Ranking the health of nearly every county in the nation, the County Health Rankings help us see how where we live, learn, work, and play influences how healthy we are and how long we live.
The health of a community depends on many different factors — ranging from individual health behaviors, education and jobs, to quality of health care, to the environment, therefore we all have a stake in creating a healthier community.
Community Assessment Tools. Publication by Rotary International. A Tool kit to help with community assessment on a specific topic from the Vermont Dept. It provides an alternative source of social research materials if researchers decide to go down that path. Preparing for a Collaborative Community Assessment. From the Iowa State University Extension. Road to the Community Plan shows a collaboration between the Macalester-Groveland Community Council MGCC and the City of Saint Paul to create a road map that illustrates key steps as a guide for communities to reference as they embark on their community plan process.
This document is a tool intended to offer best practices and insights to guide the conversation between district councils and their respective communities as they develop their own unique approaches to the community plan.
Fawcett, S. Concerns report handbook: Planning for community health. Preventing adolescent pregnancy: An action planning guide for community-based initiatives. Healthier communities action kit. Michigan Community Health Assessment. Forum I handbook: Defining and organizing the community. Lansing, MI: Author. Minkler, M. Community organizing and community building for health.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers. Moore, M. Community capacity assessment. Albuquerque, N. Murphy, Frederick. New York: Springer.
Wikin, B. Planning and conducting needs assessments: A practical guide. Skip to main content. Toggle navigation Navigation. Assessing Community Needs and Resources » Section 1. Chapter 3. Chapter 3 Sections Section 1. Understanding and Describing the Community Section 3.
Collecting Information About the Problem Section 5. Analyzing Community Problems Section 6. Conducting Focus Groups Section 7. Conducting Needs Assessment Surveys Section 8. Identifying Community Assets and Resources Section 9. Developing Baseline Measures Section Conducting Concerns Surveys Section Determining Service Utilization Section Conducting Interviews Section Conducting Surveys Section Implementing Photovoice in Your Community Section Windshield and Walking Surveys Section Arranging Assessments That Span Jurisdictions.
The Tool Box needs your help to remain available. Toggle navigation Chapter Sections. Section 1. Learn how to develop a plan for community assessment to guide efforts to better understand community needs and resources. What do we mean by needs and resources? Why develop a plan for assessing local needs and resources?
Who should be involved in developing a plan for assessing local needs and resources? When should needs and assets be identified? How do you develop a plan for assessing local needs and resources?
Answers include: It will help you gain a deeper understanding of the community. Each community has its own needs and assets, as well as its own culture and social structure -- a unique web of relationships, history, strengths, and conflicts that defines it.
A community assessment helps to uncover not only needs and resources, but the underlying culture and social structure that will help you understand how to address the community's needs and utilize its resources. An assessment will encourage community members to consider the community's assets and how to use them, as well as the community's needs and how to address them. That consideration can and should be the first step in their learning how to use their own resources to solve problems and improve community life.
It will help you make decisions about priorities for program or system improvement. It would obviously be foolhardy to try to address community issues without fully understanding what they are and how they arose. By the same token, failing to take advantage of community resources not only represents taking on a problem without using all the tools at your disposal to solve it, but misses an opportunity to increase the community's capacity for solving its own problems and creating its own change.
It goes a long way toward eliminating unpleasant surprises down the road. Identifying needs and resources before starting a program or initiative means that you know from the beginning what you're dealing with, and are less likely to be blindsided later by something you didn't expect.
Some reasons why you should: It allows you to involve community members from the very beginning of the process. This encourages both trust in the process and community buy-in and support, not only of the assessment, but of whatever actions are taken as a result of it. Full community participation in planning and carrying out an assessment also promotes leadership from within the community and gives voice to those who may feel they have none. An assessment is a great opportunity to use community-based participatory research , further involving community members and increasing community capacity.
A good plan will provide an easy-to-follow road map for conducting an accurate assessment. Planning ahead will save time and effort in carrying out the process. A planning process will give community members the opportunity to voice their opinions, hopes, and fears about the community. Their idea of priorities might be different from those of professionals, but they shouldn't be ignored. Among those who should be involved: Those experiencing needs that should be addressed.
It's both fair and logical to involve those who are most directly affected by adverse conditions. They know best what effects those conditions have on their lives, and including them in the planning process is more likely to produce a plan that actually speaks to their needs.
Health and human service providers. These individuals and organizations, especially those that are community-based, often have both a deep understanding of the community and a strong empathic connection with the populations they serve. They can be helpful both by sharing their knowledge and by recruiting people from marginalized populations to contribute to the assessment.
Government officials. Elected and appointed officials are often those who can help or hinder a community change effort. Engaging them in planning and carrying out an assessment helps to ensure that they will take the effort seriously and work to make it successful. Influential people. These can can include individuals who are identified as leaders because of their positions -- college presidents, directors of hospitals and other major organizations, corporate CEOs -- because of the prestige of their professions -- doctors, professors, judges, clergy -- or because they are known to be people of intelligence, integrity, and good will who care about the community.
