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NATIONALSERVICE TRAINING PROGRAM II

MODULE LECTURE

MIDTERM PERIOD

MODULE 4: COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT

TO THE NSTP STUDENTS

In this module, you will deal with the concept of community and community needs assessment. It
primarily focuses on conducting a community needs assessment if necessary for determining areas for
improvement, solving problems, and developing goals.

Let’s read this

Knowing the Community

Community is simply defined as people with common interest living together in the same
place. This term is derived from the old French word communauté and the Latin term
communitas which are broad terminologies for fellowship, commonness, structured society,
or organized society.

Riché C. Zamor defined Community as a group of individuals connected to each other by

one or more attribute(s). The element that links them together is at the core, and is the
essence of the group. Just as denoted by the root and the suffix of the word (common-
unity), a certain segment of the population is united by a familiar thread.

According to Frances Moore Lapp, “Community – meaning for me 'nurturing human

connection' — is our survival. We humans wither outside of community. It isn’t a luxury, a
nice thing; community is essential to our well-being."

Communities are groups of people who, for a specific subject, share a specialty, role,
passion, interest, concern, or a set of problems. Community members deepen their
understanding of the subject by interacting on an ongoing basis, asking and answering
questions, sharing information, reusing good ideas, solving problems for one another, and
developing new and better ways of doing things.

The most common and simplest definition of community is that it is an aggregation of

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families and individuals who have settled in a compact and contiguous geographical area
and share significant elements of common life as shown in their manners, customs,
traditions, and modes of speech. For Manalili (2009), a community refers to an organization
of people who are able to undertake projects based on its members’ experience, resiliency,
motivation, and willingness to learn.

In archeology, community is understood in two ways. First, it is a place where people

actually reside, an idea quite similar to the concept of ancient settlement. Second, it is a
group of individuals who live near and interact with each other. An active community is an
organization of people who strategize, conceptualize, implement, and evaluate a program
(Bunagan et al, 2009). The definition of a community may vary, but certain commonalities
are noticeable when explaining and describing the concepts (Norman, 1998)

In Genesis 1:27 of the Old Testament, the word community encompasses God's creation in
the universe, including man and woman, whom He creates His own image. Allowed them
to have dominion over all living things and other natural creations. In addition, God placed
the first man and woman in the Garden of Eden so it could be guarded and cultivated. Man
and woman are not created to live in isolation from one another. The first framework
established is understanding the essence of a community concentrates on the relationship of
the Lord with His creation.

The Concept of Community

There are many ways to think about community. Four of the most relevant, each of which
provides different insights into the process of community engagement.

A. Systems Perspective

From a systems perspective, a community is similar to a living creature, comprising

different parts that represent specialized functions, activities, or interests, each operating
within specific boundaries to meet community needs. For example, schools focus on
education, the transportation sector focuses on moving people and products, economic
entities focus on enterprise and employment, faith organizations focus on the spiritual and
physical well-being of people, and health care agencies focus on the prevention and
treatment of diseases and injuries (Henry, 2011). For the community to function well, each
part has to effectively carry out its role in relation to the whole organism. A healthy
community has well-connected, interdependent sectors that share responsibility for
recognizing and resolving problems and enhancing its well-being. Successfully addressing a
community’s complex problems requires integration, collaboration, and coordination of
resources from all parts (Thompson et al., 1990). From a systems perspective, then,
collaboration is a logical approach to health improvement.

B. Social Perspective

A community can also be defined by describing the social and political networks that link
individuals, community organizations, and leaders. Understanding these networks is critical
to planning efforts in engagement. For example, tracing social ties among individuals may
help engagement leaders to identify a community’s leadership, understand its behavior
patterns, identify its high-risk groups, and strengthen its networks (Minkler et al., 1997).
Chapter 6 explores this approach to understanding a community in greater depth.
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C. Virtual Perspective

Some communities map onto geographically defined areas, but today, individuals rely more
and more on computer-mediated communications to access information, meet people, and
make decisions that affect their lives (Kozinets, 2002). Examples of computer-mediated
forms of communication include email, instant or text messaging, e-chat rooms, and social
networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter (Flavian et al., 2005). Social
groups or groups with a common interest that interact in an organized fashion on the
Internet are considered “virtual communities” (Rheingold, 2000; Ridings et al., 2002).
Without question, these virtual communities are potential partners for community-engaged
health promotion and research.

