Felt Needs Assessment

Community Practice Project: Needs Assessment Paper #2 Identifying ‘felt needs’ is a crucial step in the community assessment process. Burghardt (2014) explains how community members act as a barometer in defining an issue as being merely heartfelt, or a more motivating felt need. “The difference between a need and a felt need is the difference between a group of people bothered by conditions in the world and a group acting on the world to make it a better place for themselves and others” (p. 61). Finding a felt need that motivates the community enough to act is our primary goal as practitioners who assess communities. This fall I have been working closely with David Gourley Elementary and the surrounding community in Kearns. I have surveyed
There is a need for more community investment and involvement at the school, especially parental involvement. In surveying thirty David Gourley teachers, staff, and administrators (twenty-two participated and returned the surveys and/or were interviewed personally), 90.9% of those participating admitted that they would like additional education and resources to enable them to work more effectively with the parents at David Gourley. They desire to learn skills that will help them understand and better work with the population they are serving, and hopefully increase parental involvement and student support. Over the past twelve weeks I have spoken with ten parents who were seeking resources and skills for helping their child(ren) succeed at school and in the home, many who also admitted to feeling misunderstood and/or unsupported within the school. I hope by identifying the barriers felt by both teachers and parents and brainstorming interventions, that the gap that seems to exist between parents and teachers will decrease, and that parental support and involvement will increase.
Factors Contributing to the Unmet Need from the Teachers and
Retrieved from http://public-schools.startclass.com/l/92421/David-Gourley-School. Alejandro (2000) mentions that “one of the biggest barriers to parent involvement of minority parents is their language difference. The very use of their primary language is seen as a cause of the students’ academic difficulties. These parents are often excluded from participation by the school (Cummins, 1984). This exclusion from participation usually tends to create deep-rooted feelings of inferiority” (p. 28-29). In a study discussing the impact of low SES and “perceived discrimination on parental perceptions of the well-being of Latino children”, Becerra (2015) mentions that “the stress that comes with experiences of perceived discrimination, language conflict, legal status stress, and fear of deportation (Finch & Vega, 2003; McLeigh, 2010) can exacerbate mental health issues among Latinos” (p. 791). In discussing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), poverty and parenting stress, H. Steele (2016) mentions how “it is not surprising that the data showed low levels of parenting stress among the middle-income (middle/high SES) community group, with significantly higher levels among the impoverished clinical group. Mounting evidence has documented income-related health disparities.