Community Assessment
The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region (NN/LM PNR) is offering our second RML Rendezvous Medical Library Association Continuing Education (MLA CE) course, Community Assessment. Susan Barnes, Assistant Director of the Outreach Evaluation Resource Center (OERC) and Maryanne Blake, Outreach/Evaluation Coordinator at NN/LM PNR, will teach the course.
Community Assessment will help librarians and others involved in health information outreach to design quality programs and garner support for those programs by taking the right first step: collecting community and needs assessment information about the groups of people who will be involved. By the end of the course, participants should know how to collect data that will create a picture of their target community, including its needs, assets, resources, and potential obstacles that may affect the success of health information outreach efforts. Participants will learn how to use existing data, such as US Census data, state data, and local resources in community assessment. They also will learn the type of information they should seek through interviews and surveys.
Learning objectives include
- Describe the goals of a community assessment
- Identify methods for gathering information from local participants and stakeholders to better plan a project
- Collect community assessment data for proposal writing
Dates and Time, Recordings
The Community Assessment course consists of three one-hour RML Rendezvous sessions and assignments to complete on your own time. Recordings will be posted next to the session dates below soon after their completion. The sessions will be webcast at 1:00 PM Pacific Time (12:00 PM Alaska Time and 2:00 PM Mountain Time) and held every Wednesday on the following dates:
- January 14, 2009 - The first session (Session recording)
- January 21, 2009 - The second session
- January 28, 2009 - The third session
Planning
and Evaluating Health Information Outreach Projects
booklets
These booklets are designed to support this, and other,
evaluation workshops. They will be referred to during
this course. You do not need to print them out. If you
would like copies send a message to nnlm@u.washington.edu
and they will be mailed to you. During this course we
will refer to these specific sections of the
booklets:
Booklet 1: Getting Started with
Community-Based Outreach.
Worksheet 2, p. 16. 
Booklet 3: Collecting and Analyzing
Evaluation Data. Quantitative Methods,
Step One, pp. 5-9.
Booklet 3: Collecting and Analyzing
Evaluation Data. Qualitative Methods,
Step One, pp. 21-22.
| (Agenda
in printable pdf version) |
Session 1. Collecting Information 
-
Wednesday, January 14, 1:00 - 2:00 PM PST
- Why do community assessment?
- Inventory
what you already know - Handout 1.
- Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce
- Public data sources - Existing Data
Sources - Handout 2.
- Yakima County, WA - Profile
- Handout 3.
Session 1. Homework assignment:
Exercise
1. 
Create a profile of your county without
leaving your desk
Screenshots of PHPartners: A
trail to lead you through PHPartner resources mentioned
in Session 1.
Session 2: Developing a Local Assessment Plan -
Wednesday, January 21, 1:00 - 2:00 PM PST
- Review
- County profile discussion
- Learn more about your community (see
Booklet 1: Getting Started with Community-Based
Outreach.
Worksheet 2, p. 16.)
- Collecting local information
- Diffusion of innovation
- Stages of change
- Community resources and assets
- Partnerships
- Yakima County -
Local data collection example - Handout 4.
Session 2. Homework assignment:
Exercise
2. Create your local community assessment
plan
Session 3. Next Steps for Community Assessment -
Wednesday, January 28, 1:00 - 2:00 PM PST
- Review
- Local assessment discussion
- Data
collection methods - Handout 5.
(see also Booklet 3: Collecting and Analyzing
Evaluation Data. Qualitative Methods,
Step One, pp. 21-22
and
Booklet 3: Collecting and Analyzing Evaluation Data. Quantitative Methods, Step One, pp. 5-9.
) - Funding for community assessment from the RML
(see
http://nnlm.gov/pnr/funding/Assessment_and_Planning_Award.html
and
http://nnlm.gov/pnr/funding/Assessment_and_Planning_Application.html ) - Your next steps
Please complete our Wrap-Up quiz. Thank you!
Registration
Please register for Community Assessment via the registration link at http://tinyurl.com/RendezvousReg The class is limited to twenty-five (25) participants. Registration will automatically close when the limit has been reached, and information about how to request placement on a wait list will be provided at the registration link when this occurs.
How to Participate
During the session times connect to the following URL
and login as a Guest, using your full name: http://webmeeting.nih.gov/rendezvous
For more information on how to use Adobe Connect for the
RML Rendezvous go to http://nnlm.gov/pnr/training/RMLrendezvous.html
