Uncovering and Communicatingthe needs of your community

A community centre wants to know the needs of the

community in their catchment area and organize residents

to address these needs. Therefore they will want to know

what research already exists on this topic (literature

review). They want to find out who lives in their area

(demographic analysis), what needs are already being

addressed (asset mapping) and what are the gaps.

Presenting the Needsof a particular group

A group of residents is concerned about residents who are

homelessness. They want to influence the municipal

government to do more. Therefore to define the issue they

will want to know what research already exists on this

topic (literature review). They want to find the age and

sex of homelessness people in the area (demographic

analysis), what affordable and supported housing is

available (asset mapping), the barriers to access them

(survey), and what are the gaps.

Identifying why a program

A harm reduction program wants to find out why people

are not using the program (needs assessment). They

decide to do a survey and develop a questionnaire to

identify the reasons and be able make the changes that

are necessary to improve participation.

is not being used

Communicating an issue

A group of residents wants to have a qualitative evaluation

of the activities they organized in their neighbourhood.

They invite residents to identify what have been the most

significant changes and ask their consent to film the

session. They plan to broadcast the video in the

neighbourhood to increase participation and support

fundraising activities (videography).

or the impact of a program

Using the Community

A community organization wants to define the best

location for a senior’s program in their neighbourhood.

They would like to locate the program close to public

transportation and near where most seniors live. The

organization will also use the information to develop their

programming To achieve this, they want to use maps to

locate where seniors live, grouping them by age, sex,

whether they live alone and language spoken (GIS).

Information & Mapping System