Student Involvement in Community Needs Assessment

Abstract

Although leadership is recognized as a developmental process, few communities plan to build the foundation for their young people to develop into involved citizens and leaders. Young adults need to increase their understanding of and commitment to their community, and to become empowered to work, toward solving local problems. Our approach was to link community service learning in the schools with community development. Specifically, high school students and teachers were recruited to assist with conducting a community needs assessment survey. We found that the students were able to help conduct a sophisticated needs assessment and able to do it right. The evidence also supports the view that students benefited from their involvement in the project. Most students learned more about their community and about the needs assessment process. Some students also indicated that they were interested in continuing their involvement in community affairs, but the increase in feelings of empowerment among the students appeared to be limited. Finally, the data from the needs assessment survey were used by community leaders for making decisions.