnicity
Specific to your community

10. Community Assessment- Continued
Standard 3.3 • The organization collects and analyzes both qualitative and quantitative data on its geographic service area(s) in the Community Assessment.
Focus groups, interviews, surveys, forums etc.
Census data, labor statistics, health statistics
Agency data
Specific to your community
Standard 3.4 • The community assessment includes key findings on the causes and conditions of poverty and the needs of the communities assessed.
Key findings section – prioritized needs, summary
Causes – root issue
Conditions – the experience

11. Community Assessment- Continued
Standard 3.5 • The governing board formally accepts the completed Community Assessment.
Provide to the board for discussion and acceptance
Board vote to accept
Recorded in Board minutes

12. Additional Standards for CNA
Standard 1.2 • The organization analyzes information collected directly from low-income individuals as part of the Community Assessment.
Standard 2.2 • The organization utilizes information gathered from key sectors of the community during the community assessment process or at other times. These sectors would include at minimum: community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, private sector, public sector, and educational institutions.
Standard 4.2 • The Organization’s Community Action Plan is outcome- based, anti-poverty focused, and ties directly to the Community Assessment.
Standard 6.4 • Customer satisfaction data and customer input, collected as part of the Community Assessment, is included in the strategic planning process

13. Tools for Completing CNA
Community Commons is a place where data, tools, and stories come together to inspire change and improve communities. We provide public access to thousands of meaningful data layers that allow mapping and reporting capabilities so you can thoroughly explore community health.

14. Accessing the National Tool
National Training Center
Online Tools
Comprehensive Online Community Needs Assessment
Community Commons is an interactive data and mapping platform that stores over 10,000 layers of data sorted by geography. It offers a space for Organizations to host a “hub” where their community can engage in peer learning over data! The Partnership’s hub is unique in that it has selected a specific set of data to be highlighted within its hub for the use of generating a comprehensive community needs assessment report.
The tool can be accessed by going directly to or by going through the Partnership’s website –
National Training Center
Online Tools
Comprehensive Online Needs Assessment

15. Registration

16. Join Partnership Hub

17. Partnership Hub Home

18. How to Use Tool

19. Learn About the Data

20. Start a New Assessment

21. Data Included in Report

22. Customize Report

23. Save and Download

24. MACA TOOL

25. To Tell Your Community Action Story
You must be able to translate and transform data to articulate what the numbers mean, what action we must take, and how we and others can plan for the future
ANALYZE
RECOMMEND and REPLICATE
PLAN

26. Data Analysis Guides Strategy
How do the needs fit into the context of your community?
The answers to the analysis will guide the strategy that you take – including the partnerships that are created

27. Connecting the Dots: Beyond Data Collection
What does this all mean?
What do we focus on?
What happens next?
Raw Data
Analyzed Data
Clear, Evidence-Based Message

28. Goals for Analysis Findings by Issue Domain Levels of Need
Discussion on Causes and Conditions
Pairing of Needs and Resources/Partners
Prioritizing the needs
Needs correlated to National Goals
Recommendations and Key Findings

29. Findings by Issue Domain
Utilize domains from Community Commons
Domains of CSBG Act
Population Profile
Employment
Education
Housing
Income
Nutrition
Health Care
Employment
Education
Income Management
Housing
Emergency Services
Nutrition
Self Sufficiency
Health
Services for Youth
Services for Senior Citizens

30. Be Careful – Don’t Isolate Issues
Intersection between domains
Nutrition effects education
Education effects employment
Childcare effects employment
Nutrition effects health
Compared by geography
More transportation issues in X county
Food desert in X county
Age, Gender, Race/Ethnicity (Standard 3.2)
Of children under five living in poverty, X percent are African American
Did the report include a geographic comparison between locations within the service area as well as the state or even the country? Not every county or even neighborhood within a service area will have an identical experience of poverty. Noting the difference in gender, age, and race/ethnicity of those living in poverty between the different pockets of the service area will help decipher which programs should be offered in specific areas, and how to efficiently allocate agency time. Knowing how an agency’s service area compares to the stat at large also help resource allocation, but also helps benchmark success. Using the geographic information systems (GIS) maps that are including in the Community Commons generated reports will show in color the difference of statistics across one’s service area. The report also offers chart comparisons between selected counties, and relative to the state as a whole.
Was data reported in isolation, or shown in intersection to give a realistic picture of the complex nature of poverty? Advancing analysis would look at the intersection of gender with age, or age with race when painting the picture of poverty in the community. Instead of simply X number of children under five live in poverty, this would mean showing that of children under five living in poverty, X percent are African American. The Census Bureau creates comparison charts that are easy to download, and Community Commons offers some of these statistics as well. Looking at multiple demographics for community members who give qualitative feedback in the assessment process can offer this opportunity as well.

