Needs Assessment - Examples of Extensive Vs. Intensive Needs Assessments

Examples of Extensive Vs. Intensive Needs Assessments

The “Santa Clara County Trends & Needs Assessment Report” is an extensive community needs assessment conducted by United Way Silicon Valley, a non-profit organization that claims to be a leading expert on human needs in Silicon Valley. The report’s purpose is to define and measure the most pressing needs in Santa Clara County.

An example of an intensive needs assessment is a project conducted by the Environmental Law Institute, titled Building Capacity to Participate in Environmental Protection Agency Activities: A Needs Assessment and Analysis. In that study, in-depth interviews with open-ended questions were conducted with experts on citizen participation in environmental issues and community capacity building. The purpose of the interviews was to identify: 1) areas most in need of an investment in capacity building; 2) capacity building tools and techniques that are perceived to be effective by communities and citizens; 3) effective mechanisms for delivering capacity building tools; and 4) approaches that could be taken to implement capacity building efforts. After the interviews were conducted, the next step was to analyze each need and approach that had been identified by the interviewees and accordingly identify possible constraints and barriers to implementation, design issues, and potential efficacy for each approach in addressing perceived capacity building needs. Another phase of this needs assessment, occurring concurrently with the others and informing the construction and analysis of the various approaches examined, was a literature review on public participation relevant to capacity building.