Leveraging community needs assessments to bolster rural capacity
Abstract
The siloing of insights gleaned from community needs assessments (CNA) is detrimental to leading, planning, and developing rural communities. This can lead to duplicated efforts, lack of effective and data-informed action, and unmet needs. This project explores the possibilities for coordinated CNAs across Vermont’s public sector using a systematic literature review of best practices, the creation of a VT CNA catalogue, and qualitative analysis. Our findings emphasize the role of community-university relationships in applied research and evaluation, and their ability to contribute to rural capacity. We conclude with recommendations for the development of statewide CNA catalogs.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Christina Barsky
Status
Graduate
Student College
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Program/Major
Public Administration
Primary Research Category
Social Science
Leveraging community needs assessments to bolster rural capacity
The siloing of insights gleaned from community needs assessments (CNA) is detrimental to leading, planning, and developing rural communities. This can lead to duplicated efforts, lack of effective and data-informed action, and unmet needs. This project explores the possibilities for coordinated CNAs across Vermont’s public sector using a systematic literature review of best practices, the creation of a VT CNA catalogue, and qualitative analysis. Our findings emphasize the role of community-university relationships in applied research and evaluation, and their ability to contribute to rural capacity. We conclude with recommendations for the development of statewide CNA catalogs.
