The CAAP Community Needs Assessment is a comprehensive tool that provides Pennsylvania's Community Action Agencies with the means to capture information about their community, analyze the data, and identify the current challenges that need to be addressed within the community. Community Action Agencies are required by federal legislation to complete a community needs assessment every three years. Conducting a Community Needs Assessment allows Community Action to be less reactionary and more visionary in our work within the communities.
The CAAP Community Needs Assessment Tool - now on the Engagement Network
The CAAP Community Needs Assessment Tool is now part of the Engagement Network hub for CAAP. The Engagement Network is a data sharing interactional website owned and serviced by the tool’s original developer, the University of Missouri Center for Applied Research and Environmental Systems (CARES). The CAAP hub includes mapping features that can be used with or separate from the Community Needs Assessment report.
The online CAAP Community Needs Assessment Tool provides background information for the state and counties from over twenty data sources, including federal and state organizations. The CAAP Community Needs Assessment Tool allows agencies to query the database and create a document that serves as a community profile – the quantitative data portion of the needs assessment.
Only members of the Pennsylvania Community Action network may access the CAAP Community Needs Assessment Tool.
The tool was developed in partnership with the Missouri Community Action Network (MCAN), The Institute of People, Place and Possibility (IP3) and the University of Missouri CARES, under the guidance of a CAAP work group consisting of staff from local PA Community Action Agencies. The PA Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) funded the acquisition and development. PA Community Action Agencies fund the annual maintenance of information supplied by CARES and the Pennsylvania State Data Center (PSDC). During December 2018, the system was migrated from IP3's Community Commons platform to CARES' Engagement Network platform.
Please contact Dan Leppo regarding any log-in or use questions, or if you have suggestions for additional database information the tool might provide.
Orientation Video
CNA Tool Work Group - NEW in 2019
If you are interested in joining a CNA work group to review the use of or improvements to the tool, please contact Dan Leppo. The group will meet in a web meeting on a bi-monthly basis.
Community Needs Assessment Resources:
Getting the initial data report of the Community Profile is only the beginning of the Community Needs Assessment process. Once obtained, the data must be analyzed and needs, challenges, opportunities and resources identified to lay the groundwork for Community Action work plans and strategic planning. To that end, in addition to guiding the development of the Community Needs Assessment Tool, the CAAP work group compiled resources to aid agencies in completing their needs assessment.
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The CAAP work group wrote this toolkit to provide a guide to creating the community profile, collecting qualitative data from clients and the community in various settings, and analyzing the data to make a complete needs assessment report.
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The Missouri Association’s guide to doing a complete needs assessment: data collection, analysis, issue prioritization, strategic planning and logic models.
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The nuts and bolts guide to a comprehensive needs assessment from development to report, issued by the National Association for State Community Services Programs.
Missouri Community Scale Survey
The Missouri Community Action Network developed a six-category list of questions to help guide agencies in conducting a more in-depth assessment survey. Each category provides a vast menu of question choices that agencies can add to their surveys. Results from survey questions provide agencies with a better understanding of their community, program performances, and insights for future endeavors.
Here is a link to the orientation video conducted by the tool's designer:
