Community Needs Assessment 101

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Created under President Johnson’s War on Poverty and federally funded by the Community Services Block Grant Act, Community Actions agencies (CAAs) serve nearly every community throughout the United States. Over 1,000 local agencies provide the opportunity to live in decency and dignity. This opportunity is provided through CSBG funded services and activities including housing, nutrition, utility, and transportation assistance; employment, education, and other income and asset building services; crisis and emergency services; and community asset building initiatives, among other things. Over 9 million individuals are served by CSBG-funded programs annually.

Community Needs Assessments are an integral part of a CAA’s planning process and are to be used to set the direction for their work. Section 676(b)(11) of the CSBG Act states:

“…an assurance that the State will secure from each eligible entity in the State…a community action plan…that includes a community needs assessment for the community served, which may be coordinated with community needs assessments conducted for other programs…”

In 2001, the Office of Community Services issued IM 49, Program Challenges, Responsibilities and Strategies, FY 2001-2003, requiring CAAs to implement the Results Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA) Cycle to meet the challenges facing the Community Action Network.

This implementation would meet the identified six national goals for Community Action:

• Goal 1: Low-income people become more self-sufficient.
• Goal 2: The conditions in which low-income people live are improved.
• Goal 3: Low-income people own a stake in their community.
• Goal 4: Partnerships among supporters and providers of service to low- income people are achieved.
• Goal 5: Agencies increase their capacity to achieve results.
• Goal 6: Low-income people, especially vulnerable populations, achieve their potential by strengthening family and other supportive systems.

The process of conducting a community assessment and the resulting report is the first step in gathering data for the agency-wide strategic plan and annual work plan. Assessment is a key component of the ROMA Cycle.

A Community Needs Assessment establishes a profile of a community, noting both needs and community resources. CAAs conduct assessments to determine the needs in a community that can be addressed and the population that is most impacted by the need. Agencies should include both qualitative and quantitative data to assist in identifying needs in the community. From this identification of needs on both the family and community level, and through a strategic process that also includes consideration of agency needs, CAAs determine the outcomes that they plan to achieve.

Assessment, including determining the needs and resources of a community, constitutes the first phase of the ROMA cycle and sets the stage for a CAA’s planning process. While some Community Action agencies may have a focus on CSBG-supported services (or other program services such as Head Start) when doing the community assessment, the data considered during the process should be sufficient to inform agency-wide strategic choices.

In short, the purpose of the CNA is to collect and analyze data about the needs of our community that have low incomes, inform future funding decisions, and inform policy and program decisions.

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