Community Assessment Tools and Resources
Overview
There are a number of resources available to help groups assess their community. When starting out, it is useful to think about assets, the experiences of previous change efforts and the history and current patterns of race and racism. It is also useful to note that community change of any type almost never moves in a straight line. There are starts and stops, and a lot of trial and error. It is also useful to make sure that assessment accurately reflects multiple perspectives and truths about what is most important, and how to create change. An effective process will focus on reconciling and working with different perspectives in ways that allow each person to struggle, listen, and disagree respectfully. Also, it is important to delve into previous change processes to understand their impact of those processes as well as who was and wasn’t engaged. An effective assessment program will thus consider process, content and how data are interpreted and used. See Tip Sheets Assessing your Community, Part II, How Will We Know What Information We Should Collect?, and Creating and Implementing an Assessment Process, as well as the section on this website Making the Case for more insights and ideas. This section includes assessment process resources, tools to use and examples of community assessments.
Community
- Race Relations Progress Report -2008
- Equity and Empowerment Lens
- Choice, Place and Opportunity: An Equity Assesment of the Twin Cities Region
- Community Needs Assessment
Tools
- Mapping Community Capacity
- Operationalizing a Structural Racism Framework: A Guide for Community Level Research and Action
- Developing an Equity Impact Statement: A Tool for Policy Making
- Making Progress: A Tool and Resources for Leading Inclusive Communities
- Power to Our People: Participatory Research Kit: Creating Surveys
- The Social Audit Cookbook
- Making A Difference: An Advocacy Training For Community Change
- King County Equity Impact Review Tool
- Racial Equity Toolkit for Policies, Programs, and Budget
- Racial Equity Impact Assessment
- Race Equity Impact Assessment
- City of Madison Racial Equity & Social Justice Tool – Comprehensive Version
- Community Mapping — Building Power and Agency with Data
- City of Austin Equity Assessment Tool
Resources
- Building Knowledge About Community Change: Moving Beyond Evaluations
- Sundown Towns in the United States
- Power and Social Change
- Building knowledge from the practice of local communities
- Advancing Health Equity: "A Guide of Next Steps for Action"
- An Introduction to Racial Equity Assessment Tools
- Purpose, People, Place, Power, Process