People whose jobs or lives could be affected by the eventual actions taken as a result of the assessment. These include teachers, police, emergency room personnel, landlords, and others who might have to react if new community policies or procedures are put in place. Community activists. People who have been involved in addressing policy or issues that could come up in the course of the assessment have a stake in planning the assessment as well. Businesses, especially those that employ people from populations of concern.
The livelihoods of local business owners could be affected by the results of the assessment, as could the lives of their employees. Assessments of resources and needs should be done regularly throughout your initiative: Prior to planning the initiative.
This gives coalition members, community leaders, and those being served an idea of how to improve their circumstances. During implementation of an initiative.
It is important to make sure that you are on target not only at the beginning and the end of a project, but also during its implementation. If car companies only did quality checks on the steel before the parts are constructed and the paint job after it rolled off the line, you might not be inclined to trust the engine.
Identifying needs and assets during the life of the initiative helps you use your own resources well, and ensures that you're addressing the right issues in the right way. On an ongoing basis. During monitoring and evaluation, either ongoing or after the completion of a project, it is important to celebrate successes and to learn from setbacks to further community development.
Recruit a planning group that represents all stakeholders and mirrors the diversity of the community Try to be as inclusive as you can, so that the group is diverse and truly representative of the community. Design an evaluation process for the assessment , including the development of the plan Why is this step here, at the beginning of the planning process, rather than at the end?
Decide why you want to conduct the assessment There are a number of reasons why you might want to conduct a community assessment of needs and resources, among them: The reasons for an assessment will affect from whom and how you gather information, what is assessed, and what you do with the information you get.
Determining how to address the needs of a particular underserved or neglected group. Conducting a community health assessment in order to launch a public health campaign or combat a particular disease or condition. Exploring how to steer the activities of a coalition of service providers or government agencies. Understanding community needs and resources as a guide to advocacy efforts or policy change. You can't make credible policy recommendations without knowing about current conditions and the effects on them of current policy.
Planning, Regeneration and Infrastructure Portfolio. Housing and Homelessness Portfolio. People and Places Portfolio. Finance, Investment and Corporate Services Portfolio. Partnering and Wellbeing Portfolio. Environment and Coastal Portfolio.
Business, Tourism and High Streets Portfolio. Minor edits and updates were undertaken by Jessica Smart in Sign up to the Expert Panel Project news for the latest news and updates for Families and Children Activity service providers. Contact the Expert Panel team.
If you are funded under the Families and Children FaC Activity, AIFS can provide you with time-limited support for tasks such as developing a program logic or preparing for an evaluation. Contact the Expert Panel Project team for free advice and support. The Australian Institute of Family Studies acknowledges the traditional country throughout Australia on which we gather, live, work and stand.
We acknowledge all traditional custodians, their Elders past, present and emerging, and we pay our respects to their continuing connection to their culture, community, land, sea and rivers. Home » Expert Panel Project home » What is community development? What is community development? Outcomes of community development There are potential outcomes at both individual and community level. What is not community development?
Community-based work and community development work Table 1 outlines the difference between community-based work, which involves the community, and community development work, which is led by the community. Table 1 : Comparing community-based with community development work Community-based work Community development work Source: Adapted from Labonte An issue or problem is defined by agencies and professionals who develop strategies to solve the problem and then involve community members in these strategies.
Ongoing responsibility for the program may be handed over to community members and community groups Characteristics: Decision-making power rests with the agency. The problem or issue is defined by the agency. There are defined timelines. Outcomes are pre-specified, often changes in specific behaviours or knowledge levels.
Characteristics: Power relations between agency and community members are constantly negotiated. The problem or issue is first named by the community, then defined in a way that advances the shared interests of the community and the agency. Work is longer term in duration.
The desired long-term outcomes usually include change at the neighbourhood or community level. When to use community development Community development is not always a suitable approach to use. Community development may be particularly appropriate: to address social and community issues: Community development is a good approach when you are trying to create change at a community or neighbourhood level.
For example, if your goal is to improve community safety, increase community cohesion, reduce social isolation or create communities that are better for children.
Community development may not be the best approach if: You already know what you want to do. If the outcomes you want to achieve, and the activities that you will use, are already decided then there is no space for the community to determine outcomes and activities. You have limited time or short-term funding. Community development is a long-term process. Engagement and planning can take a year or more, and it can take several years to build the capacity of community members to lead a project and ensure sustainable results.
Your focus is improving specific individual skills. If you are seeking to build individual skills in a specific area e. Who can do community development? What is the role of a community development practitioner?
Key terms Community : A community is often a geographical area; for example, a local government region or a particular town. Community development in an uncertain world: Vision, analysis and practice 2nd ed.
Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Kenny, S. Developing Communities for the Future 4th ed. South Melbourne: Thompson.
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