Every community has it areas of crucial needs for which every of its member will need urgent interventions from concerned or appropriate agencies. The following are the reasons why it is important to have information about community before conducting a community assessment.
• There is increased understanding within the community about its needs, why they exist, and why it is important for the needs to be addressed.
• Community members have the opportunity to share how the needs impact the quality of life for the larger community.
• Community engagement is increased because members from different parts of the community are included in discussions about needs, assets, and the community’s response.
• The community’s strengths and weaknesses are
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Following are the sources/ method of gathering information from communities
Questionnaires, survey and checklist containing the potential questions a typical community may be having are distributed to members of the community that one needs to gather information from. This method, according to Carter McNamara in his work” Field Guide to Nonprofit Program, Design Marketing and Evaluation and Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development”.
Posited that this method is used “when one need to quickly and or/ easily gather information from people in a nonthreatening way” (…….). He went further to argue that aside from fact that this method can” complete anonymously, inexpensive to administer, easily compare and analyze…administer to many people, can get lots of data and many sample questionnaire already exist (………)
The second method and source used to gather information about community is interviews. This sort of interviews is used ” when one wants to fully understand someone's impressions or experiences, or learn more about their questionnaire (McNamara….). The advantages, according to McNamara, (,,,,,), of this method are that it helps to “get full range and dept of information,developes relationships with clients and can be flexible without
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In his argument, McNamara continued to explain documentation review as” when one wants impression of how new program operates without interrupting the program” ( ). This method has the following as it advantages. “get comprehensive and historical information, doesn't interrupt program or client's routine in program, information already exists and few biases about information.
The fourth method and source used to gather information about community is observation. This helps to “get accurate information about how a program actually operates particularly about process. Following are the disadvantages of this method- view operations of a program as they are actually occurring and can adapt to events as they occur”
The fifth method and sources used to gather information about community is focus group.In his argument for this method, McNamara explains that discussion groups are used to explore a topic in dept.…citing his examples, McNamara went ahead to suggest that.. about reaction to an experience or suggestion, understanding common complaints, etc.,;According to him, this gets the following as its advantages-quickly and reliably get common impressions, can be a beneficent way to get much range and depth of information in short time and can convey key information about
Community elected home owners association officials are constantly involved in complex decisions regarding the state, safety, and welfare of the property of our small community and solving community problems. Effective ways to solve problems faced by Deer Crossing Homeowners’ is to conduct a needs assessment of the community in an effort to provide feedback for the community elected officials.
A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) was conducted in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, with the focus on mainly Dekalb and Fulton Counties. The CHNA was conducted to identify the needs and resources in the community with the input from the community members, key stakeholders, and the public health. The CHNA would be used as a guide for the community in its future community health projects.
According to Allender, Rector, and Warner (2014), public health is a combination of both an art and a science (2014). The mission of public health nursing is to promote health, prevent disease and ultimately prolong life (Allender et al., 2014). In order for this to occur an assessment must take place. An aggregate or community assessment begins with a collection of data. This includes: the community’s health needs, risks, environmental conditions, financial resources through local census data, and a windshield survey (Allender et al., 2014). Through public health nursing, communities can collectively come together to help promote an overall better health standing.
A community assessment is a method that people collect health information about their town. The assessment information is than used to examine if the community is having health related problems. It involves all the different people living in the town and the people working in the community. Nurses working in the community setting use the nursing process to care for its members. A community assessment helps the nurse in finding out the advantages and
September the 25th 2005 Sunday Times Garda look at building better communities. December 17th 2004
The purpose of research interviews is to explore the views, beliefs, and motives of individuals on a specific matter for example factors that influence their daily life. They also provide a clear understanding of social issues and an insight that is required from the participant (British dental journal, 2008).The many types of research interview in qualitative research namely are the structured, semi-structured, unstructured and in-depth interview. I will explain them further since they can be used to explore
Community is like a Venn diagram. It is all about relations between a finite group of people or things. People have their own circles and, sometimes, these circles overlap one another. These interceptions are interests, common attitudes and goals that we share together. These interceptions bond us together as a community, as a Venn diagram. A good community needs good communication where people speak and listen to each other openly and honestly. It needs ti...
