My first idea was to say I did not have any experience with assessing needs but that would not be true. We might not have called it that, but we did it. I worked for a Chief who had us look at the issues in the squadron and find out what needed to be fixed in order to pass an inspection. The biggest part of the assessment working was the fact that after issues were identified we had leadership behind us in order to hold people accountable to fix things.
One of the most important things I would think for needs assessment is talking to the right people. If you just get the opinion of one group of people or just one or two people, you will not get a true picture. I think it should involved lots of different people who are inspired to help change things and willing to help see it to fruition. There are lots of people that will complain about issues, but then do not want to help with the solution. Finding the right people is a huge part of being successful.

Way2Go created a Transportation Equity Needs Assessment for our community, which was already in progress and finishing up when I started with CCE Tompkins.
(You can read about TENA here: https://ccetompkins.org/community/way2go/transportation-equity-needs-assessment)
It's been an interesting experience joining my team at a time when we're still processing and assessing the data, as opposed to coming in while the survey was being distributed, or after the results have already been published.
While I believe the data will be incredibly valuable in the medium and long-term, it might not actually be available for me to use in the short-term for my Travel Training program.
Regardless, I look forward to addressing issues as best I can, especially with the reminder that data is a significant - but not all-encompassing - source of information and perspective.

I subscribe to the "three-legged stool" strategy for assessing needs - using 3 methods to help foolproof my own personal assessment. My favorite start is to think about a few open ended Qs that help me better understand a situation - and then work with a team (committee or colleagues) to go off and talk to people - ask the predetermined Qs and document responses. Then the committee or colleagues all comes back together and looks at (if we have data) what we heard. This strategy gets me out of my "solutionist" brain...and helps me look at the big picture. It also provides a broader picture that gives me info to be able to write or talk about the problem. Recently I did this with a park committee that is working in my Village. While we thought we knew the problem and solutions -- having discussions and collecting data helped the village trustees to be able to trust us more, and we had data that allowed for us to draft a grant proposal that people in the community were more ready to support. After all - they were their ideas...not just the ideas of a small group of people :).

I am just beginning my experience in assessing needs within the community or from raw data, quantitative data. In the past, assessing needs may have had a different title or was done in a different way in my past jobs. What I relate assessing needs to is when I was a soccer coach at the high school level, and as a manager at an equine facility. As a coach, the only data I had was the past season game records which told the final scores only, and did not include shots on goal, corner kicks, free kicks etc. I also had my roster which told me how many players I would have for the season. After meeting the players and having a few preseason practices, I would assess or evaluate what areas both the individuals were lacking and the team as a whole. As a manager, again I wasn’t recording a lot of data, but observing the farm dynamics and listening to the owners, staff and clients to make the best decisions and prioritizing changes that needed to be made. Now, I would like to do a deeper dive into the data and records of my position to see what programs where offered the most and which programs seemed to be making the most impact from exit surveys. In addition, I also think it is important to still use our senses to assess what needs should be met. For example, listening to coworkers, community members, teachers, and observing the practices and patterns of our community’s. In my field, it seems as though many kids and community members know what composting is, but they do not know how to do it, or understand the science behind it, or have not taken the steps to initiate a composting practice.

I think I definitely have more experience with assessing interests, though I think sometimes interests are related to needs. For example, someone might say that they want to sit down for a few minutes after work, and that may be indicative of the need for a break after a stressful day. I have created many interest surveys over the past several years - targeted towards particular audiences and which help me gather input/insights. I am thinking back to a survey I created for teachers in Oregon when I was serving with AmeriCorps there. I was trying to get a sense of both their need and interest in Science, STEM, and environmentally-related professional development, and also figure out when might work best to hold such a session. During college I created after-school programs, some of which were more focused on needs, some more on interests; one need that I knew existed in Geneva, based on my lived experience growing up there along with numerical data, was that graduation rates were exceptionally low. I did some research to see what age group to target, and based on the research at the time it seemed like middle school/before the youths reach high school, would be ideal, so I targeted that age range.

Thinking about my current project, and the idea of special interest clubs, I am seeing that there are opportunities to address both needs and interests, though the latter feels easier to determine; a youth can say "I like cats - it would be cool to have a cat club", but might struggle to advocate for a club or special supports to help them feel more included. I want to find demographic data for Wayne County and compare it to our enrollment data to determine which audiences we are not reaching. I have a sense that there is a need for programming (clubs and/or other activities) focused on/centralizing youths who speak Spanish and/or are part of migrant families, as well as youths with disabilities/various ability levels... but I don't know what the numbers are so I can't "prove" it. Researching a bit will provide me with the evidence to back up what I've been noticing.

