lderimprovementschangePARTICIPANT WORKBOOKcommunityneedsevidenceenvironmentaction planteamCommunity NeedsAssessmentCreated:

Community Needs Assessment. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC).

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENTTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION . 4LEARNING OBJECTIVES . 4ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME . 4TARGET AUDIENCE . 4PRE-WORK AND PREREQUISITES . 4ABOUT THE WORKBOOKS . 5ICON GLOSSARY . 5ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 5SECTION 1: OVERVIEW OF COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT. 6INTRODUCTION . 6CHANGE TOOL AND WORKBOOK . 8OVERVIEW OF COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT STEPS . 8PRACTICE EXERCISE #1 (10 MINUTES) . 11SECTION 2: PLAN FOR A COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT . 12INTRODUCTION . 12IDENTIFY AND ASSEMBLE A DIVERSE COMMUNITY TEAM . 12DEVELOP A TEAM STRATEGY . 13IDENTIFY THE SCOPE OF THE ASSESSMENT . 14DEVELOP QUESTIONS TO ASK . 17SELECT SITES. 18DETERMINE DATA COLLECTION METHODS OR USE EXISTING DATA . 18IDENTIFY KEY INFORMANTS TO CONTACT . 23DOCUMENTATION . 23PRACTICE EXERCISE #2 (30 MINUTES) . 24SECTION 3: KEY POINTS . 26SECTION 3: REVIEW AND RATE THE DATA . 27INTRODUCTION . 27POLICY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES . 27DEVELOP A RATING SCALE . 28MAKING A TEAM DECISION ON RATINGS . 31SECTION 4: KEY POINTS . 32SECTION 4: RECORD AND SUMMARIZE DATA . 33INTRODUCTION . 33RECORD DATA . 33SUMMARIZE DATA . 35SECTOR DATA GRID . 36PARTICIPANT WORKBOOK 2

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENTSECTION 5: KEY POINTS . 39SECTION 5: CREATE A COMMUNITY ACTION PLAN . 40INTRODUCTION . 40IDENTIFY ASSETS AND NEEDS . 40PRIORITIZE NEEDS . 42DEVELOP STRATEGIES . 43PRIORITIZE STRATEGIES . 44COMMUNITY ACTION PLAN . 46SECTION 6: KEY POINTS . 48CONCLUSION . 49IMPLEMENTING THE ACTION PLAN AND SHARING PROGRESS . 49TAKE HOME POINTS . 50WORKBOOK REVIEW . 50RESOURCES . 51APPENDICES . 52APPENDIX A. 52APPENDIX B. 53APPENDIX C . 76PARTICIPANT WORKBOOK 3

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENTIntroductionLEARNING OBJECTIVESAfter completion of the workbook, participants will be able to: Plan for a community needs assessment by:o Identifying a community teamo Describing the scope of the assessmento Listing the questions to asko Selecting siteso Determining data collection methods or sourceso Identifying key informants Review and rate data collected from a community needsassessment. Summarize data by creating sector data grids. Develop and prioritize strategies for improvement. Create a community action plan that includes:o Project period objectiveo Annual objective(s)o Activities needed to complete the objectiveso Persons responsible for completing the activities, ando Estimated completion timeESTIMATED COMPLETION TIMEThe workbook should take approximately 10 hours to complete.TARGET AUDIENCEThe module is designed for Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP)residents who specialize in NCDs; however, you can also complete themodule if you are tasked to evaluate a communicable disease surveillancesystem.PRE-WORK AND PREREQUISITESBefore participating in this training module, you must complete trainingin: NCD Data Sources Program Planning Prioritizing public health problemsPARTICIPANT WORKBOOK 4

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENTABOUT THE WORKBOOKSYou will read information about conducting a community needsassessment in the Participant Workbook. To practice the skills andknowledge learned, you will refer to the Activity Workbook and complete4 exercises.ICON GLOSSARYThe following icons are used in this workbook:Image TypeImage MeaningActivity, exercise, assessment or case study that you willcompleteActivity IconStop and consult with your facilitator/mentor for furtherinstructionStop IconResourceIconA resource or website that may provide further informationon a given topicSupplemental information, or key idea to note andrememberTip IconACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThanks to Shannon Griffin-Blake, PhD (Division of Community Health,National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion,Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for sharing and explainingthe CHANGE tool.Thanks to Indu Ahluwalia, MPH, PhD (Division of Reproductive Health,National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion,Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for reviewing this module andproviding feedback and guidance.PARTICIPANT WORKBOOK 5

