There is more than one method to identify community needs. Remember to involve residents from the community in the selection and planning of a group project. You may also decide to build upon and help improve ongoing community projects. Some methods to identify your community’s needs include:

Brainstorming

• Call an easily accessible town meeting of community members and project team members. Brainstorm challenges facing the community and select one as the top priority.
• Explore the root causes of the problem identified in the brainstorming session. Investigate the effects on individuals and the community.

Use Surveys

• Contact a local Volunteer Center for information on community needs.
• Contact the government or public policy program at a local university or college. Ask students to survey the local residents about their concerns.
• Check with the local Chamber of Commerce or City Planner’s office for a community needs assessment survey.
• Conduct your own small survey of your partner organization’s members.

Watch the News

• Bring a week’s worth of local newspapers to a team meeting and discuss the impact of community events.
• Pay close attention to your local news and think about ways to make negative stories into positive ones.
• Cut out articles in the newspaper that create feelings of sadness, anger, or that inspire a need for change.
• Have team leaders make a similar list of stories from television news.

When you’re finally ready to select a project, be flexible and choose a project that can easily be scaled up or down, depending on the number of volunteers you are able to attract. Be sure to have a contingency plan for a low volunteer turnout, and one for excess volunteers.

Set your goals and be realistic, but plan to accomplish something tangible. Volunteers feel good about giving time and resources when they see results. Finally, remember that quality counts more than quantity. An effective small service project that gets things done, and is a joy to its volunteers, is more powerful than a poorly run, large-scale project.

Have you planned your own volunteer projects? What were your first steps? Let us know in the comments!