31. Levels of Need Family Community Agency Who’s need is it?
What is the need?
Who’s need is it?
Why – What do they value?
Agency
Who’s need is it?
What do they value?
Need will be mentioned from multiple angles
Leads into discussion of causes

32. Causes and Conditions Causes and Conditions of Poverty in CSBG Act
Goal of Self-Sufficiency
In CSBG Organizational Standards
Push us to tell the holistic story of the poverty experience in our community
Takes time, may have to ask tough questions, but will move agency forward
Goal is self-sufficiency – must go deeper
Look at level of need – the why – discuss possible causes
Social, economic, and political factors
Some causes will be beyond capacity of agency to address
Not meant to address all the unmet needs
Inclusion of the conditions of poverty but no documented discussion, or analysis of the causes. There is no one right answer for the cause of why a need exists, poverty is complex. However, agencies need to document that their assessment committee, agency staff, Board of Directors, or other entity analyzed what the causes associated with the documented need might be, and include those causes in the report.
Key Findings
Summary of Need
Community Level
Agency Level
Family Level
Context of Need
Causes specific to your community and specific to your potential customers
Conditions specific to your community and specific to your potential customer
Assessment of causes and conditions addressed currently by the agency, but not inclusive of larger community causes and conditions in the agency’s geographic service area. While it is important to evaluate the causes and conditions of poverty currently being addressed by the agency, the assessment is an opportunity to gain insight into the needs of the service area that may not currently be met. The assessment, and the key findings, should involve needs assessed both inside and outside of the agency.

33. Level of Needs Aids Discussion
Level of Need – Why – What level is the Cause?
Social, economic, and political factors
What factors in community influence experience of poverty?
Neighborhood, City, State, Country
Some causes will be beyond capacity of agency to address
Not meant to address all the unmet needs
SERVICE PROVIDER CHANGE AGENT
Were the causes and conditions analyzed multiple levels? Thinking about whether the need is a family, agency, or community level need requires analysis of the what level the cause of that need is stemming from. It is important to consider that factors even outside of the agency’s local community can influence the conditions of poverty. Discussing what social, economic, and political factors inside and outside the geographic service area can aid in documenting the root cause of needs assessed- What are the factors in your neighborhood, in your city, in your state, and in the country at large that influence the experience of those in poverty in your service area? By taking part in this analysis, an agency allows for the efficient creation of recommendations based on agency capacity because it will be clear which causes are stemming from issues that are bigger than the community and will really require partnerships and organizing efforts to address.

34. Causes Discussion/Analysis
Level of Need
Why? Create the Context
Why now?
Why here?
What is different?
Social, Economic, and Political Factors
The qualitative data collected is the perfect place to get at the causes of poverty in your community by asking why – why do you think that is the experience of our community? What in our environment perpetuates these issues – why is that? Take the conditions of poverty that collected through statistics and interviews and ask the assessment team to think about why things are the way they are. Think about the job environment, the local education system, opportunities for access to health care and how the factors in your community intersect to give you the poverty numbers that you have. It may be worthwhile to print out the quantitative and qualitative data and mark next to each category at which level the condition is being experienced, what you think the causes attached to it are, what programs/services you are already utilizing to address that need, and ideas for how it can be addressed by your agency or in partners with each other. Thinking through the whole cycle of identifying, analyzing, and making recommendations for each area of need across the types of data collected may be helpful in organizing your key findings section.

35. Example Need Domain: Employment Level:
Clients lack skills to obtain living wage jobs (Family)
Community lacks living wage job opportunities (Community)
Agency lacking mentors and business partners to work with job training program participants (Agency)

36. Ex. Community Lacks Living Wage Jobs
Why now?
Changing standards for education
Higher cost of living
Discussions/bills around the country
Why here?
Cost of Living
State policy has voted against raise
What’s different?
Local: ABC closed all of their franchises in X town, manufacturing stalled, etc.
Social: single parent households
Economic: slow recovery, slow job growth
Political: change in representation

37. Notes on Causes
Discussion should include diverse group of stakeholders – your starting committee plus
Discussion should be a safe brainstorm
Some factors in community perpetuate the needs
Must be free to talk through those
Can massage the language later for report
Build in enough time to really unpack things

38. You Can Make Change – Without Starting From Scratch
Know the level of need, know the cause
Have agency data and historical outcomes
Have qualitative & quantitative data and community input
Part of analysis is mapping:
What you know
What you have
Who can help