The first thing I thought about in assessing needs was of the needs assessment completed as part of a grant proposal. I used to do this in a former job. At that time the non-profit was in the process of restructuring and bringing on a new board of directors and designing a slightly altered purpose and mission. And at that time, the needs assessment for proposals was more of a how can we adapt out organization to access this funding source instead of how can our organization meet the needs to the community through this proposal. It was kind of a slight distinction, but an important one because the result was projects that weren't always in line with the objectives of the organization. It makes me think about how important it is to make sure the needs assessment part of a project aligns with the goals of the organization. Comparing this with another non-profit we worked with closely, which had very well-defined goals, I remember thinking that their programs were set up and funded to meet the specific goals of the organization, And the needs assessment that they did before taking on a new program was well thought out. They reached out to their volunteer network, the state, and other partners, making sure everything was in place. They also had a really involved board of director and core partners to help guide the organization. This process definitely helped the organization and its program to succeed,

That is an interesting question. One thought is when our elementary school parents were complaining about the need for air conditioning in the schools. We were going through a heat wave and parents assumed that it was too hard to learn in the classrooms.
Parents went to administration and complained, and they said that they don't hear the same complaints. They stated there was no evidence to show that it was actually too hot in the classrooms for teaching to occur. They offered thoughts including having windows and fans, and a circulation system in the schools.
The parents did not accept this as an answer so started to ask some of the students about the heat in the classroom. Then started to ask the teachers. All said it could be pretty warm in the rooms, but they were making it work.
It was decided to look at actual data- so thermometers were purchased for all the classrooms to measure the temperature in the classrooms at different points during the day.
In addition, we spoke to the nurse to discuss any input.
Then, an open forum was created for educators and other school professionals to freely speak about the situation.
After all of this, it was determined that there was some detriment to the heat, to all those in unairconditioned spaces in the school. The average temperature in some classrooms was over 85 degrees in some cases.
After hearing all of the info, we were able to take the information and move it into a bond for the district. By showing actual information to back a thought, it allowed better buy into the program.
So althouth this is not an actual "program" it was a step in the success.

Title: Enhancing Sustainability through Local Plastic Recycling and 3D Printing

Overview:
The focus of this needs assessment is to address the pressing issue of single-use plastic waste, with a specific emphasis on discarded water bottles. While the public discourse often centers around the reduction of plastic straws, this assessment shifts its attention to the substantial volume of waste generated by water bottles. Recognizing the innovative efforts of hobbyists who repurpose these bottles into plastic filament for 3D printing, the objective is to explore the feasibility of scaling up this initiative into a professional, community-based service.

Key Points:

Current Issue: The prevailing problem in the community is the excessive use and disposal of single-use plastic water bottles. This contributes significantly to environmental pollution and waste accumulation.

Hobbyist Initiative: Hobbyists have demonstrated the potential to transform discarded water bottles into valuable plastic filament for 3D printing. This has sparked the idea of implementing a professional and scalable version of this process.

Local Resource Utilization: The local library already provides 3D printing services to the community. The proposal is to establish a desktop extruder capable of processing PET plastics extracted from discarded items. This resource would be readily accessible to the public, enabling them to witness the recycling process and actively participate in recycling efforts.

Educational Component: By establishing this extruder and promoting its use, the project aims to educate the community about recycling practices and sustainability. It serves as a tangible example of how recycling can be a localized and engaging process, dispelling the notion of 'out of sight, out of mind.'

Collaboration with the Library: Early discussions have been initiated to engage the local library in this endeavor. The intent is to explore opportunities for collaboration, potentially leveraging their grant structures and existing infrastructure for the benefit of the community.

Project Stage: It is essential to note that this initiative is currently in the early pre-alpha stage. A meeting is scheduled with the local library to gather additional information, gauge their interest, and potentially establish a framework for collaboration.

In summary, this needs assessment seeks to address the problem of single-use plastic waste by examining the viability of scaling up a hobbyist-led initiative into a professional, community-based service. The collaboration with the local library holds promise in furthering the goals of sustainability and community engagement.

My experience in assessing needs comes from experience in the private sector before my time with Cornell. The previous hatchery that I worked at attempted to develop an educational program that would bring the general public into growing shellfish (kind of like our SPAT program). Everything was thrown together without assessing whether the need was there, who the target audience was as well as lack of assessment after the program ended. No data was taken at all. It was an eye-opening experience to show how to not go about implementing a program. I think the program would have been more successful if a step back was taken to better organize and assess whether or not the program made sense to the audience it was trying to engage. I think when designing a program, you need to take so many different variables into consideration in the planning process before implementation. Now at Cornell being able to be a part of and observe successful programs planning is key and learning from past mistakes only helps you assess success or failure.

