Reference no: EM133490579

Homework: Community Needs Assessment and Asset Mapping Essay

Overview

The purpose of the Community Needs Assessment and Asset Mapping Homework is to apply assessment skills at the macro social work level to better understand your local community's needs and strengths. For this homework, you will employ the skills of community needs assessment and community asset mapping as described in Chapters 8 and 9 of the Kirst-Ashman & Hull text.

Instructions

Each student will conduct a local community needs assessment and asset map to determine a pressing community need in your local city, town or neighborhood and the community strengths that can be drawn on to address that need. The larger the population of your local community, the more this needs to focus on your local neighborhood. For instance, if you live in New York City, you will want to focus on the neighborhood in which you live (e.g., the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn). Beyond completing online research to cover the items below, you will need to reach out to social workers in at least two local social services agencies to help substantiate the needs and assets of your local community. The end result for this project is 1000-1500-word Community Needs Assessment of your local community that concisely, but thoroughly addresses the following:

I. Community Needs Assessment: (2 to 3 pages)

A. Demographics: Gather local demographic data about your community that provides ahigh-level overview of your community.

B. Community Needs: Identify 2-3 key community needs that your community facesas supported by the data you found in your research and interviews of local social workers.Identify both causes and contributing factors to these unique challenges.

C. Target Need: Narrowing down those 2-3 needs to oneprimary community need, identify the gaps in resources that prevent individuals within the local community from getting the help they need. For instance, is the community need due to of not having service providers in the local community for that need, a lack of accessibility to service providers, a lack of marketing and advertising about existing service providers, etc.? Support your position with your research and social worker interview responses.

D. Past Attempts to Address: In one paragraph, how has the community attempted to address this need to date, if at all? What have been the results of those efforts?

II. Community Asset Mapping: (2 to 3 pages)

A. Assets: Identify a thorough listing of local community assets (see Chapter 9 and page 359 for examples of community asset mapping) which you believe could have a positive impact on the primary community need you identified. Use the categories identified in the text - built, natural, social, economic, and service assets.

B. Stakeholders: Determine key community stakeholders in the community (including organizations, local churches, individuals, government offices and leaders) who you have learned are (or potentially could be) invested in addressing the primary community need you have identified.

C. Action Plan: Develop your initial 5-step action plan to address the identified community need making use of the local community assets (strengths) you've discovered.