Chapter 6 Participatory Approaches Flashcards
(34 cards)
What are needs and resource assessments? They support which other competency areas?
Needs and resources assessment: important component of most community-based processes
• support other competency areas including planning, capacity building, evaluation, and sustainability
Why engage in this assessment process?
assists stakeholders in systematically examining the context, conditions,
and magnitude of an issue
• helps with identifying available resources for addressing the issue
Define Community needs and resources assessment
comprehensive analysis that examines the historical and existing context, conditions, assets, and capacity of the community to respond to a community issue
Define community need
discrepancy or gap between the existing situation (what is) and the optimum state (what it should be)
Aim of assessment process
The assessment process aims to identify and validate whether a community issue is a concern that matters to individuals and groups in the community.
Community resources (definition, examples of community resources)
existing assets at the individual, organizational, or community levels that can be mobilized to address an issue.
• Examples (to improve quality of life): human resources (e.g., neighborhood residents, youth, agency staff, and elected officials), facilities (e.g., schools, churches, and businesses), or amenities (e.g., parks, community gardens, and bicycle paths)
What is the outcome of a community needs and resources assessment?
Can result in a variety of outcomes:
• increased knowledge and awareness about an issue
• collaboration and consensus for addressing the issue
• direct products (e.g., a report)
What happens in the assessment process?
Information is systematically collected, reviewed, and analyzed to
examine issues in the community
• Takes into account the context of existing conditions and available
resources in the community
Assessment report
provides a summary of the information collected
to support data-informed decision making
What influences how community psychologists conduct needs and resources assessments?
Certain core values and principles of community psychology influence how community psychologists conduct needs and resources assessments
How should assessments be developed, conducted, and used?
in a way that promotes the values of community psychology
• empowers the individuals and groups involved to address the issue
Describe how assessment process should be (4 components)
participatory
• prevention-oriented
• support an ecological perspective
• be action-focused
Participatory evaluation (description, impact etc. – what does it shape)
collaborative process of systematically investigating, and actively engaging stakeholders in all phases of the assessment (use that info to support action)
• assessment process should be inclusive and engages
individuals/groups most affected by the issue
• diverse stakeholders in assessment process - reduces individual biases and assumptions, and provides different perspectives, knowledge, and expertise
Participatory approaches for assessing community needs and resources enhances community capacity to respond to issues by allowing community members and groups to shape both how the problem is defined and examined
Prevention-oriented (description, purpose, example)
Using a prevention-oriented approach, we look at risk factors and protective factors associated with the behaviors of interest in the community (part of the assessment)
• Prevention-oriented assessment - examine the present rate or incidences of problem behaviors, and future probability of needs and resources related to this community issue
• Example: examine existing rates of adolescent substance use and also
consider the future probability of drug use by youth in the community
Multiple levels of prevention orientation
Prevention-oriented assessment allows for an understanding of community needs and resources across multiple levels of prevention
• at primary level (i.e., protection from experiencing a problem)
• at secondary level (i.e., detection of elevated risk for problem)
• at tertiary (i.e., treatment and rehabilitation to minimize effects and
reduce problem)
Ecological perspective (description, what doe sit account for, link to risk and protective factors etc.)
Use a holistic approach (behaviors and conditions are examined across multiple ecological levels as part of the assessment)
• Accounts for: interaction between individuals and social systems they are embedded in
• Risk and protective factors related to a community issue are examined across multiple socio-ecological domains including at the individual (e.g., history, experience), relational (e.g., family, peers),
community (e.g., neighborhood, associations), and societal (e.g., culture, norms) levels.
Action-focused assessment (description, goal of assessment, link to mobilization
etc.)
Community needs and resources assessment should provide information to identify and validate community issues to be addressed
• Goal of the assessment - support a collaborative process that allows
for informed decision making in planning and taking action on issues that matter to the community
• Need to engage community stakeholders, including those most affected by the problem, is important for ensuring the assessment will lead to mobilization and action in the community
8 key tasks, activities, and skills that guide the process of conducting needs and resources assessments
Task 1: Identify the Purpose of the Assessment
• Task 2: Determine the Appropriate Components of the Assessment
• Task 3: Identify Appropriate Methods for Conducting Assessments
• Task 4: Enhance Community Capacity to Assess
• Task 5: Develop and Implement a Plan for Conducting the Assessment
• Task 6: Analyze the Results of the Assessment
• Task 7: Communicate the Results of the Assessment
• Task 8: Use the Needs and Resources Assessment Results for Improvement
Task 1: Identify the purpose of the assessment (description of each, key questions, associated factors etc. )
Importance of: shared understanding of function & uses of assessment
Key questions: Why is the assessment being conducted?
• What will be better understood about the community issue and by whom?
• How will stakeholders know if the assessment process and outcomes are achieved?
• “What should be known after conducting the assessment that is presently unknown?”
Factors:
1) Examine context and conditions influencing assessment process:
• validating whether a new or present issue is a community problem
• examining the need for new or existing community services and programs
• studying and getting consensus on changing needs and resources in the community
• Engage community stakeholders (individuals or groups who care about and have an interest in the issue) from the onset in identifying the purpose and potential uses of the assessment (get community support)
• include people who are most affected or have experienced the issue in this assessment process
2) Identify the level and scope of assessment:
• Community - individuals or groups who share a common place, interest, and/or experience
• How we define a community affects how see and address an issue!
• Consider the geographic scope (e.g., neighborhood, county)
• Is the assessment intended to better understand the needs and resources based on the experiences (e.g., race/ethnicity, education ability/disability) and interests (e.g., substance abuse, safety) of individuals and groups in the community?
