How to use the Community Needs Assessment Planner.
A community needs assessment should include people affected by the issue and more than one source of evidence. Explain sampling limits and avoid presenting a convenient survey as representative of the whole community.
Make the workflow fit your task.
Define the community and question, then combine existing evidence with outreach to people affected, including those absent from current services. Use accessible collection methods and document who was reached. Report sampling limits and conflicting perspectives rather than claiming universal agreement.
- What you provide
- Community context and research goal.
- What you get
- Evidence collection plan and participatory questions.
See the input and the result.
Illustrative input and output · a teaching example, not a live WebAct run
Example input
Assess barriers to evening classes. Current evidence comes only from attendees. Potential topics: timing, transport and care responsibilities. No community-wide sample exists.
Completed example
Assessment plan: 1. Summarize current attendee feedback and label its scope. 2. Invite non-attendees through additional community channels. 3. Offer a short survey and an accessible interview option about timing, transport and care responsibilities. 4. Compare attendee and non-attendee perspectives without assuming either represents everyone. 5. Report recruitment methods, response counts and groups not reached. No population prevalence estimate is justified by the current evidence.
Load this input into the prompt, then copy it to WebAct to try the task. Your result may differ from the illustration.
Decisions and troubleshooting.
Can current service users represent everyone who might need the service?
They may miss barriers faced by non-users. Seek additional perspectives and state who remains unrepresented.
Why does a needs survey mainly confirm what the organization already believes?
Questions or recruitment may favor existing assumptions. Review neutral wording and include people outside the current network.
Try it with your own source.
Replace the example with your material in the task prompt. Keep the requirements you need, then copy the task into WebAct.
Customize and copy the task ↑