Community Needs Assessment

Assessment of local assets and gaps, informed by data and community voice

Toolkit | Community Toolbox: Assessing Community Needs and Resources

Learn how to identify and assess community concerns, needs, and assets. The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change.

Guide | Purpose Built Communities: Communicating about Resident-Centered Neighborhood Revitalization

This brief offers guidance—in the form of a comprehensive framing strategy—that community builders can use to share their successes, communicate the challenges they face, and highlight the work that lies ahead.This brief offers guidance—in the form of a comprehensive framing strategy—that community builders can use to share their successes, communicate the challenges they face, and highlight the work that lies ahead.

Toolkit | Participatory Asset Mapping

This resource includes concepts, methods, and tools, such as the Community-Engaged Mapping Facilitation Guide and Guide to Planning a Community-Engaged Mapping Event, to host an event or activity that collects knowledge and experiences from community members about local assets.

Interactive Tool | Social Vulnerability Index Interactive Map

This is a place-based index, database, and mapping application designed by the CDC to identify and quantify communities experiencing social vulnerability. The current Social Vulnerability Index uses 16 U.S. census variables from the 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) to identify communities that may need support before, during, or after disasters. These variables are grouped into four themes that cover four major areas of social vulnerability and then combined into a single measure of overall social vulnerability.

Toolkit | Engaging People with Lived Experience to Improve Federal Research, Policy, and Practice

This resource includes methods and strategies that federal agencies can use to engage people with lived experience and created resources to build federal capacity to engage those they seek to serve. Developed by the office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), the principal advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on policy development responsible for major activities in policy coordination, legislation development, strategic planning, policy research, evaluation, and economic analysis.

Case Study | Purpose Built Case Study: For the Community, with the Community, by the Community

This piece explores one example of how community-informed, place-based strategies can have a positive impact on young children and their caregivers, increasing the positive influences from the broader environment that surrounds them.

Framework | Resident Engagement Practices Typology

This typology classifies resident engagement practices based on the three outcomes that organizations or partnerships could actually achieve: (1) Increasing resident awareness and participation in the services provided by organizations; (2) Getting feedback and input from residents to improve services, processes, or policies; and (3) Supporting active resident leadership (community activation) by creating conditions for large groups of residents to lead and be involved in transformational efforts.

Framework | Trauma-Informed Community Building: The Evolution of a Community Engagement Model in a Trauma Impacted Neighborhood

This resource offers an evaluation framework that both assesses the need for and measures the impact of Trauma Informed Community Building (TICB), a model developed as a holistic approach to community engagement that recognizes the impacts of community trauma on residents’ lives. Additionally, the resource proposes an updated model to more accurately reflect the strategies on the ground and share illustrations of TICB in action.

Interactive Tool | Opportunity Atlas

This tool demonstrates neighborhood-level data associated with multiple childhood factors that impact future economic mobility. It is based on research by Raj Chetty and his team at Harvard University, which assessed factors influencing economic mobility.

Interactive Tool | Social Capital Atlas

This tool can be used to explore social capital in your community and how it connects to children's chances of rising out of poverty. It is based on research by Raj Chetty and his team at Harvard University, which assessed how social networks influence economic mobility.

Report | Race for Results: Building a Pathway to Opportunity for All Children

This report utilizes Casey's Race for Results index based on 12 indicators of child and youth well-being, showing that improvements have been made in at least six out of 11 comparable indicators across racial and ethnic groups over the past decade. The report emphasizes the need for targeted investments in children of color to eliminate long-standing barriers and address specific needs.

Toolkit | Asset-Based Community Approaches in Rural Settings

This resource details activities and resources for asset-based community development (ABCD) in rural communities, recognizing that the social and community context in which people live includes the relationships formed between neighbors and their social and civic connections.

Video | Power Building, Trust and Relationships: Supporting Movement Beyond Moments of Reckoning

This plenary session from the 2024 Collective Impact Action Summit explored how grassroots organizers and other community leaders in St. Louis are partnering with funders to sustain the movement for racial and economic justice.

Toolkit | Community Toolbox: Conducting Concerns Surveys

Toolkit | Community Toolbox: Conducting Focus Groups

Toolkit | Community Toolbox: Conducting Key Informant Interviews

Learn how to prepare for, conduct, and use information from key informant interviews. The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change.

Toolkit | Community Toolbox: Conducting Needs Assessment Surveys

Learn how to conduct a needs assessment survey to identify what the community sees as priority issues to address, including a checklist and examples. The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change.

Toolkit | Community Toolbox: Conducting Public Forums and Listening Sessions

Engage the community in public forums, or town meetings, to share ideas, gain insight, and encourage public exchange. The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change.

Toolkit | Community Toolbox: Conducting Surveys

Learn the basics of conducting surveys, including survey creation, distribution and collection, and how to utilize survey data. The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change.

Toolkit | Community Toolbox: Qualitative Methods to Assess Community Issues

Learn how to use qualitative methods, such as focus groups and interviews, to support and strengthen your community assessment. The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change.

Toolkit | Community Toolbox: Windshield and Walking Surveys

Learn how to conduct walking and windshield surveys to systematically observe community conditions. The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change.

Toolkit | Baltimore City Youth Opportunities Landscape (BCYOL) 2023 Dashboard

The BCYOL is a public and collaborative effort facilitated by Baltimore’s Promise to centralize, aggregate, map, and analyze youth opportunities available to young people ages 0-24.