There is no reason to pay close attention to this unless you are going to conduct a proposal for a needs assessment

NEEDS ASSESSMENT A TYPE OF EVALUATION BEFORE THE PROGRAM IS PLANNED AND DEVELOPED WHEN PROFESSIONALS OR OTHER POTENTIAL STAKEHOLDERS DECIDE THAT A NEW PROGRAM MAY BE NEEDED, THEY TYPICALLY CONDUCT A NEEDS ASSESSMENT IN ORDER TO DETERMINE WHAT PROBLEMS AND NEEDS THE NEW PRGRAM SHOULD ADDRESS.

Needs Assessments Are tools and methods designed to identify what a particular group of persons lacks to achieve more satisfactory lives. Need is defined as the gap between real and ideal conditions. Needs assessments are also powerful tools for persuasion and altering influence patterns. Needs assessments are an essential part of program development, changing policy and,to a lesser extent, special projects! Simply stated, a needs assessment is an EVALUATION OF WHAT a particular clients system needs in order to meet goals. A NEEDS ASSESSMENT DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN THAT A PROGRAM IS NECESSARY. IT COULD LEAD TO SEVERAL POSSIBLE RESULTS.

General timeline for evaluation PROG. STARTUP  PROG.COMP. Needs assessment  Program monitoring  Formative eval.--  < process eval   --Outcome eval.---  Typically needs assessments are done before a program is started. In order to determine 1. whether a program is actually Needed and 2. if so, what kind of program and services

A needs assessment could lead to several different conclusions Needs assessment New program needed Existing program services expanded New services or program Components added to existing program Nothing new is needed – not Enough need

One way to carry out needs assessment is to "engage" as many 'involved' people as possible/potential STAKEHOLDERS (Clients, service providers, management, community members, politicians, funding sources, etc) 3 GENERAL TYPES OF NEED Normative need - Defined by professional. "This is what you need“. Insensitive to individual. Felt need- Very subjective; may be more of a desire. At least comes from client's perspective. Comparative need - Addresses disparities in service receipt by two different groups. i.e. neo-natal care for infants of middle class single parents vs. neo-natal care for infants of poor single parents.

Variety of Needs Assessment methods 1. Rates under treatment-Record Reviews--who is receiving services for problem? 2. Social indicators- mortality rates, poverty rates, other de4mographics. Compare your area to the state or Nation. This is what has been done with crime rates or hazardous environemtns such as “Love Canal”.

3. Social area analysis-in depth assessment of your target area. Similar to your your final project. (may include all others.) 4. Surveys - Two types: standardized questionnaire or structured interview (quantitiative) where everyone fills out the same questionnaire or answers the same questions. Dramaturgical/qualitative where in-depth interviews are conducted, with extensive recording, and each interview may differ depending on the previous answer. This method is much more intensive and thus one does not get the volume of respondants as with the first. Advantage to quantitative survey = many people & randomization ensures generalizability. Disadvantage = minimal data. In-depth interview = much info but small n. May do general population survey, target population survey or key informant survey.

5. key informants - identifying "people in the know". Easy to use! The problem with this is that the biases in determining who is a key informant, affect the data. 6. nominal groups or focus groups. - Two different styles. Focus groups - pose questions to small groups of people in ways that get them to interact and explore their views on a given subject in their own terms and framework for understanding. Generates in-depth analysis from the group members perspective. Like the dramaturgical survey approach except in a group. The worker acts as a facilitator, introducing the general questions, facilitating discussion, clarifying, summarizing etc and involving all members. The faciltiator may ask follow-up open-ended questions to deepen discussion. Use interviewing skills: Probes, clarifying, restating, reflecting content, feelings, clarifying, 'speaking the same language (using group members relevant personal metaphors). 7. community forums - large numbers of people; offered to everyone, little opportunity for discussion, superficial data (soundbytes) subject to self-selection bias. 8. combination of different methods.

Protocol for Nominal Group Technique (SIMPLE) 1. Moderator breaks participants into groups of five to seven. 2. Identify or volunteer a scribe/spokesperson for each group. 3. Break into groups. 4. Moderator poses question at hand and gives the following instructions: A) Each of you are to privately write down the five most important (needs for effective drug prevention, services for single parents, barriers to service, reasons ways to recruit minority faculty etc.). B) Go around the group and each person give their most important item. Go around again and give the second most important item. Each gives third etc. (The scribe writes down all of these in order). 5. The moderator asks the spokesperson for each group to give their top five (can either do each group gives one or each group gives top 5and writes them down! You will find some redundancy (this is good. It tells you how important an issue/item is. YOU SHOULD HAVE A LIST THAT REPRESENTS THE MAJOR CONCERNS SSUES, ITEMS (SUBJECT AT HAND) OF THE PARTICIPANTS. NOMINAL GRP TECHNIQUES. GOOD FOR BREAKING LARGE GROUP INTO SMALL GRP. Fostering participation, needs assessment. GOOD FOR GETTING INFO! GOOD FOR BRAINSTORMING! GOOD FOR WHAT ELSE?