Community Needs and Assets Assessment

Overall Goals

The assessment will strengthen the fit between our community development work at the Helen Brown Community Center (HBCC), education and employment programs at the Honickman Learning Center Comcast Technology Labs (HLCCTL), and healthcare services at the Stephen Klein Wellness Center (SKWC) and the community needs and strengths in the 19121 and 19132 ZIP codes.

Key Objectives

Obtain good data about and develop maps (where applicable) regarding community status, needs, assets related to:

• Physical and behavioral health
• Education, employment, and technology
• Community development
  • Community communications, engagement, and collaboration
  • Leadership development and capacity building
  • Environment
• Other topics considered important by the community

Supplement data from the census with data from tools such as surveys, interviews with leaders, community forums, and focus groups.

Compare our community data with city, state, regional, and national data.

Ensure that the diverse members of the community (age, racial/ethnic/cultural/gender identity/sexual orientation/veteran status and linguistic minoritized group) get to participate in the process.

Use trauma-informed methods while engaging our neighborhoods, which have experienced a lot of violence.

Engage at some level during the assessment process (surveys, interviews, and focus groups) with Project HOME staff and representatives from different sectors in the community: education (all levels), health, human services, neighborhood associations, local government, businesses, and churches.

Build trust, excitement about the process, and continued engagement by community members beyond the assessment process by forming ongoing feedback loops, building community members’ capacity, and developing leaders.
 
Develop a contact list of participants who were engaged in the assessment process.