EvalBasics 1: Community Assessment*

Community assessment is the essential fact-finding phase of program development. You form a picture of a target community or user group in order to develop beneficial programs and services for it.  But community assessment, particularly for outreach programs, can be so much more than an evaluation activity.  It provides opportunities to meet leaders who provide entry into the community, initiate relationships with potential collaborators, and express your interest in the lives of the people you want to serve. In this class, participants will learn a four-step process for conducting community assessment that includes data collection, interpretation, and use.  The relationship-building potential of each step will be discussed. This class is an on-demand online offering.

Learning Objectives
At the end of this class, participants will be able to:

Describe a three-step process for conducting a community assessment for program development.

Identify methods for data collection and interpretation that are particularly suitable for community assessment.

Use the community assessment process to initiate key relationships within the target community

Apply community assessment findings in SWOT analysis

 

Agenda – Online version – 1 hour

Module 1 - Overview – 5 minutes

Module 2 - How people adopt change – 10 minutes

Module 3 - Getting organized – 15 minutes

Module 4 - Gathering information – 15 minutes

Module 5 -Assembling, Interpreting, and Acting on your findings – 15 minutes

Facility Requirements 
This on-demand online class requires participants to have a computer with an Internet connection. It includes quizzes for each module that must be successfully completed before participants will have access to the class evaluation and receive CE credit.

MLA CE Credits: 1