• Origins of community needs assessment.
• What are community needs?
• Why conduct a community needs assessment?
• What are the benefits of a community needs assessment?
• When should you conduct a community needs assessment?
• Who should be involved in the needs assessment?
- Define your community (town/city)
• Historic overview of your community (founder(s), development, date established, etc.)
• Demographics and governance of your community (religion, ethnicity, racial
composition, has it changed over the years-if so, how and why, community culture,
prominent community leaders/spokesperson, official leaders-mayors, aldermen,
councilpersons, chief of police, sheriff, etc.)
• Community population/residents (current population, shifts in population, why/how has
the shifted occurred)
• Identify your community strengths and assets (resources, services, civic engagements,
what is the community famous for, historic events, etc.)
• Identify primary concerns and/or challenges in your community.
• As a future social worker, what are proposed solutions to resolve/reduce/eliminate the
concerns and/or challenges in your community?
• Discuss your community involvement: role, civic engagement, etc.
• Discuss your future within your community.