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENTSection 1: Overview of CommunityNeeds AssessmentINTRODUCTIONWhat is a “Community?”Communities are typically defined by a geographic area; however, theycan also be based on shared interests or characteristics such as religion,race, age, or occupation. People within a community come from differentbackgrounds and have unique cultures, customs, and values. Utilizingthis wide range of ideas and wisdom is critical to assessing the communityneeds and strategizing areas for improvement. Before you conduct acommunity needs assessment you should have a clear understanding ofthe different cultural groups within a community and how to best work withthem to solve the community issues.What is a Community Needs Assessment?A community needs assessment provides community leaders with asnapshot of local policy, systems, and environmental change strategiescurrently in place and helps to identify areas for improvement. With thisdata, communities can map out a course for health improvement bycreating strategies to make positive and sustainable changes in theircommunities.Components of a Needs AssessmentThe main outcomes of a community needs assessment are in 3 maincategories: Policy Change, Systems Change, and Environmental Change.Policy ChangeThis involves laws, regulations, rules, protocols, and procedures that aredesigned to guide or influence behavior. Policies can be either legislativeor organizational. Policies often mandate environmental changes andincrease the likelihood that they will become institutionalized orsustainable. Examples of legislative policies include taxes on tobaccoproducts, provision of county or city public land for green spaces orfarmers’ markets, regulations governing a national school lunch program,and clean indoor air laws. Examples of organizational policies includePARTICIPANT WORKBOOK 6

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENTschools requiring healthy food options for all students, menu labeling inrestaurants, and required quality assurance protocols or practices (e.g.,clinical care processes).System ChangeThis involves change that affects all community components includingsocial norms of an organization, institution or system. It may include apolicy or environmental change strategy. Policies are often the drivingforce behind systems change. Examples are implementing a nationalschool lunch program across a region or provincial school system orensuring a hospital system becomes tobacco free.Environmental ChangeThis type of change relates to the physical, social, or economic factorsdesigned to influence people’s practices and behaviors. Examples ofalterations or changes to the environment include:Physical: Structural changes or the presence of programs or services,including the presence of healthy food choices in restaurants or cafeterias,improvements in the built environment to promote walking (e.g., walkingpaths), the availability of smoking cessation services to patients orworkers, and the presence of comprehensive school health educationcurricula in schools.Social: A positive change in attitudes or behavior about policies thatpromote health or an increase in supportive attitudes regarding a healthpractice, including an increase in favorable attitudes of communitydecision makers about the importance of nonsmoking policies or anincrease in nonacceptance of exposure to second-hand smoke from thegeneral public.Economic: The presence of financial disincentives or incentives toencourage a desired behavior including charging higher prices for tobaccoproducts to decrease their use or the provision of nonsmoker healthinsurance discounts.PARTICIPANT WORKBOOK 7

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENTCHANGE TOOL AND WORKBOOKThe community needs assessment process taught in this module is based onthe Community Health Assessment and Group Evaluation (CHANGE) datacollection tool developed by CDC’s Healthy Communities Program within theDivision of Community Health at the National Center for Chronic DiseasePrevention and Health Promotion.1 The CHANGE tool was written primarilyfor communities in the United States interested in creating environments thatsupport healthy living.This workbook teaches a similar approach to conducting community needsassessment as the CHANGE tool, but since this participant workbook is to beused globally we are providing some flexibility in the tool you choose to use.For example, after learning the process you may decide to create your ownExcel spreadsheets to record and summarize data, or something similar inMS Word.ResourceIf you wish to use the CHANGE tool. If you choose to order (free of charge) the CHANGE tool CD-ROM, you willalso receive additional resources such as an Action Guide, an MSPowerPoint presentation template, and a policy brief or one-pager template.Please note that the Action Guide contains slightly different “action steps”than th