The development and maintenance of healthy communities: the provision a safe and secure environment, good housing, positive educational experiences, employment, good working conditions, and a supportive political infrastructure; minimises conflict and violence; allows self-determination and control of one’s life; and provides community validation, social support, positive role models, and the basic needs of food, warmth, and shelter.
In-depth interviews are one of the research methods used when qualitative research is desired over quantitative research. Also, by using in-depth interviews as his research method, Messner is able to acquire much more detailed information, which will enhance the quality of his final data, making the study more efficacious and fulfilling. But, as with any research method, in-depth interviews have their strengths and weaknesses. Most importantly, with any research method, optimal levels of representativeness, replicability, reflexivity, reactivity, and objectivity should be
Sense of community has been operationalised as a state like entity, and as the outcome of certain social processes. As such, a conceptual framework has been developed that allows understanding of the way people are socialised into their communities and maintain, or fail to establish and maintain, social engagement. This has also been understood in terms of process analysis of social change. Its linkage to power is important, as it helps define the setting in which power is used and is less likely to be abused. From a process perspective, sense of community is a changing feature of people’s relationships to others, and as such can be a barometer of change in 18 18 community. It can be beneficial in helping people create a sense of identity and a resilience to untoward social change. As a central aspect of the development and maintenance of social connectedness, it is useful in conceptualising adaptive and protective factors for positive life in community. Sense of community can also be associated with negative aspects of social life. The nature of exclusion of ‘others’ can lead to harmful social consequences. Local social cohesiveness can be at the expense of minority groups and newly arrived immigrant groups. It can provide an analytic tool
The Advantages and Limitations of Social Surveys in Sociological Research To survey something, is to carry out a systematic overview so that a researcher can produce a comprehensive general report on it. Survey method is often used by positivist sociologists seeking to test their hypotheses, and to investigate causes and examine variables. As with every other sociological research, survey has its own advantages and limitations. Positivist research, which is in the scientific tradition, begins with a hypothesis that can be either confirmed or rejected according to the data collected. One of the significant advantages of survey method is that, it can be used to collect data that is a representative of a larger population.
As described by Hatwin and Percy-smith a community profile is ‘A comprehensive description of the needs of a population that is defined, or defines itself, as a community, and the resources that exist within the community, carried out with the active involvement of the community itself, for the purpose of developing an action plan or other means of improving the quality of life of the community.’ (Hawtin and Percy-Smith, 2007, p10). A community profile is a useful and effective way of discovering and developing and understanding about a specific geographical area. Community profiles help to improve service provision and make new plans to reduce health inequalities.
The purpose of community profiling is to identify and understand health-related issues, inequalities and needs within a community; with the intention of determining the factors that influence people’s health and wellbeing within that given community in order to highlight gaps in provision to contribute towards making positive health improvements and improving the quality of life of the community. Community profiling as a nurse supports an insight into the population and areas of the geographical communities where nursing care is provided. It allows nurses to gain an understanding of the services provision for a particular health issue within a given community and also provides an awareness into the role and responsibilities of the nurse in facilitating access to services.
A Community can be defined as a group of people who don’t just live in the same area, but also share the same interests, experiences and often concerns about the area in which they live. Often when individuals have lived on a street or in an area for a while they become familiar with each other and the issues surrounding them. Children often attend the same schools and grow up together, again sharing similar experiences. In some instances adults may work together, and quite commonly all community members will share the same doctors, dentists, hospitals, health visitors and other public services and facilities.
The aim of community engagement should not be a tick box exercise but to understand the area from a community perspective and tapping into that local knowledge before proceeding with a strategy or an individual scheme. Good community engagement will promote the participation of local residents, business, groups, developers and agencies in order to get a level of understanding of each needs and vision for Rusholme.