In order to gather this information, many initiatives conduct a community assessment.
"A community assessment is both a product, offering important information about the community and its residents' strengths and needs, and a process by which community members understand community needs and become invested in working for change. Most importantly, a community assessment is a way to collect information systematically so that actions taken within the community use the best available information about needs and are not based on faulty information or, worse yet, biases....A good community assessment also provides a solid foundation for tracking the effectiveness of actions taken to improve outcomes for children and families." (Bruner, Bell, Brindis, Chang & Scarbrough, 1993, p. 5)
The kind of resources a community has available will determine what kind of data collection it can afford. At the snapshot level, communities collect only the most basic overview at minimal expense; intermediate level reviews will add a brief survey of key community informants, take four to six months to complete, and cost $4,000 to $15,000; comprehensive level reviews in the $115,000 to $120,000 range more thoroughly survey service providers and consumers, and provide more sophisticated data analysis. Planners also should think through the pros and cons of various assessment methods. They need to consider how each method and its data will stack up against important measures, such as trustworthiness, practicality, timeliness, ease of analysis, objectivity, clarity, and cost (Brinkerhoff, Brethower, Hluchyj & Nowakowski, 1983).
A planning tool has been designed to help community groups conduct a needs assessment and organize information and resources to reach the goal of meeting the needs of children and families.