Coming from a background of aquaculture and aquaculture research prior to joining CCE, a lot of my work was listening to customer feedback regarding the quality of our product (aquaculture oyster production) as well as visiting aquaculture farms and going to conferences and listening to the needs from the people in the industry (aquaculture research). In regards to oyster quality feedback; if a customer emailed or called with a complaint about shell size or shell thickness, we would use this feedback to modify our production. Conversely, if a customer provided positive feedback, we would then use that information as well. Taking the bad with the good was essential to make sure the reputation of the product was meeting the needs of the customer base, for the customer dictated how many oyster we sold, which dictated if we got paid or not. On a more community based level, when communicating with folks in the aquaculture industry, a lot of good research ideas came to fruition from hearing about problems farmers were facing. For example, a common need we often heard was that farmers wanted diversify their crops so they were not just growing oysters. Growing a single crop leaves farmers financially vulnerable if a parasite or disease is introduced to their crop. The need for diversification of crops by farmers led to a lot of research investigating the culturing of bay scallops in different environments (subtidal, intertidal, open ocean, etc.) to address so our research could be applied to a variety of farmers.

At CCE, I am largely responsible for the research, fieldwork, and communication regarding Peconic bay scallop restoration. With the mass die-offs of commercially harvestable Peconic bay scallops that have been occuring since 2019, I recieve a lot of direct communication from baymen. The primary need of the baymen is for my team to work to identify methods to restore Peconic bay scallop populations. Communicating the science behind the die-offs as well the research and results we currently have to create a more resiliant Peconic bay scallop population to the baymen is very important. I have found that most of the baymen are very responsive to hearing about our research and really want to support our research in anyway they can. Understanding the needs of the baymen, and giving them a space to discuss their troubles and concerns is very important. Listening to the baymen and responding to their emails or phone calls informs them that my team cares about them and that the research we are doing is to help them. Keeping them informed on the research aspects also helps make them feel involved and part of the solution. Listening and communicating with the baymen has helped the program succeed becuase they are vocal about their support of the program, whether it be communicating with local government officials or writting Letters of Support from proposals.

Lastly, on a more microscale level, I think another aspect of assessing needs would be with my team. I like to sit down with my team as often as I can and discuss ideas, successes, problems, and needs. This is very important when managing budgets, and helps reduce suprise issues. It also empowers my team, for it gives them a say in what happens with the program and makes them feel comfortable discussing issues that need to be addressed. I have been witness to times when issues and needs that were originally small did not get communicated in a timely manner, and the issue grew larger and the person who had the issue grew less willing to communicate because they waited until it was such a large problem that became worried about discussing because they thought they would be reprimanded. When the person finally told their supervisor about the issue, it was taken well by the supervisor, but did set the team back because the problem was bigger and we had less time to fix the issue. I guess the morale of this story is that communication is fundamental and it is important for employees and surpervisors alike to feel commfortable assessing and discussing needs and issues as soon as possible.

I have probably only been involved in 1-2 well thought out needs assessments. The one that comes to mind was in the hospital setting where we needed to consider purchasing /implementing computerized diet office system to be integrated with hospital wide system. I surveyed our end users, front line staff, Physicians, etc. Conducted site visits to see the various system options in use and determine how user friendly, pros/cons with each, implementation timelines, learning curb, down time, etc. Met with various vendors to learn about their products and the service and support they would guarantee. Evaluated costs and budgets. And conducted internal surveys. Ultimately once decision was voted upon and selected. It was very important to keep all stakeholders informed of timeline and and hiccups along the way. Held internal celebrations along the way for encouragement for staff involved in detailed data inputs. Finally celebrated go live and stayed visible to handle unexpected problems thereafter.

I am trying to think of a time when I had the luxury to have time to do the whole program development process. I can point at a lot of successes but we more accurately stumbled into them. We created and they came.

I have not had any prior exposure for using a formal program model. Although I have used fishbone diagrams to plan out steps involved, who my supporters would be, form committee/team, brainstorm and plan together, etc. For this project I would use a Target Model so I can clearly aim for my target.

My experience with assessing needs comes primarily with evaluating existing programs or surveying the community on programs they would like to have available. This was done with paper and digital surveys as well as in person and digital focus groups. My concern with that is that we might be missing out on certain communities that don't have access to technology or transportation.