Identify a community that you know or belong to (e.g. a sports club, a church group, or perhaps one of the university clubs/societies). The community that you choose should be one that you can observe directly, and acquire information on without recourse to complex ethnographic methods. The purpose of this assignment is to undertake a professional needs assessment of your chosen community, and report the findings.
Step 1: Choose a community
Choose a community that is known to you, or one that is easily observable. Do NOT choose very large or scattered communities (such as the Indigenous People of Australia, the Christian Community, or the Cross Fit community) as this will affect your capacity to analyse them properly. Instead, pick a smaller group (such as an Indigenous association that you know of, a local Church community, or a local sporting club) that you can observe and come up with ideas for.
Step 2: Structure your report
Use this Assignment 2: Report template (attachment # 1) to assist with structuring your report.
Your needs assessment should include all of the following elements:
• Explain why the community interests you in a professional capacity.
• Explain why your chosen community is important, and what they offer both society and individuals.
• Describe the challenges faced by your chosen community and how they arose, supported by evidence (community mapping).
• Describe the goals of your chosen community based on your previous experience within that community, as well as conversations you might have had with community peers (see note on anonymising content below).
• Based on those challenges and the community's goals, assess what the community's needs might be, and explain how you would prioritise those needs.
• Identify and explain what skills you might need (as a member of that community) to maximise the success of achieving your chosen community's goals.