This essay focuses on BASW Program Learning Outcome .The behaviors that demonstrate this learning outcome include: Social workers understand that they:

BASW Program Learning Outcome

This assignment measures BASW Program Learning Outcome (PLO) 9 – Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations and Communities  The behaviors that demonstrate this learning outcome include: Social workers understand that they: • Select and use appropriate methods for evaluation outcomes;  • Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment, person-in-environment and other multidisciplinary frameworks in the evaluation of outcomes;

• Critically analyze, monitor and evaluate intervention and program processes and outcomes and  • Apply evaluation findings to improve practice effectiveness as the micro, mezzo and macro levels.  Students are expected to demonstrate these behaviors/actions in completing a community assessment based the following vignette assignment.  Please use headings for each section answered Assignment & Instructions located in the uploaded files.

Community assessment is the process of identifying the strengths

, assets, needs and challenges of a specified community. Assets refer to the skills, talents and abilities of individuals as well as the resources that local institutions contribute to the community. Local institutions may include political, religious, educational, recreational and youth organizations; community, civic and service groups; local businesses; nonprofit organizations and volunteer groups.

A community assessment involves (1) an evaluation of the current situation in a community, (2) a judgment of what the preferred or desire  situation in that community would be, and (3) a comparison of the actual and desire situation for the purpose of prioritizing concerns. A community assessment is usually performed early in the development of a coalition to better understand the community and decide how the coalition might best address its concerns (Butterfoss, 2007).

Community assessment is sometimes refer to as needs assessment, but there is an important distinction between the two. In a needs assessment, the focus is limit to discrepancies between what is and what should be in a given community. This type of assessment forces a community to focus on its deficiencies and ignore what it is doing well (Kretzmann and McKnight, 1993). In contrast, a community assessment seeks to empower community members by allowing them to take ownership in affecting the health of their community instead of providing them with a prescription of what their community needs.

Key Principles of Community Assessment

• Residents are the best experts on the community in which they live.
• All residents have skills, abilities and talents that they can contribute to the community.
• A strong community is built upon the talents and resources of its members.

The Purpose of a Community Assessment

A community assessment can be useful in mobilizing a community to action as it identifies and matches the skills of community members with the resources of organizations. A community assessment can also be used to do the following:

• Create a coalition action plan
• Establish objectives for a program or intervention
• Select the strategies to use in a program or intervention
• Establish a baseline for evaluating progress in the community
• Identify new ideas, strategies, partners and resources that can be use in working toward a common goal

Conducting a Community Assessment

The process of conducting a community assessment can be divide into three phases: pre-assessment, assessment and post-assessment. Questions to consider during the pre-assessment phase include the following:

• Firstly, What is going to be assess?

Secondly, What is already ?

• Thirdly, What data will need to be collect ?
• Further, How and by whom will data be collect?
• Lastly, How and by whom will data be analyze?

A community assessment begins with the community. During the pre-assessment phase, the coalition can also identify community partners, ask them to self-assess their resources and ask them to identify the health issues that they believe are most important to address (Butterfoss, 2007).