Coalition Building: Assessing Community Needs and Resources

Here, you'll find ready-to-use overheads summarizing the major points in this section. Highlight the following text, then copy and paste it into a word processing or PowerPoint document for your next presentation or training session.

Conducting Concerns Surveys

What is a concerns survey?

A survey in which citizens identify the most important issues facing their community.

Results can then be used to:

• help form strategies to deal with community problems

• maintain things that work

• rally the community around a cause

• build consensus
  

Why conduct a concerns survey?

• You should start off with people's concerns

• It involves community members in the decision-making process early on

• It's a useful source of information for initiatives, funders, and participants

• It's easy to do

• It helps set the work agenda

• It builds consensus

Who should you survey?

As many local people as possible!

How to prepare a concerns survey

1. Consider budget & resources

2. Put together a working group to design the survey

3. Invite selected decision makers to submit additional survey items

4. Prepare a 30-item survey with additional demographic info

For every selected issue ask:

• how important the issue is to citizens

• how satisfied citizens are with community efforts on the issue

Distributing a concerns survey

Direct mail is most common.

Other methods:

• Drop boxes

• Media distribution

• Convenience sampling

• Group administration

• Door-to-door canvassing

You may also want to consider using multiple methods of distribution

Collecting the surveys

1. Gather incoming surveys collected at participating sites

2. Review returned surveys

3. Secure a larger return, if necessary.

Analyzing & compiling the results

1. Average the importance & satisfaction for each item

2. Rank items according to the ones that have the highest percentages of importance

• Strengths: high ratings in both importance and satisfaction

• Problems: rated high in importance but low satisfaction

3. Write up a brief report summarizing strengths, problems, and overall approval rating

• Identify five to ten strengths and five to ten problems

4. Share the above information with your staff.

What next?

Conduct a public meeting

• Review main strengths & problems

• Lead separate discussions on each issue

• Afterwards, write a one-page narrative for each issue discussed

Prepare a concerns report

Should consist of:

• Executive memo

• Brief report

• Data table

• Discussion report

• Demographic data & other displays

• Suggestions on how to use the report in the planning process