What factors should you prioritize when analyzing community needs?
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Community outreach is a vital skill for any organization that wants to engage with its target audience, build trust, and create positive social impact. However, before you can design and implement effective outreach strategies, you need to understand the needs of the community you serve. How do you analyze and prioritize those needs? Here are some factors to consider.
The first step is to clarify your goals for conducting a community needs assessment. What are the main problems or challenges you want to address? Who are the stakeholders and beneficiaries of your outreach efforts? How will you measure your success and impact? Having clear and specific goals will help you focus your analysis and avoid irrelevant or redundant information.
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Aleksandra Kuzmanovic
Leadership Social Media Manager @ WHO | Social Media Strategy | Digital Diplomacy
From my experience, listening to the community regularly - their needs, concerns and areas of interest - is key to identify how best you or your organization can help or support them. We, at WHO, often say that social media is 99% listening. Social media platforms have been our key tools to listen to health conversations and identify opportunities and right ways to shape our content and campaigns and identify our goals.
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Laurissa Wells
Urban Planner | Climate and Environmental Justice | Housing Policy Community Engagement | Dynamic Speaker and Coach
The first point should be to always always go to the people of which you are attempting to serve. I say attempting because many times especially if you work with the government, arms are already folded and there is already a distrust. So the question would be, how do get I get a community to believe in me and trust why I am TRULY in this space ? The first step would be to be genuine and state, "we don't know what to do WITHOUT you and I NEED YOU and your help". "I am not just going to meet with you ONE time....I'm coming back as many times as it takes....YOU tell ME what you need, what you want and YOUR suggestions as to how to make it happen". "I will come back and share the progress or lack thereof, and why....then, step 2
The second step is to gather data from multiple sources and methods. You can use quantitative data, such as surveys, statistics, and reports, to get a general overview of the community's demographics, characteristics, and trends. You can also use qualitative data, such as interviews, focus groups, and observations, to get a deeper insight into the community's perspectives, experiences, and preferences. Using a mix of sources and methods will help you capture the diversity and complexity of the community's needs.
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Goldie/Goldy Rosenberg
Coach, Consultant, Management Expert, Certified Producer
When looking for data, use a mix of formal "scientific" data and insights of the community members themselves. Never underestimate the value of the community's stance on what is the need. Know your community's demographics and create data collection tools that are sensitive to language and nuances of the community.
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Kimberly H.
School Librarian 📚 Reading | Information Literacy | EdTech | Equity💡Contributed to a flexible, non-linear model of information literacy | Co-developed a professional development curriculum about equity for librarians
Two tools for collecting data on a community are community walks and asset maps. In a community walk, you go out into the community and gather data during your experience. When creating an asset map, you identify resources and organizations in the area. Knowing the community's strengths will help you identify areas where the community might need support and organizations you can partner with. Project READY has more information about these two tools: https://ready.web.unc.edu/section-2-transforming-practice/16b/
The third step is to analyze the data you collected and identify the main themes, patterns, and gaps. You can use various tools and techniques, such as SWOT analysis, gap analysis, or priority matrix, to organize and evaluate the data. You can also involve the community members and stakeholders in the analysis process, to ensure their input and feedback are considered. Analyzing the data will help you understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the community's situation.
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Vincent Rey Vicente, MD
Driving Social Impact Initiatives for more than 25 years | Blockchain Strategist & Visionary | Healthcare Advocate | Combat Sports Proponent | Director of Business Development at ICORBP
I cannot emphasize enough the value of community involvement in data analysis. This provides further vetting and validation of data and it would also determine biases. Involving community members and stakeholders yields several benefits: increased trust and support, improved data quality through error identification, comprehensive analysis from diverse perspectives, and greater potential for data-driven positive community impact.
