Critique of the 1995 Broward County Needs Assessment (June 1997)

As a follow-up to that effort, in late 1996, the CCB created a work group to “help establish a systematic process for updating the identification of human service needs in the county, identifying what should be done, who should participate, and how often it should be carried out.” The work group also was instructed to prepare a critique of the 1995 Needs Assessment. In support of these tasks, the work group sent a survey to health and human service organizations in Broward County and conducted focus group meetings with five groups: funders, policy makers, providers, grants writers and business representatives.

A total of 172 responses to the survey were received, representing a cross-section of organizations that includes the primary funders and service providers in Broward County. Respondents include 69 organizations that conduct some kind of a needs assessment themselves. More than half of these do so at least annually, and four out of five employ surveys as part of their data gathering techniques. Approximately one of every four organizations reported that they had easy access to the full 1995 Needs Assessment. Of those that did not, almost three out of four indicated that they did not know it existed.

The 1995 Needs Assessment was a critical step in the on-going effort of the community to move toward greater collaboration in human service planning. Key strengths and weaknesses of that effort identified in the Needs Assessment Survey and the focus group discussions are listed below, followed by recommendations for enhancement of the next community assessment.

In early 1994, The Coordinating Council of Broward set out to “clearly identify existing community service needs in Broward County and anticipate future needs, identify the extent to which those needs were being met, and create a formal assessment document that all member organizations would adopt as one of their principal planning tools.” The Broward County, Florida Needs Assessment: Compilation of Existing Data, Surveys, Cultural Assessments, Indicators & Sources (the 1995 Needs Assessment) was released in July, 1995.

As a follow-up to that effort, in late 1996, the CCB created a work group to “help establish a systematic process for updating the identification of human service needs in the county, identifying what should be done, who should participate, and how often it should be carried out.” The work group also was instructed to prepare a critique of the 1995 Needs Assessment. In support of these tasks, the work group sent a survey to health and human service organizations in Broward County and conducted focus group meetings with five groups: funders, policy makers, providers, grants writers and business representatives.

A total of 172 responses to the survey were received, representing a cross-section of organizations that includes the primary funders and service providers in Broward County. Respondents include 69 organizations that conduct some kind of a needs assessment themselves. More than half of these do so at least annually, and four out of five employ surveys as part of their data gathering techniques. Approximately one of every four organizations reported that they had easy access to the full 1995 Needs Assessment. Of those that did not, almost three out of four indicated that they did not know it existed.

The 1995 Needs Assessment was a critical step in the on-going effort of the community to move toward greater collaboration in human service planning. Key strengths and weaknesses of that effort identified in the Needs Assessment Survey and the focus group discussions are listed below, followed by recommendations for enhancement of the next community assessment.

• The consensus of the need for the shared information system currently being developed by the CCB emerged from the previous assessment effort.
• A number of current collaborative efforts were supported by the cross-agency discussions that took place.
• The majority of organizations that had access to the document judged it to have been very useful or moderately useful, especially for grant and proposal writing, program planning, and the identification of underserved clients and needs.

• It did not offer adequate opportunities for the community to provide input.
• It lacked a resource inventory identifying available services and funding allocations, which would enable the evaluation of gaps and overlaps.
• It did not include data for sub-county areas, neighborhoods and target populations and the data was not updated.
• Its format was not suitable for setting priorities and decision-making.
• Only one in four funder and provider organizations had access to the assessment.

• Obtain community input on priorities at each step of the process (with special outreach efforts for the special needs population and hidden populations).
• Focus on the creation of joint information systems using technology.
• Develop quality-of-life indicators and collect baseline data, then establish targets and measure progress toward desired outcomes.
• Develop sub-county indicators and/or area analyses to identify communities where more comprehensive service coordination is required.
• Inventory resources (current services, accessibility) in order to identify gaps and overlaps and improve the efficiency of the services provided.
• Identify community strengths in targeted areas in order to support strategies for coordinated service provision that recognize and build on those strengths.
• Set priorities; clearly identify resources currently being used to address priorities; and focus on outcomes the community needs to be addressing.
• Monitor implementation in order to provide feedback into the development of implementation strategies.
• The assessment should produce one or more Executive Summaries which are designed to support decision-making. There should be more use of graphics and charts, possibly including videos or slide shows.
• A hard copy document is needed by many users, but not an encyclopedia like the one produced by the first assessment.
• Most hard data which is gathered as part of the assessment should be made available on-line, and where appropriate in its full detail.
• Ensure the documents and other products of the assessment are accessible to all of the targeted users in the community.

For information about other activities of the SFRPC in cooperation with the CCB, see Human Service Issues and The Coordinating Council of Broward.  For additional information, please contact Richard F. Ogburn of Council staff.

This page and all contents prepared by the South Florida Regional Planning Council.