Ask an Advisor Answers

Thank you for submitting your question to the community toolbox and using Ask An Advisor!

There are several examples of questions for community needs surveys out in the field, but the questions you include will depend on your theory of change, your community's context, and the overall framework you bring in to the work. I have provided resources below to help get you started: 
/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-n...

I approach community needs assessment very systematically - first in discussion with communities to learn more about their experiences and priorities. Once you do some of that initial work, which you may have already, you want to bring in theory or a guiding framework in terms of what it is you hope to understand that is needed for community change AND aligns with the priorities of communities. I encourage you to view this as a broader approach to the community needs assessment as that will influence the impact you can make with it! 

One example is seen in the Gen County Community Needs Assessment Survey: https://gfhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/hc726-CHNA-Report-2022_web.pdf. This community needs assessment applied the SDOH framework to help guide the design of questions, they also brought in community representatives to help with the instruments and data collection. Overall, your questions will depend on several factors and there isn't a template you can just copy and implement across all communities because every community is different. These assessments typically work better when you tailor them in collaboration with community members. 

You can review other examples on this page: /en/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/examples

Another idea to consider is having community member representatives help you shape the questions so that the design is culturally responsive and inclusive of the community's context. Is there a partner group you could possibly pilot questions with or elicit additional questions from? Perhaps conducting a quick scan of what kind of needs assessment the community has already done might also be helpful so that you dont ask the same questions (unless they are dated) and you can identify more relevant questions to understanding current priorities.

I also prioritize assets and strongly recommend this to other practitioners. As you build the needs assessment, you can build in questions that explore assets, expanding on needs, while also understanding the strengths that communities rely on and utilize as support resources. This question could be as simple as an open-ended item that allows folks to respond to: "What are some of the strengths you see in your community."

Hope that this helps and best of luck in your approach to the needs assessment. Feel free to post any additional questions as you learn more about the community's experiences.