The purpose of this Community Needs Assessment.

A community needs assessment is a vital process that helps identify a community’s strengths, challenges, and unmet needs. We are gathering input from residents, organizations, and stakeholders, this assessment ensures that programs and resources are tailored to the real concerns of the people we serve. This will help us to make informed decisions. It also guides us to allocate funding wisely and develop services that genuinely benefit the community. The targeted youth related issues in this community needs assessment survey are areas like education, health, community resources, agriculture and the environment, or youth development.

We may call it an issue identification forum, a community needs assessment, or any of the following:

• Community Needs Assessment

• Gap Analysis
• Environmental Scan
• Resource Assessment
• Situational Analysis
• Program Assessment
• SWOT Analysis (when focused on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)
• Stakeholder Analysis
• Capacity Assessment
• Readiness Assessment
• Demand Analysis

However, each term may have a slightly different emphasis, but they often overlap to gather information, guide decisions and improve services or programs.

How often should a needs assessment be done?

To stay relevant and responsive, a community needs assessment should be conducted regularly, ideally every 2 to 3 years (sometimes every 4 to 5 years) or whenever significant changes occur, such as population shifts, economic changes, or after a crisis. Extension, conducted one in 2022.

The program development process.

Through ongoing communication and periodic check-ins, we monitor progress and adjust our program plans. I conducted a regular assessment using ongoing surveys to help ensure that those services evolve with the community’s changing needs and that efforts remain inclusive, effective, and community-driven.

Who should participate?

Everyone (you) in St. Lucie County. This is why we are contacting you via this blog post, Word-of-mouth, Facebook, News Release, Newsletters, Radio and TV to help our 4-H Advisory Board identify the relevant needs and issues that can be addressed by our extension outreach and education effort.

How can you participate?

You may participate in either of the following two ways. First, complete this short four-part questionnaire at this link, and next, attend the Face-to-Face forum on May 8, 2025. You may RSVP here. We would love your presence at the Indian River Research and Education Canter (IRREC), 2199 S Rock Rd., Fort Pierce, FL 34945, on May 8, 2025, from 5:30 – 7:00 PM. Refreshments will be served at the event.  Please scan to complete the Survey.

Featured Image credit: Anastasiia_New. (n.d.). Community in colored rectangles background [Image]. Adobe Stock. https://stock.adobe.com/images/community-in-colored-rectangles-background/414241501

For more information, contact the 4-H Extension Agent @ john.ferguso@ufl.edu, 4-H Program Specialist Candace Wickham @ wickham.c@ufl.edu, Terri Zuidema @ tzuidema1@ufl.edu, or Wren Underwood @ e.underwood1@ufl.edu.

An Equal Opportunity Institution. UF/IFAS Extension, University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Andra Johnson, dean for UF/IFAS Extension. Single copies of UF/IFAS Extension publications (excluding 4-H and youth publications) are available free to Florida residents from county UF/IFAS Extension offices.

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