Prioritizing Needs
You have engaged a diverse group of stakeholders in the city in the needs assessment process. Now the results need to be coded, analyzed, and prioritized.
Analyzing Surveys
It is helpful to number each survey prior to entering its data into a database or spreadsheet. Surveys that are completed online should be automatically numbered.
For closed-ended, multiple choice, and/or Likert scale questions, it should be relatively easy to analyze the data. If the responses are entered into a database or spreadsheet, they can be easily manipulated to establish numbers and percentages of various groups with particular views as well as how strongly people feel or think about particular issues.
For open-ended questions, you need to create a coding system, in which words or phrases with similar meaning or intent are categorized into a single group. Coding data from open-ended questions can be time-consuming, but will often provide nuances that are otherwise missing from closed-ended responses. Once the coding system is established and data is entered into a database or spreadsheet, the results may be sorted to determine the thoughts and feelings of respondents.
Analyzing Focus Group and Meeting Results
For large meetings, please use surveys that may be easily analyzed, then save time for discussion to enhance the information on the surveys. For focus groups--which are usually much smaller--at least one person should record the information. They should make note of majority viewpoints and whether views come from an overwhelming, significant, or slight majority. Dissenting views and the extent of the dissent should also be recorded. Quotes that seem to demonstrate majority or deeply felt views should be recorded also. After the focus group has met, the notes should be analyzed as soon as possible and put together in a report about the results. Focus group reports may then be looked at collectively and used to enhance the data collected through surveys.
Assessment Results
- What does your assessment tell you?
- Do the needs identified through this process match what other research or data has identified as critical needs in the city?
- Did the stakeholders who are most affected by particular issues provide any new insights or suggestions?
Organize and synthesize the results to create or revise priorities. Keep in mind that it may not be initially apparent how service and volunteering may help to address or alleviate a particular city problem that has been identified as a priority need.
However, the ability for volunteers to affect change on an issue should be a decisive factor in selecting priorities under this initiative. Citizens may be very concerned about the large numbers of foreclosures in a particular part of the city, an issue that does not immediately appear to lend itself to a volunteer effort. However, during the asset mapping phase when stakeholders identify resources to address problems, the role of service and volunteering may become more apparent. Financial advisors could volunteer to provide pre-mortgage counseling. In addition, citizens could distribute information about what to look for in a mortgage and where to seek help before a foreclosure. They could also create and manage a service of available rental housing, or provide moving assistance to people who need to relocate.
Consider how many priorities the city and its partners can tackle at one time. Prepare a report detailing the results of the assessment and the priorities that were identified. Be careful not to list more priorities than the partners involved with the initiative have the capacity to tackle, while still letting citizens know about other important issues that the community needs to address in the near future.
