Community Needs Analysis

This course is a guide for Community Centres, Neighbourhood Houses and community-based organisations to utilise the Community Needs Analysis (CNA) toolkit. The information obtained through a CNA is valuable in assisting Centres to highlight strengths of the community as well as identifying any under-represented groups or unmet needs. The insight that a CNA can provide is vital for Community Centres and Neighbourhood Houses in planning future programs, activities and requesting further funding.

This is the first course in the Community Development in Practice package.

While CNA’s can be complex and burdensome, they don’t have to be! Community Centres SA (CCSA) has developed this simple tool with funding from the Department of Humans Services, Government of South Australia, and in partnership with participating Community Centres, Local Councils and Flinders University. While the tool is basic, it is also rigorous in its approach and could be adopted by other human service organisations seeking to enhance their understanding of community needs.

This is a self-paced course. You can start and stop as you like – the system will remember your progress.

At the end of each lesson, you will be asked to complete a short quiz to demonstrate your knowledge. You must receive a score of 80% or more in all three quizzes to receive your certificate. You can reattempt the quizzes as many times necessary to receive this score.

Extend Your Learning

‘Extend Your Learning’ and ‘Further Resources’ are optional. They have been provided for select topics to expand your knowledge if you have an interest in that topic. There will not be questions in the quiz regarding these resources.

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A Moment of Reflection...

Some topics in this course will ask you to consider some questions and share your answers with fellow learners. You can share your answers by leaving a comment in the section at the bottom of the relevant page.

To practice, add a comment at the bottom of this page with your first name and reason for learning about Community Need Analyses. Read through some of the other comments to see who else has accessed the course.

If you are unfamiliar with CNA or CCSA’s CNA toolkit, you may wish to complete this course from start to finish.

To preview the course, click the "Quantitative Data Collection" button below.

Put it into Practice

Throughout the course you will come across content in boxes like this. They are optional exercises to help you consolidate your learning. Example data and other templates will be provided for you to work with.

Select a step or module below to get started

Introduction: Community Needs Analyses

Step 1: Who uses the centre?

Step 2: Who lives in the community?

Step 3: Who are the under-represented groups?

Step 4: Conduct local engagement to understand community need

Step 5: Document feedback from local engagement

Step 6: Bring the results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses together

Step 7: Presenting the Information