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
3 Primary and Secondary Research

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

It includes information on:

Primary research is information collected first-hand. It is the result of surveys, interviews, focus groups, ethnographies, and mapping conducted within a particular community. Secondary research is work that was originally completed by another group of individuals. It is often faster and more cost effective to analyze existing data about a focus population or health concern than to gather and evaluate new data. Keep in mind that secondary data can provide valuable insights for your current project.

TYPES OF SECONDARY DATA

Literature reviews
Other organizations’ assessments
Services and programs in the area
Currently funded programs
Community Planning Group activities
Local sexually transmitted infections (STIs) rate
Local teen pregnancy rates
Substance abuse data for youth
Incarceration rates
Domestic violence
Drug arrests

All needs assessments should attempt to include relevant secondary data sources. You can begin by accessing the resources listed in Module 3. However, for many Native communities, there will be scant secondary data available and primary data collection will be necessary. Primary data provides a context for the information collected specifically for the Community Services Assessment.

A Note about Local Planning Bodies

In many states there is a planning body—the local HIV/AIDS Community Planning Group (CPG)— charged with the task of completing a needs assessment for its respective state/region for HIV/AIDS Prevention. You should be able to obtain a copy of the CPG’s most recent plan through the state health department. (For an example, see the Comprehensive HIV Prevention Plan for 2005-2008, produced by the Washington State HIV Prevention Planning Group.) It will provide background information, the state epidemiology for HIV/AIDS, and evidence-based interventions recommended for the various at-risk populations. If there is no information about the Native populations in your state, then you could get more involved—learn about the CPG, attend meetings, and become a member if you can. Visit Inter Tribal Council of Arizona as they can provide you with connections to a state or local CPG.

If your state has Title I Ryan White funds, then there should be a similar planning council for HIV/AIDS services. Contact the council and ask for relevant statistics and reports. To find contact information for the HIV/AIDS Program Directors in your state, visit the Program Directory offered by the National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD).

Exercise: Primary and Secondary Research

  • What does the published literature say about your topic? (To start, visit CDC’s HIV/AIDS Research page.)
  • What does the epidemiological data say?
  • What services and programs are available locally to serve your focus community/group/area and meet its needs?
  • How accessible are these services? Think about this question in terms of the following issues: location, accessibility by public transportation, hours of operation, linguistic capacity, availability of childcare, and limits on duration of services available.
  • What other needs assessments have been done in your community? What specific populations did they focus on?
  • What did these needs assessments tell you?
  • Which questions still remain unanswered?
  • How can you build on pre-existing information?

Click here for a look at Our Town’s use of Primary and Secondary data for their CSA needs.