Needs Assessment

NA TIG Week: Ingrid Guerra-Lopez on Design-Oriented Needs Assessment: Transitioning from Problem Definition to Solution Design

I’m Ingrid Guerra-Lopez, Professor at Wayne State University and CEO of the Institute for Needs Assessment & Evaluation, and I want to help you through the transition from problem identification to solution design. Needs assessment give us an excellent process to identify the critical gaps in results (what), analyze contributing root causes or factors (why), …

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NA TIG Week: Hsin-Ling (Sonya) Hung on Key Ingredients for a Simple Needs Assessment Recipe

I’m Hsin-Ling (Sonya) Hung, Program Co-chair for the Needs Assessment (NA) TIG. Because of my involvement in the TIG, I have reviewed annual conference proposals since 2008. Over the years I found that some proposals only had a title associated with needs or needs assessment, but these are were not needs assessments. Since needs assessments …

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NA TIG Week: Lisle Hites on Scenario Based Needs Assessment to Assess Community Needs for Daycare Center Emergencies

Welcome to Needs Assessment TIG week on AEA 365! I’m Lisle Hites, Chair of the Needs Assessment TIG, Associate Professor in Health Care Organization and Policy and Director of the Evaluation and Assessment Unit (EAU) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health. We hope you enjoy this week’s TIG contributions …

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GEDI Week: Natalia Woolley on Culturally Responsive Data Collection Methods for Community Needs Assessments

My name is Natalia Woolley. I am a GEDI scholar from the 2014-15 cohort, and a graduate student in the Community Health Sciences department at UCLA. As part of the GEDI program, I interned at Kaiser Permanente (KP), in the Community Benefit Department’s evaluation unit. At KP, I provided support for the Community Health Needs …

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NA TIG Week: Ryan Watkins Words Matter: As is the case with needs

I am Ryan Watkins from George Washington University. Needs have been described and defined in many different ways of the years (see the December issue of New Directions in Evaluation for elaboration). One consequence of this often perplexing medley of definitions is that the word need has lost much of its meaning. Here I will …

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NA TIG Week: Lisle Hites Using GIS in Your Needs Assessment

I’m Lisle Hites, Chair of the Needs Assessment TIG and Director of the Evaluation and Assessment Unit (EAU) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Today’s posting is about the use of data visualization to enhance your needs assessment. Recently, my team worked with a state agency to help them identify potential sites for …

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NA TIG Week: Maurya West Meiers on Facilitation Tips When Working With Groups

I’m Maurya West Meiers, Senior Evaluation Officer at the World Bank and coauthor of A Guide to Assessing Needs: Essential Tools for Collecting Information, Making Decisions, and Achieving Development Results. I often work with groups in carrying out needs assessments, collecting data, training, facilitating retreats, etc.  So I’m always looking for facilitation tips and resources.  Today I’m …

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NA TIG Week: Sue Hamann on How to Improve a Needs Assessment Proposal

Hello, my name is Sue Hamann, and I work at the National Institutes of Health. One part of my job is to solicit and review proposals from evaluation contractors for various types of evaluation projects, including needs assessment and program planning. Today I will share some tips about improving your proposed needs assessment. Hot Tips: …

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NA TIG Week: Ryan Watkins on Research Paradigms for Needs Assessment (or Evaluation)

Ever thought about doing research on needs assessment (or evaluation for that matter)? My name is Ryan Watkins and what follows is a short description of a basic framework that can help you consider the types of research that could be useful. Based on Briggs (1982) and Driscoll (1995), the following research paradigms can offer …

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NA TIG Week: James W. Altschuld The 10 Commandments of Needs Assessors

I’m James W. Altschuld. When Ryan Watkins asked me to write a NA entry for this year’s aea365 sponsored week, he playfully dubbed me the ‘Patron Saint’ of Needs Assessment. While his perception is not accurate, allow me in that spirit to offer some commandments for Needs Assessors. Thou: art a facilitator of a process …

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