Assessing Community Needs

SLIDE VII-1

An assessment of a community's needs in terms of health services and programs available to children and adolescents provides an opportunity to evaluate a community's strengths, available resources, and service gaps. It is a systematic way to collect accurate, appropriate information a community can use to develop action steps that will improve outcomes for children and families.

Just as each community determines the services and programs it should offer, each community can take a different approach to assessing its needs. This presentation explains what a community can measure to determine its success in offering programs and services to children and families, the tools and data already available to undertake a community needs assessment, and new steps that can be taken. It also provides some tools the community can use to undertake its assessment and explore some possible resulting recommendations, in particular the development of school-based or school-linked health centers.

A community needs assessment is a collaborative project that should involve the health care community, the school system, social service agencies and other community-based programs, and families. Although it may seem overwhelming, it's an important step for achieving the ultimate goal for a community's children that everyone can support.

SLIDE VII-2

A. WHAT ARE WE ASSESSING WITH COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT?

  1. Access to Care
  2. Coordination of Care
  3. Outcomes and Indicators
  4. Positive Youth Development

B. WHAT DATA AND INFORMATION CAN WE USE?

C. THE 10 STEPS OF COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT

  1. Organize a Community Coalition
  2. Identify the Community
  3. Establish Broad Support for the Needs Assessment
  4. Involve Key Groups in the Needs Assessment
  5. Identify Data
  6. Outline the Process
  7. Complete a "Resources and Services" Inventory
  8. Analyze and Evaluate the Data
  9. Develop an Action Plan
  10. Inform the Community

D. TOOLS FOR COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENTS

E. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICES

  1. Core Services Only
  2. Core Plus Expanded Services
  3. School-linked Health Centers
  4. School-based Health Centers

F. SCHOOL-BASED OR SCHOOL-LINKED HEALTH SERVICES

  1. Background
  2. The Need
  3. The State of School-based Health Services
  4. School-based Health Centers and Managed Care

RESOURCES

HANDOUTS

Assessing Community Resources
Community Assessment: Parent Survey
Student Health Care Survey