Community Collaborative
Highlighting Key Findings: Review of Existing Reports
Purposes
The key purposes for reviewing existing reports were to: 1) review
community needs assessment and state of the community reports done
elsewhere in the country; 2) review existing county level reports on
Washtenaw County; and 3) identify the types of information already
collected and the gaps in what we know. An annotated list of reports
and where they can be accessed is provided in the full review in
Appendix B.
Key Findings
Review of reports for other areas of the country and interviews with
four individuals with up to 20 years experience conducting this type
of study revealed that: 1) these types of reports are used in
many different ways and are considered highly useful; 2) other reports
focus either on indicators or community perceptions of needs
but not both, as does this report. Washtenaw Countys document is also
unique in that it presents a review of existing
reports.
FERAs review of existing reports for Washtenaw County revealed that
while a wealth of data about the county exists, there is no central
location where one can find out who is collecting what information.
County level data is collected and reported at different points in time
for different years. Surveys are conducted for many different
purposes, but for the most part these are one-time data collections,
making it impossible to track trends over time. It is also
clear from our review that this county has a wealth of organizations (both
governmental and nonprofit), coalitions of organizations and
individuals, and community members that have already developed goals and
action plans for specific issue areas. Some efforts are
highly data-driven and draw from national research and effective practices
from various fields. Others focus on planning for the future.
Until now, there has been no comprehensive report for Washtenaw County
tracking indicators for multiple issue areas over
time. In the reports reviewed, some data is compared to state
and/or national data, other data is not. Different formats and
levels of data collection (e.g., county, city, and zip code level)
make it difficult to compare data and trends across issue areas. Some
reports identify important indicators but do not present any
data, while others are focused on specifying goals and the necessary
actions for achieving those goals.
Collecting, analyzing and reporting data requires time, effort and
resources. Efficiencies of scale can be achieved by consistently
collecting and reporting data for the same set of indicators
over time. The Washtenaw County Community Needs Assessment Report done
regularly (every two years) will build upon the extensive
work already being done by organizations and citizen groups by
consistently tracking trends over time and making existing
data easily accessible across issue areas. It will be an effort that
builds upon, brings together, and facilitates the work that
others are doing.