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Dr. Hayley Haywood
Equity-Centered Solutionist & Identity-Conscious Coach | I help educators & employers design equitable pathways to soulfilling work through capacity-building resources, coaching & consulting
When analyzing the data, it’s important to be aware of your own internal biases. How do your assumptions, life experiences & privileges influence the way you make meaning of findings, what gets lifted up, & what is dismissed? Applying an equity lens also means interpreting the story through an asset based approach. What do individuals have that can be built upon? Where are the gaps in access? Where can the organization, process, system or program be improved to enhance your desired outcomes?
The fourth step is to prioritize the needs based on their urgency, importance, and feasibility. You can use criteria such as the magnitude, severity, frequency, or impact of the needs, as well as the availability, cost, and effectiveness of the solutions. You can also consult with the community members and stakeholders to align your priorities with their expectations and interests. Prioritizing the needs will help you allocate your resources and efforts efficiently and strategically.
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Jerson Del Rosario
Sociologist | Researcher | Ethnographer | Development & Policy Analyst | Qualitative Research & Program Evaluation | UX Research
In prioritizing the identified needs it's important to establish the scope of the intervention and the available resources from the very beginning, so that expectations are in check with reality. Often, a people from a community in need will see the practitioner/activist as a beam of hope that something will be done about a problem that affects them. With reason, they might have unrealistic expectations about what one can do, and typically some community stakeholders will withdraw from the process once they realize their expectations will not be met. In short, prioritizing needs is not an easy process as it may appear, as community members may want some needs met that A) scape the project' scope; or B) are technically unfeasible.
The fifth step is to communicate the results of your analysis and prioritization to the relevant audiences. You can use different formats and channels, such as reports, presentations, or newsletters, to share your findings, recommendations, and action plans. You can also use storytelling, visuals, or testimonials to highlight the stories and voices of the community members. Communicating the results will help you inform, persuade, and engage your audiences and stakeholders.
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Jerson Del Rosario
Sociologist | Researcher | Ethnographer | Development & Policy Analyst | Qualitative Research & Program Evaluation | UX Research
Communication with the community where the outreach is conducted is an iterative, permanent process (for as long as the project is being carried out). Once needs have been identified, sharing the results from that exercise is extremely important: 1. It will serve as a validation/vetting mechanism with the community that you are trying to reach/help. Did you interpret X findings right? Did you really understand what was said about such and such situation in the community? Did you miss something? 2. You get valuable feedback that can help you refine or improve your assessment. 3. It shows the community that you care about their input and helps you build more rapport as well as to increase their level of engagement in the project.
The sixth step is to review and update your analysis and prioritization regularly. You can use indicators, metrics, or feedback to monitor and evaluate your outreach activities and outcomes. You can also use new data, trends, or events to adjust and improve your analysis and prioritization. Reviewing and updating your analysis and prioritization will help you keep up with the changing needs and dynamics of the community.
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M. Sahr Nouwah
Partnership | Capacity Development| Localization|Civil Society
In community needs analysis, the following are relevant factors: 1. Local economy 2. Cultural motivations 3. External linkages including road, human capital and materials outside the reach of the community 4. Social factions including relationship and, networks and their interaction with the people 5. Politics and religion 6. Gender, age and disability factors 7. Natural resources 8. Historical factors 10. Exposure and extended neglects and exclusion - factors which may be internal or external but weighing heavily on why some have and some don't, and what barriers hold the have not.
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Jerson Del Rosario
Sociologist | Researcher | Ethnographer | Development & Policy Analyst | Qualitative Research & Program Evaluation | UX Research
Community outreach can be a rewarding (and humbling) experience. For new practitioners, this is what I can say from experience working with low-income communities: 1. Avoid the savior mentality. There is just so much you or the project can do. You can't fix every problem. Let community members know that from the beginning. It doesn't mean you don't care. 2. Learn to read between the lines; as an outsider, some community members may not be as transparent about their intentions. 3. Be flexible; be ready to fail, to learn and to grow. A reason why many development projects are not as impactful has to do with variables of which you are not in control. 4. Understand the context and adapt; try to balance what's ideal and what's possible.