Module 5: Conducting Community Service Assessments in Native Communities

Goal of Module 5:

To provide Community Services Assessment steps, tools, and resources for the development of an HIV/AIDS prevention intervention program.

This module contains the fundamentals for the systematic gathering of knowledge to better understand the needs and strengths in your community as they relate to HIV. The knowledge gathered will help to build a strengths-based and community-driven HIV prevention intervention program which responds to community needs. The model used is based on the Community Services Assessment (CSA). This module will take you through the steps of a CSA: needs assessment, resource inventory, and gap analysis.

Contents
8 Final Report

This module helps you create and conduct a CSA to aid in planning your HIV prevention intervention program.

It includes information on:

The assessment is only useful if its results are communicated and accessible to the community at large. It is important to synthesize the information in ways that the community can understand and use. The analysis should present, compare, and contrast information gathered from all areas of the assessment. The recommendations should provide direction for improving the health and wellbeing of the community.

COMPONENTS OF A FINAL REPORT

Executive Summary: a clear, concise synopsis which highlights the key points, findings, and recommendations of the final report

Introduction: background information that includes an explanation of why the assessment was conducted and basic demographic information about the population of focus

Goals of the Needs Assessment: a description of the priorities and primary questions of the needs assessment

Methodology: a description of how you collected the information (data)

Resource Inventory: an overview of the HIV prevention intervention and care activities/services available

Findings: a summary of the results from the needs assessment and the resource inventory, which includes the gap analysis: an overview of gaps (the unmet needs/underused services/overused services) between the needs assessment and the resource inventory

Conclusions and Recommendations: a summary of the results of the needs assessment, the resource inventory, and the gap analysis and based on these results the proposed most appropriate HIV prevention interventions.

Appendices: supplementary materials such as list of references, statistical tables, questionnaires, data collection instruments, etc.

The state of Iowa constructed an exemplary Native-specific Final Report on Health Disparity Issues, which can be viewed here.

CASE IN POINT:

The San Francisco HIV Health Services Planning Council conducted a 2005 Comprehensive Needs Assessment to identify the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS in the Counties of San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo. You can view the Final Report here.

The Michigan Department of Community Health and various collaborators conducted a 2006 HIV/AIDS Needs Assessment in seven geographic service areas in the state of Michigan (not including Detroit). You can access the Final Report here.