2. A Community Assessment
Is a Description of a Community and its People.
• It is used to determine what services might be needed in a community
and how those services might best be provided.
• Conducted by health care professionals, government entities, social
service providers, educational institutions, businesses, and anyone
interested in providing a service to or for the community.
• A good article about community assessment:
"A Critical Skill for the Future: Community Assessment," by Susan S. Gerber
.
The appendix has suggested sources for finding different types of
community information.
3. Useful Resources for Assessing
a Community
• Observational
• Personal Interviews of Residents
• Windshield Surveys (personal observation of a community
from a drive by)
• Official Archives
• Census Data
• Chambers of Commerce
• Departments of Health
• Secondary Sources
• Books, Maps
• Periodical articles
• Web Sites (Note: the Web can contain observational, official,
and secondary sources.)
4. Community Assessment Guide
Examples
• Pace University (New York)– Community Asse
• Maryville University (St. Louis) – Community A
– In depth example of Granite City, Illinois
13. Infoshare Online Database
• New York State and NY City population statistics,
immigration trends, socio-economic indicators, birth and
death data, hospitalizations, local economic data, and
more. Search by Census Tract, zip code, village, town,
city, etc.
• Pace University’s great video about how to search the
Infoshare database:
http://videoserv.pace.edu/library/infoshare.wmv
• Find Infoshare in the A-Z list of databases on the Adelphi
Library home page
16. Get Additional Information From
Your Local Public Library
• Nassau County Public Libraries
http://www.nassaulibrary.org/list/nasslist.html
• Suffolk County Public Libraries
http://www.live-brary.com/about-live-brary
• New York Public Libraries (Manhattan, Bronx, Staten
Island)
http://www.nypl.org/locations
• Queens Public Libraries
http://www.queenslibrary.org/index.aspx?section_id=12&
• Brooklyn Public Libraries
http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/branch_libraries.jsp
17. State and County Government
Websites
• New York State: http://www.state.ny.us/
• New York City: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/
• NYS and NYC Counties:
http://www.nysegov.com/citguide.cfm?context=citguide&conte
• Counties, cities, towns, and villages in New York
State
http://www.nysegov.com/citguide.cfm?context=citguide&conte
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