3) Identify the Assessment Time Period:
• 2 aspects to clarify prior to beginning the assessment process
• projected duration of the assessment process (helps in selecting appropriate and feasible assessment methodologies)
• retrospective period for which information will be collected (time range, e.g., - community issue over past 5 years or over a 10-year period) – influences the analysis and assessment results• Listening to community members
• Facilitating dialogue
• Identifying and communicating with stakeholders
• Consensus building
• Collection and review pf archival records
Task 2 Determine the Appropriate
Components of the Assessment (description of each, key questions, associated factors etc. )
1) Identify Questions to Be Answered by the Assessment
• Identifying questions to be examined – helps determine appropriate components to be included in the assessment
• How do I selecting questions to be answered in the assessment?
• Basic prompts - who, what, when, where, why, & how
• Community description - if we want to know who and what types of people live in the community
• Problem analysis - if we want to know who is engaged in certain types of behaviors and the prevalence of these problem behaviors in the community
2) Identify Appropriate Components of the Assessment
• Core components often included in an assessment:
• community description or profile (what are the defining
characteristics of this community?)
• problem analysis (what is the community problem or issue?) • resource assessment (what resources are available?
• The appropriateness of various assessment components is guided by the type of questions to be answered based on the purpose of the assessment.
Developing a community description:
• describing the people in the community
• provides an analysis of the environmental context and people
• includes information on: the demography, economy, geography, history, politics, governance, and leadership
• the changes experienced in the environment or by people in the community over time - provides a historical context
• Ensure that the community description reflects the perspectives of individuals in the community based on how they view and describe the community!
Conducting a resource assessment:
• gives systematic analysis of capacities (i.e., collective skills, capabilities, resources) in community that can be used to address issue
• Community resources - both recognized and underutilized assets in the community that can be used in response to a problem (individuals,
groups, physical structures, social networks, and institutions)
• A resource assessment includes, but is not limited to an assessment of available services in the community.
Conducting a problem analysis:
• Problem analysis - collection of information about a community issue (level, severity, magnitude, & social concern in community)
• Dissects community issue - gap between the present and ideal state for behaviors and conditions for people in the community
• 1st step - gather information that indicates the level and social importance of the issue (Table 6.2); frequency, duration, scope, severity, impact, perceptions, and social concern related to the issue
• frequency of the behavior (underage drinking- how often?)
- Duration or length of occurence
- how long behaviors of interest have occurred (historical context)
- Is the issue a new or is persistent problem?
- Helps to understand if the behaviors are cyclical or occur during certain periods of time (e.g., adolescence) or over the life course
- Scope and prevalence
- how many individuals are involved (or not involved) in behaviors
- multiple levels of prevention (i.e., primary, secondary, tertiary) - examine number of individuals presently engaged in problem behaviors, and those who may be at risk
- Severity or magnitude
- how severely individuals and groups are impacted by the problem
- How does the problem disturbs or disrupts the quality of life forthose in the community?
Impact
• Must examine consequences of addressing the issue in the community
• What are the intended and unintended consequences?
• Understand interaction of issue with other community problems.
• What are the risk and protective factors associated with this issue? Which are modifiable factors? (lead to improvements)
Social concern
• examine the social significance or importance of the issue to
determine if it is perceived by the community to be a problem
• assessment process - increases awareness and gives validation for the issue as a community concern
• How do individuals and groups perceive and define the issue?
• The way an issue is defined influences whether it is deemed to be a problem, the types of individuals and groups who care about the issue, as well as what may be appropriate intervention responses.
skills Developing assessment questions • Information gathering • Categorizing and organizing information • Consensus building
Task 3: Identify Appropriate Methods for
Conducting Assessments description & key questions
Ensure a Participatory Approach for Assessing Community Needs and Resources
• Participatory orientation - increase accessibility and social validity (engage stakeholders who have knowledge of culturally appropriate approaches and access to different populations)
• Before selecting methods for community needs & resources assessment - determine stakeholders (including organizational and community representatives), who should be prioritized
Other considerations:
• Human and financial resources (affects feasibility of conducting assessment approaches)
• budget available to support the assessment (informs the appropriateness of various types of methods)
• individual interviews and surveys (conducting and analyzing them)
- time and resource intensive
• focus groups and listening sessions - engage more people (more
cost-efficient)
• secondary data sources - available at no cost or for small fees
(Task 3) Picture that you are working with a community with a history of
exploitation or unethical treatment Would there be some assessment methods that they would be less willing to complete?
• Engage stakeholders in the assessment process. But why?
1) can help determine those methods that may be more comfortable, less risky, or generally more acceptable to certain populations
2) can help eliminate unnecessary barriers (including community
members from the populations most affected by the issue in the selection of methods)
Task 3: Identify Appropriate Methods for
Conducting Assessments. Select Appropriate Assessment Methods
Which assessment method is most appropriate or best suited for that
community with those needs at that time?
• Mixed methods - combined use of quantitative & qualitative methods
• Advantage: enhances the completeness of the data and permits a
deeper understanding of the issue
Task 3: Identify Appropriate Methods for
Conducting Assessments
• Qualitative methods
typically use narrative descriptions or thematic analyses
(characterize the perceptions, attitudes, or beliefs of an individual
or group)
• helps in examining the context and conditions related to an issue
• helps in answering questions on the impact and social concern or
validity for a community issue
• Traditional forms interviews, focus groups, and listening sessions
• Nontraditional approaches - observational methods