In 2000, a survey of 148 local government officials in West Virginia sought information in eight areas of local issues, including community needs. This paper focuses on responses of about 11 categories of community needs and compares them to findings from a similar study conducted in 1996. The categories are governmental administration, financial…

The school years which cover grades known as 1 through 8, bring together all the children of the community more nearly than the junior or senior high school, or the college level. In fact, many people think of education as the kind of experience which they had in elementary school as they learned to read, write, figure, and speak. Any attempt to…

Described the development of the Communiversity, a school designed to fulfill the post-secondary needs of the community through a systematic process of identifying a school curriculum by finding the needs of the community and placing them in some hierarchy of priorities. (Author/RK)

Presents abstracts of a sample of ERIC documents dealing with community surveys. Covers a labor pool resource survey; community needs assessment surveys; a community needs follow-up; and surveys of community attitudes toward a college's delivery systems and programs and toward continuing education. (DMM)

Urges community services planners to focus programs on critical human needs, such as literacy, and to think of the community as an extended family, pooling its resources to meet its members' basic needs. Suggests that community services be viewed as a gift without immediate demand for reciprocity. (AYC)

Centerstone Community Mental Health, a private nonprofit agency based in Nashville, Tennessee, has responded to community needs by establishing new service programs to address them with whatever funding is available. Three described here are: an alternative school for students who cannot make it in public schools, school-based mental health…

A methodology for a client-centered assessment of human services needs in a community is described. While the procedures were developed for identifying service needs for substance abusers, with some modification, they can be used in a needs assessment for any social or health problem. (TJH)

A project integrated community service learning with community development by involving high school students in conducting a community survey with extension staff. Students learned about needs assessment and their community and were motivated to seek future involvement. The community used information gathered to develop a youth recreation program…

An assessment of four community-based agricultural initiatives in South Africa's former Black Homelands indicates that the success of such ventures in terms of community self-reliance, job creation, and poverty alleviation depends upon access to markets; community resources and infrastructure; and training and technical assistance provided by…

Teachers often invite guests from the community into their classrooms and organize field trips out into the community; however, this does not constitute community-based education (CBE). In CBE, students are engaged in the public domain and form partnerships to meet a community need. Premised on the notion that students are members of the…

In an effort to assess the level of community need and inform responsive resource allocation, Larimer County, Colorado developed a county-level index of well-being. This paper describes the development of that index including the selection of indicators and the methodology for scoring and presenting those indicators. We also present how the local…

This article presents a broad conceptual framework that suggests ways in which community demands, resources, and strategies influence relationships between work demands, resources, and family well-being. Within-domain and boundary-spanning community demands and resources are proposed to combine with work demands and resources in relation to…

Libraries transform communities by providing well-organized information resources and services. Conversely, communities can also transform libraries if librarians appreciate the rich diversity of the communities' information needs, acting as bridges between communities as well as enabling and facilitating community-building. The roles of…

A pilot study surveyed radio broadcasters in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas to further an understanding of their role as gatekeepers for public service announcements (PSA) to educate audiences about AIDS and bring about "safe" behavior. A total of 300 stations were in the sample. Respondents were asked to provide information…

This paper is addressed to those who want to start their own child care center, and provides guidelines for doing so. It identifies the first things to be considered--planning and conducting a community needs assessment to analyze the competition in the area and make the decision of opening a day care center, and gathering information from a…