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COMMUNITY NEEDS
ASSESSMENT
An essential during times of limited funding
Presented by: Justine A. Wayne & Sandra Hudspeth
WORKSHOP GOALS:
1. Learn how community data may shape programming, even with limited funding
2. Learn value of careful planning before administering a community needs assessment
3. Begin planning your own community needs assessment
WHY DO A NEEDS ASSESSMENT?
Caswell County Partnership For Children (CCPFC) includes as part of each three year bidding cycle, regardless of potential budget cuts!
CCPFC’s Board uses the results to address major early childhood needs in Caswell County by:
1) develop a new three year strategic plan
2) update or set funding priorities for RFP process
3) determine uses of funds during allocation process
Early Childhood System
Development
improve effectivene
ss
measure community
level indicators
2013 Background
89 general surveys collected 50 at least 1 child age 5 or younger Over 20 work outside Caswell County 70% under age 40 77% earn less than $36,000/yr
28 child care provider surveys collected 78% over age 40 71% earn less than $36,000/yr
2010 Background 109 Community 39 Child Care Providers 67 Families 38 Health 253 Total Returned a significant population NOT online 103 respondents either live or work in 27379, Yanceyville
55% of those replying work for the government, including public schools, and 24% at a non-profit
roughly half of those responding to the question rely on unregulated care
THE CASWELL COUNTY PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN NEEDS ASSESSMENT COMPARISON
For full details, see 2013 & 2010 Needs Assessment Reports available online: www.CaswellChildren.org
GATHER EXISTING COMMUNITY DATA
From Division of Child Development & Early Education data posted on SmartNet create star rating charts
Use PBIS and disaggregated data provided by the North Carolina Partnership for Children on Fabrik
For child care data summarized by Child Care Services Association, use county specific “Child Care in [your] County Fact Sheet” childcareservices.org
For health data reported by Action for Children, use county specific “2012 Child Health County Cards: [your county].”
QUALITY AVAILABILITY BY AGE GROUP
3.33.6 3.6
3.0 2.9 3.1
1
2
3
4
0 to 2 yrs ONLY: 2 & 3 yrs old ONLY: 4 & 5 yrs old ONLY:
1=St
ongl
y D
isag
ree
... 4
= St
rong
ly A
gree
"High quality child care is available for families living in Caswell County"
Avg Providers Score
Avg Responders Score
OTHER EC SERVICES/SUPPORTS NEEDED? After school programs: affordable extracurricular activities, sports, educational and summer programs
More child care: longer hours, overnight care, more affordable
Transportation
Health related: mental health, OT [occupational therapy], Free Healthcare, Speech
More community outreach, parent education, parent resources/support groups
Workshops/trainings for child care providers
CASWELL NEEDS ASSESSMENT CONCLUSIONS
Families would like to base child care choices on such quality indicators as Star Rating, often must choose non-regulated care such as relative, friend, neighbor, or babysitter.
Slightly less high quality available for the youngest children in the county.
Concern over the cost of and affording to provide and purchase infant/toddler care.
High quality Family Child Care Homes have been closing more than usual in the last year
2013 NEEDS ASSESSMENT RECOMMENDATIONS Infant –Toddler Initiative: (NEW) Create ‘Infant/Toddler Bump’ within Professional Development Incentive (PDI) Activity
(NEW) Explore Infant/Toddler (IT) subsidy options: further tiered, higher reimbursement for Infants/Toddlers?
Provide support to Family Child Care Homes: (NEW) Explore PDI for FCCH & serving IT Bumps Offer requested trainings Provide technical assistance and support FCCH peer group
BOARD UPDATED FUNDING PRIORITIES FOR RFP BASED ON NEEDS ASSESSMENT RECOMMENDATIONS!
CCPFC has identified six primary focus areas for funding: • Early Care and Education: 1. Families have access to high quality infant/toddler care 2. Families have access to high quality family child care homes 3. Child care providers working in regulated programs in Caswell County
receive adequate compensation 4. Quality child care is affordable
• Literacy: 5. Children have access to literacy based programs that have been proven
to increase reading skills, which are important to their success in school and work
• Program Support: 6. Program support is available to ensure accountability and measure
impact of funded programs
BIDDERS & THEN FUNDING RESPONSE
Updated programs according to priorities!
Created new Subsidy Enhancements for 1) Infants/Toddlers & 2) FCCHs
Professional Development Incentives included new I/T & FCCH ‘bumps’
ANOTHER EXAMPLEGUILFORD COUNTY PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN Community Needs Assessment prior to 2015 RFP process
Goals: Snapshot of county, not expected to be comprehensive Gain context of programming Identify if new directions needed Any holes in countyRespondents:281 Parents, 132 Child Care Providers, 90 Non-CC ProfessionalsSampling Concerns: only 7 out of 157 FCCHs participated 47% of Providers were Directors/Owners/ Operators 5 Stars sites overly represented
GUILFORD COUNTY PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN 2015 COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT KEY FINDINGS
All groups were asked to rate if an item was a challenge “often”, “sometimes”, “rarely” or “never”. Most frequent were: Access to affordable high quality child care Availability of high quality child care when needed Unemployment, underemployment or availability of jobs Access to affordable dental care Children with challenging behaviors
Greatest concern about young children & preparing for Kindergarten: School readiness/transition to K Social adjustment/behavior Parent education (behavioral issues, discipline, development, ready skills)
BASIC SURVEY DESIGN STEPS
A. Establish purpose – what you want to learn & why? (for RFP & funding priorities)
B. Determine who will complete survey (all of community, parents, child care providers, health providers, or only some of each?)
C. Determine when they will complete (timeline)
D. Determine how survey will be completed/collected (Incentives? Assistance for Spanish speakers)
E. Determine format/ contents of survey (online vs paper?)
Adequate Timeline Bigger Surveys = more time Due Date: Work backwards – when is report needed by?
committee or board meeting before RFP bid due date Survey Design: don’t reinvent wheel, but do not rush this step or regret later Gather existing surveys, base on best wording available KISS (Keep It Simple, Silly!) & Briefer is Better Pilot before launch to test readability, ease in completing, time to
complete with ‘lay person’
Survey Window: soft end & hard end to collection time. Extra time in case of low response
Ensure enough time to announce at meetings, in person before launch
Update email, mailing lists ahead of time
HOW TO PLAN CAREFULLY: TIMELINE
HOW TO PLAN CAREFULLY: PERSONNEL
Key personnel, staff commitment Is Board & staff clear on the WHY? Include link in email signature!
Is funding available to support process? If not, include MORE time to work around existing responsibilities!
Clear distribution plan with roles defined who is dropping off? Picking up? Who has permission to sit in Health Department (for instance) waiting
room? Who posts & shares on Social Media? How often? Who will alert
Board & Staff to ‘like’ & also share via Facebook, etc? Clearly defined responsibilities: consultant(s) vs staff vs
interns/volunteers?
THINGS TO REMEMBER… Collect only the data you will use & that are relevant to your evaluation questions & purposes.
Involve all staff involved in the data-collection phase in the up-front question formation.
Revise data-collection strategies based on initial analyses.
What is working? What pieces of data are still missing?
Base changes to existing tracking/data collection strategies on what is learned from evaluation.
From the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook, p. 87. Available at http://
www.wkkf.org/resource-directory/resource/2010/w-k-kellogg-foundation-evaluation-handbook
