1. Chapter 5: NEEDS ASSESSMENT
“Acting without thinking is like
shooting without aiming.”
B. C. Forbes

2. Contents What Is a Needs Assessment? Needs Assessment Tools
Organizing and Displaying Data
Analyzing Data

3. Introduction
After reading this chapter, you should have knowledge about the following:
The importance of doing a needs assessment
Applying appropriate research skills when conducting a survey
Synthesizing information from a survey and incorporating conclusions
Community partnerships available to participate in the plan

4. What Is a Needs Assessment?

5. Needs Assessment
A tool that reveals the opinions and wishes of potential participants through the provision of personal feedback
Involves gathering personal information
Allows you to:
Become aware of the population’s feelings, beliefs, and attitudes
Identify the issues that are important to them
Determine what has been done in the past

6. Needs Assessment Tools

7. Surveys and Questionnaires
Use a questionnaire as the data gathering technique
A series of questions
Questions should be:
Short
To the point
In simple English
Easy to understand and respond to
Placed in a sensible sequence
Easy scoring system or rating scale
Expect about a 10 percent return rate

8. Cover Letter Must be attached to the survey Short
Outlines the purpose of your survey
Tells respondents why their input is important and what will happen

9. Constructing the Questionnaire
Multiple Choice Questions
Rating Scales Questions
Example
_________________________________________________________________
Which municipal community centre do you use the most?
(A) Centreville
(B) Churchview
(C) Parklane
Example
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Please rate your satisfaction with the new drop-in basketball program:
Not satisfied Somewhat satisfied Very satisfied

10. Constructing the Questionnaire
Listed Options Questions
Closed-Ended Questions
Open-Ended Questions
Leading Questions - AVOID
Example
_____________________________________________________________________________________
In which of the following activities do you currently participate?
Basketball Volleyball Ball hockey
Ice hockey Baseball Lacrosse
Example
____________________________________________________________________________
explain why you are interested in participating in the annual ball.
_______________________________________________________

11. Telephone Interviews
Interviewer asks the questions and documents answers
Adds more personal touch
Participants selected by random sampling
5 steps to follow:
Call each selected respondent
Explain the purpose and state duration
Read clearly & document response
Repeat if necessary (no own opinions)
Stay focused until completion

12. Sampling the Population
Populations can be large and unfeasible to measure
Sampling is essential
Sample can be generalized to the population
The larger the sample, the higher the accuracy
Random sampling:
Equal opportunity
Unbiased
More likely to represent
the population

13. Focus Groups Groups meet and discuss views using open-ended questions
Not restricted
Will do the following:
Test your own assumptions about what you think people want
Provide opinions about your needs assessment topics
Create enthusiasm

14. Planning a Focus Group 5 steps:
What is the purpose of the focus group session?
Who will your participants be?
What questions will you ask?
Which location will suit your needs?
What materials, equipment, and supplies will you need for the session?

15. Focus Group Format and Sample Questions
________________________________________________________________________
1. Welcome and introduction
2. Purpose of the focus group
3. Ground rules for discussion
4. Sample questions
(a) What recreation programs at Robertson Recreation Centre
are important to you?
(b) What difficulties or challenges do you face in programs you
have registered for at Robertson Recreation Centre?

16. Interest Checklists
Respondents check off activities they participated in or they would like to have offered
List only those activities that you have seriously considered offering
Add an “Other” checkbox with a blank

17. Public Meetings
Great atmosphere for debate, and providing and gathering information
Time consuming to organize, but a one-time event
Steps:
Determine the date, time, and location
Book a location
Prepare your presentation
Create and deliver public service announcements
Organize the speakers for the presentation
Select a meeting chairperson/facilitator
Arrange refreshments
Get necessary audio-visual equipment
Collate the information gathered
and prepare a public document

18. Surveys and Questionnaires
+ Anonymous
+ Distributed to a large group
+ Not overly time consuming
+ Small staff required
+ Easy to administer
- Low return rate – about 10 percent
- Lengthy process
- Is the addressee the actual respondent?
- No clarification if respondent has questions
- Mailing lists – are they current?
Telephone Interviews
+ Not expensive
+ Easy to organize and implement
+ Can cover a wide geographical area
+ Can keep calling back until you speak with someone
- Interviewer may have biased tendencies
- Must train the interviewers
- Can you get a good representation from all
- Hang-ups and uncooperative respondents
Focus Groups
+ Inexpensive
+ Convenient and not overly time consuming
+ Provide a creative atmosphere for idea sharing
- Controlled by the facilitator
- Skill level of the facilitator must be very high
- Qualitative data only
- Limited in the number of people that can participate
Interest Checklists
+ Easy and quick to complete and tally
+ Minimal staff required
+ Inexpensive
+ Can cover a large geographical area
- Columns may cause people to think it is time consuming
- Can be time consuming to tabulate
- Return rate is lower
Public Meetings
+ Large numbers
+ Low cost
+ Low time commitment
+ Everyone can be heard
+ Those who have an interest will attend
- Recording all comments is difficult
- Sometimes crowd can be one-sided
- Crowd may have a leader that does all the talking
- Leader in the audience can sway others

19. Organizing and Displaying Data

20. Areas to Summarize Number of questionnaires or people contacted
Number of responses
Number of participants in public meetings or focus groups
Totals of yes or no responses for each question
Totals of numbers circled for each scale question
Number of similar comments, and those not shared by others
Test results

21. Frequency Distributions

22. Graphs

23. Bar Graphs

24. Pie Charts

25. Analyzing Data

26. Analyzing Data
Raw data must be analyzed before conclusions can be made
Statistics is one way of collating data
Measures of central tendency
A single meaningful value extracted
Most common statistical measure
Describe the central characteristics of a set of data
The most representative of all the values in a distribution
Allow comparisons

27. The Mean Arithmetic average
Most commonly used and most reliable measure of central tendency
(All the observations)/(number of observations)
Considers the number of scores involved as well as their value
Gives each score weight relative to other scores
Vulnerable to extreme scores

28. The Median Middle point
Half respondents scored higher and half lower than average
Used when there are few tied scores or when a distribution has a small number of scores
Not affected by outliers

29. The Mode Most frequent scores
Simplest, roughest estimate, and least used
Does not take into account:
Extreme scores
Number of scores
Scores’ relationship to the middle
Obtained by plain inspection, without any calculation

30. Percentiles
For interpreting data difficult to appreciate in a raw form
Indicates percentage of all scores that lie below a given score and percentage of all scores that lie above it
Indicates how one compares with the other raw scores
Percent ≠ percentile