39. Pair up Needs, Resources, Partners
Know the level of need, know the cause
What is your agency already doing?
What resources are becoming available?
What are community partners already doing?
How can partnerships / collaborations / coalitions be built?
What may take some advocacy efforts?
Match up with the conditions you already know – again going back to the beginning, you have an idea about the state of poverty in your community, you are not looking at these statistics blindly – think about whether these numbers match up with what you know. Are changes in your community or your local job market reflected in the numbers? Are the hot button issues represented by the numbers?
Mark which areas you are already addressing – get a jump start on the recommendations for your report by noting next to the need that you are already taking action to address it with x,y,z programs
Note which needs offer an opportunity for partnerships – again with recommendations, note which areas would have greater impact and better suited to get at the cause of the need through partnerships and coalition building

40. Partnerships
You will find a number of needs, with deep and interconnected causes
Your agency has one role in addressing the causes and conditions of poverty
What parts of the Need can you address? What parts will you coordinate with partners?
Look for partners that have resources/assets you lack
Ex. Resources for Transportation that can supplement your employment program
Look for partners who need the resources/assets you have
Standard 2.1 – “documented or demonstrated partnerships across the community, for specifically identified purposes…”

41. Prioritize the Need Based on quantity of findings
Based on knowledge of resources and available partners
Attention to the cost and estimated impact
Alignment with national goals
What will your agency prioritize?
What role will your agency take?
Pay attention to the Red dials – in Community Commons you can select “Customize Report” and select “Only show indicators not meeting benchmarks” and it will create a report that only shows those indicators where your area is doing worse when compared to the state and/or the US – these are things your agency should pay attention to
Pay attention to the statistics showing change over time – going back to the questions we asked initially regarding whether things are different in your community now than the last time you assessed the need. Look at statistics that show rate changes like the poverty rate change or statistics over time – like unemployment in the past five years. This will give insight into those things that may be different.

43. National Goals – Avoid Mission Drift
Goal 1. Low-income people become more self-sufficient. (Family)
Goal 2. The conditions in which low-income people live are improved. (Community)
Goal 3. Low-income people own a stake in their community. (Community)
Goal 4. Partnerships among supporters and providers of services to low-income people are achieved. (Agency)
Goal 5. Agencies increase their capacity to achieve results. (Agency)
Goal 6. Low-income people, especially vulnerable populations, achieve their potential by strengthening family and other supportive systems. (Family)
Does what you found fit into the goals of Community Action – this will help identify how big your role will be

44. Level of Need Identified Causes and Conditions of Needs Discussed
Needs by Domain
Level of Need Identified
Causes and Conditions of Needs Discussed
Accounted for Resources and Partnerships
Grounded in Community Action and Agency Mission
Ready for Recommendations and Key Findings Summary!

45. Recommendations and Key Findings
You have organized the data
You understand the causes and conditions of poverty
You know what resources are available and partnerships to be created
1) Make recommendation on how to address the causes and conditions of poverty with resources/partnerships available
2) Summarize your efforts in concise, powerful summary

46. WHY to share CCNA Raise awareness of poverty
You have the numbers to back up your experience
You have experience to back up recommendations
Data and analysis must be a part of conversation
Raise awareness of agency (PR)
Look at all the data you have analyzed!
You have a strategy grounded in facts
You are going to address the causes of poverty
Build partnerships: here is what we know
Advocate: this is the current state of poverty

47. Think About Your Audience:
What do they know?
Your agency is an expert in poverty
The people you involved in process are expert in poverty or other aspect of community
Not everyone is an expert
Need to connect the dots
What do they value?
Time, need a concise message
Clearly outlined argument
Proof/Data/Metrics
Cannot share 100 pages of census numbers and notes from a community forum and think that people will now understand the state of poverty, know what your organization does, and give you money!
It is essential to know your audience when sharing strategy and processes, in order to message and frame your story according to the knowledge and experience of the listener. The emphasis, the scope, and the tone of the story will and should vary.

48. Don’t forget about the Dials, Charts, and Maps from Community Commons!
What to Share
Board of Directors
Full Report
Focus discussion on Key Findings
Community Members
Key Findings
Emphasize analysis of resources
Recommendations
Community Action
Local Funders
Key Findings and Recommendations
Elected Officials
Key Findings or shorter
One to two page fact sheet
Don’t forget about the Dials, Charts, and Maps from Community Commons!

49. WHERE to share CCNA For Maximum Impact
Your Website
Here is what the need is
Here is what our goal is
Here are the strategies we will utilize
Social media
This is what we know about poverty
Retweet and like partners discussions on poverty
Promote events/activities to address poverty
Community meetings
Show what you know
What resources you bring to the table
What resources are still needed

50. Social Media Examples

51. Develop a Tool for Your State

52. Q&A