Needs and readiness assessments: Tools for promoting community-university engagement with Aboriginal communities

Main Article Content

Fay Fletcher
Alicia Hibbert
Fiona Robertson
Jodie Asselin

Abstract

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an important means of connecting the perspectives of community members with critical social issues, such as health and wellness. As beneficial as CBPR can be, effective engagement with community members remains a difficult goal to achieve. In this article, we draw on the international literature around needs and readiness assessments to explore their potential for establishing solid foundations for engaged research. We examine the stages and dimensions identified in the literature, and use these as a framework for a needs and readiness assessment project undertaken with a Métis Settlement community in Alberta, Canada. We share how the needs and readiness assessments helped to foster the emergence of community priorities, informing the next steps in research design, program content and evaluation methods, and heightening community-university engagement. It is our hope that our example of engagement, which focuses on the role of needs and readiness assessments in strengthening community-university partnerships, will better inform engagement approaches so that they become relevant, culturally appropriate and community specific.

Keywords: Métis, Aboriginal, community-based participatory research, needs assessment, readiness assessment, community-university partnership

Article Details

Section
Research articles (Refereed)
Author Biographies

Fay Fletcher, University of Alberta

Faculty of Extension Associate Professor

Alicia Hibbert, University of Alberta

Faculty of Extension Research Project Manager

Fiona Robertson, University of Alberta

Faculty of Extension Research Coordinator

Jodie Asselin, University of Alberta

Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts Qualitative Analyst