Needs Assessment PDF

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Alyssa Smith SOCW 3027 Mya Barak February 1, 2017 Needs Assessment A needs assessment is significant because it allows communities such as low income neighborhoods to get the chance to improve their current conditions. A needs assessment “explores the need of a new service or program within a specific community or for a specific population” (Poynter, 2010). It can enhance a community to its desired conditions. It can increase the quality of life in the community. Therefore a needs assessment for a cultural diversity, low income, high number of children and youth neighborhood, could create a community center, at which the children and youth could go to at no cost, which would be a win-win situation for the parents of low income and the excessive amount of children. A needs assessment could also create a positive environment for the community by helping their conditions with community groups, centers, and programs. The first two program development guidelines I will undertake are agency commitment and leadership. I would undertake agency commitment because

“the commitment of your agency is essential to the success of your group” (Poynter,2010). You need the commitment of your agency in order to succeed; they can make sure there is space available, funding, share ideas and help recruiting members. When you are in the process of developing a new program, creating regular updates and presentations will ensure a supportive environment for your group, your agency must be fully informed and contented with the concept in order to be on board with it. So that the agency feels involved you will need to take into consideration their ideas, “incorporate staff suggestions”( Poynter,2010), and be flexible and open to new ideas. In order to do this I would get an agency that was willing to recruit members and workers to create a community center for the community. The community should have a program the children could go before or after school so that their parents could work or do things they need to do throughout the day. I would need the agencies to recruit workers to create/build the program. I would present my concept/ideas to them and ensure they are all informed and on board. I would be flexible to their ideas or concerns, to ensure that the community gets the best we can offer. I would also undertake leadership guidelines and as well as take into consideration the population.

The research methods I would use would be community meetings and observation. Community meetings would allow me to gather a lot of information at once and get the community to speak on behalf of themselves. At the meetings we could provide refreshments and snacks to get them eager and excited to come, and then they can choose to talk and discuss the things they would like to address, it would be a safe space to do so. We could “address potential barriers; ensuring child care services, translation services, and transportation difficulties are accommodated” (Poynter, 2010). We could put flyers around the community to raise awareness of these meetings and also put ads in newspapers and on the internet. The community meetings can being together all the issues they are dealing with at once, and also bring together the community and they can see that maybe the problems they are facing are not just affecting them, so they might speak out more openly when they think it isn’t just them coming forward and speaking out. Also another research method would be observation; this would be a good method if the community did not want to come forward with their own needs, therefore having us assess their needs for them. “ observations should be recorded at the same time each day for a number of days in order to ensure patterns of behavior are being observed, not isolated

incidents” (Poynter,2010). Therefore observations would take patience and consistency in order to get the results needed. My possible primary and secondary information source would be potential group members and Ex Post Facto Data. “the best way to determine the need for a group program is to speak to or observe the population that represents our potential group members” ( Poynter,2010). I would use ex post facto data to ensure that there is a need for the community and that there has been in the past and I could see previous program evaluations. Therefore in my findings I would recommend that if all these factors were together, there should be a program where the children and youth could go, at no cost, therefore allowing the high number of children a safe place and a fun program to go to before or after school when their parents went to work or did things to provide for their families. I would recommend a big brother, big sister program, so the children could have fun with also having an authority figure. Which could be a win-win program for parents and children In the low income neighborhood....