D. Individual Perspective

Individuals have their own sense of community membership that is beyond the definitions
of community applied by researchers and engagement leaders. Moreover, they may have a
sense of belonging to more than one community. In addition, their sense of membership can
change over time and may affect their participation in community activities (Minkler et al.,
2004).

The philosopher and psychologist William James shed light on this issue in his
writings. James thought it important to consider two perspectives on identity: the “I,” or
how a person thinks about himself or herself, and the “me,” or how others see and think
about that person. Sometimes these two views agree and result in a shared sense of an
identity, but other times they do not. People should not make assumptions about identity
based on appearance, language, or cultural origin; nor should they make assumptions about
an individual’s perspective based on his or her identity (James, 1890). Today, the multiple
communities that might be relevant for any individual — including families, workplace,
and social, religious, and political associations — suggest that individuals are thinking
about themselves in more complex ways than was the norm in years past.

The eligibility criteria that scientists, policy makers, and others develop for social
programs and research projects reflect one way that people perceive a group of proposed
participants, but how much those criteria reflect the participants’ actual view of themselves
is uncertain. Practitioners of community engagement need to learn how individuals
understand their identity and connections, enter into relationships, and form communities.

Purpose of Community

People join communities in order to:

1. Share new ideas, lessons learned, proven practices, insights, and practical
suggestions.
2. Innovate through brainstorming, building on each other’s ideas, and keeping
informed on emerging developments.
3. Reuse solutions through asking and answering questions, applying shared insights,
and retrieving posted material.
4. Collaborate through threaded discussions, conversations, and interactions.
5. Learn from other members of the community; from invited guest speakers about
successes, failures, case studies, and new trends; and through mentoring.
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Principles of Community

1. Communities should be independent of organization structure; they are based on

what members want to interact on.
2. Communities are different from teams; they are based on topics, not on
assignments.
3. Communities are not sites, team spaces, blogs or wikis; they are people who choose
to interact.
4. Community leadership and membership should be voluntary; you can suggest that
people join, but should not force them to.
5. Communities should span boundaries; they should cross functions, organizations,
and geographic locations.
6. Minimize redundancy in communities; before creating a new one, check if an
existing community already addresses the topic.
7. Communities need a critical mass of members; take steps to build membership.
8. Communities should start with as broad a scope as is reasonable; separate
communities can be spun off if warranted.
9. Communities need to be actively nurtured; community leaders need to create, build,
and sustain communities.
10. Communities can be created, led, and supported using TARGETs: Types,
Activities, Requirements, Goals, Expectations, and Tools.

Sociological Concept of a Community

Sociologically speaking, the family is the smallest unit of the society. It is composed of the
immediate and non-immediate members, while the community is composed of different
families who live in the same place and share the same interests. The activities of a family
that are also conducted by a community include sharing common resources, working for the
common good, and building harmonious relationships.

These central qualities of a family are also the basic building blocks of any community. It is
believed that stronger families help develop stronger communities. An individual person
can form a family, a family can form a community, and a community can form a nation.

Aesthetic and Moral Values of a Community

The aesthetic and moral values of a community consist of the guiding and sometimes
paradoxical ideas that its members hold, e.g., how they know what is good from bad,
beautiful from ugly, and right from wrong. The justifications for the set values of
communities are necessary in explaining their actions.
As a community develops, its values change. A change in values may result from
innovations in technology or the social hierarchy. Examples of values include solidarity,
commitment, mutuality, and trust.
It was Greek philosopher Aristotle who first postulated the concept of community as a
group established by people with shared values. That initial definition has been refined and
expanded throughout the years. It has been recognized, for example, that people can belong
to different types of communities (1) communities of place, in which people are linked in
the geographical sense (2) communities of memory, in which people who may technically
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be strangers share a morally significant history, and (3) communities of face-to-face

personal interaction in which people are governed by sentiments of trust, cooperation and
altruism (Boyles, 1997).

