Giving back to the community is probably one of the major reasons why you decided to pursue your education. Well, your Alma Mata gives you the opportunity to make such contributions by giving you the role of writing a needs assessment report.
Remember,
needs assessments will come in many forms. However, most colleges make it a
requirement for their students to write community needs assessment reports that
take the form of standalone reports and are meant to address the needs faced by
a given population or society. You must treat a community needs assessment as a
section of a larger report that is meant to stick to a particular need of the
targeted society.
Like
other assignments, your community needs assessment paper should be
well-structured, and written in a formal tone. Well, here are the steps to
follow when writing a community needs assessment paper:
Identify the purpose
You must
clearly identify why you are writing the community needs assessment project
paper. Remember, you want to present a
specific and cost-oriented report that will outline the needs of the targeted
community.
You will
get the right data by narrowly tailoring down your purpose of writing the
community needs assessment. For instance, if your report wants to focus on the
actions that a community must take to reduce poverty, then you will develop a
broader topic compared to your peer analyzing a smaller/specific issue
affecting the society.
Define the community
Defining
the targeted community will give you a clear insight of the existing gaps and
why they are present. In this case, defining the community also grants you the
rare opportunity to identify the groups and/or sub communities that are
affected by the issue at hand the most.
Here are
the parameters to consider when defining the community for needs assessment:
ü The population- These are the groups of individuals affected by the issue at hand. You
will seek to understand the social and cultural structures of the community by
studying the population.
ü Attitudes and values- This underscores the elements that drive the community, what they care
about, the beliefs and cultural issues to respect and consider their biases,
and attitudes towards certain issues.
ü Place- Where the people leave, gather and work.
Define the
scope
The needs of your community are
often interconnected and complex in nature. The scope identifies the needs you
want to address and will depend on the resources available for the project and
the goals you want to achieve.
Identify
the assets
Describe the types of assets you
will require to create the project. The assets may include:
ü
The
policy frameworks
ü
Institutions
ü
Organizations
ü
People
ü
Finances
Begin by identifying the readily
available resources like the community organizations, people and financial
resources available before looking into other avenues.
Data collection
The community needs assessment must
be supported with tangible data (both quantitative and qualitative). The data
you collect will help you define the actual needs assessment program and at
times, predict the viability of the project.
Writing
style
You must ensure that your community
needs assessment follows the right writing style and format. It is strongly advisable
to write the needs assessment in APA.