How, then, can the community have understood at the beginning of the 21st century? What
will be its future in the time to come?

Community Needs Assessment

A community needs assessment is a process in which the problems, issues and concerns of
the community are identified by using several tools. Needs assessment, social analysis, or
community diagnosis is a concrete basis for the formulation of the program. It reflects the
sentiments, needs, aspirations and recommendations of the community. It becomes
significant when conducted as students get integrated with the people. Assessing the needs
of the community is a prelude to effective program implementation. It hopes to solve the
problems, issues and concerns of the people in the locality.

In determining the areas for improvement in a community, the following steps should be
taken:

1. Gather information about the community attitudes and opinions in

order of importance
2. Determine how citizens rank local issues, problems, and opportunities.
3. Give the citizens voice in determining policies, goals, and priorities.
4. Evaluate current programs and policies
5. Speculate on what the people thinking and what they may really want

The steps in conducting a needs assessment as follows:

1. Establish a working committee to solicit community involvement and develop a

plan of action.
2. List important aspects or areas that need to be analyzed.
3. Identify the population to be surveyed.
4. Determine the information needed.
5. Select a random sample of people to survey.
6. Develop and pre-test a questionnaire.
7. Collate the information gathered.
8. Analyze the data.
9. Go back to the community to validate the results or findings.
10. Finalize the report

Data Gathering Methods for Community Needs Assessment

1. Focus group discussion (FGD) by key informant

The key informants of the community are the people who hold socially
relevant positions such as educators, public officials, clergymen, business
representatives or volunteers.

2. Community forum/assembly
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This involves holding group events which include the entire community.
Such events give visibility to the leaders and raise the start of the community;
however, they require extensive planning and publicity. Participatory action
research uses this method effectively

3. Public records

Public records like the national census provide social and demographic data
of the community. The data include the profile of the population such as age,
gender, educational level among others.

4. Survey

Surveys and questionnaires involve asking individuals in the community

about their everyday needs. These can be implemented through the following:

a. Mailing questionnaires to randomly selected members of community

b. Doing telephone surveys
c. Handing out surveys during assemblies.
d. Posting questionnaires on the internet

Needs Assessment Survey

A needs assessment survey is conducted to identify community needs which are necessary
for subsequent actions. This survey contains a set of questions to be answered by people in
the community through personal or telephone interview, online or face-to-face surveys, or
email or written correspondences. The following data are gathered in a needs assessment
survey:

1. Historical data
2. Geographical data
3. Political and legal data
4. Demographic data (e.g., age, size, race, growth patterns, and population
distribution)
5. Economic data (e.g., the nature of the economic base in relation to social, cultural,
educational moral and cultural superstructure)

Roles of the Community in a Needs Assessment

The role of the community in a needs are as follows

1. Help identity interest groups and citizens who can be a part of working committees
2. Facilitate a group discussion to determine important issues and priorities.
3. Select the sample to be surveyed and design a system to identify respondents.
4. Provide a pool of questions from which the working committees draw upon in
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addressing issues and concerns.

5. Design a way of distributing and collecting survey questionnaires and encoding and
analyzing the resulting data.
6. Provide summary reports of data.
7. Suggest programs whereby results can be reported and strategies on community
involvement solicited.
8. Work with citizens to come up with a well-informed course of action.

CONCLUSION

A community needs assessment identifies the strengths and resources available in the
community to meet the needs of children, youth and families. Community assessment is a
systematic examination of the community status indicators for a given population that is
used to identify key problems and assets in a community.

References

City College of Angeles Students Handbook

Holy Angel University NSTP Program Manual
Lee, Sergio J. National Service Training Program (CWTS 1) (LTS 1). Adamson University. C&E
Publishing 2007
Villasoto, Erminigo et.al. 2019. NSTP-CWTS 2 Service Learning and Immersion Towards Community
Building. C&E Publishing Inc. Quezon City
https://stangarfield.medium.com/what-are-the-characteristics-of-a-community-572ae5572f84
https://www.ikedacenter.org/thinkers-themes/themes/community/what-is-community-responses
https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/communityengagement/pce_concepts.html