This document outlines the steps to conduct a needs assessment for the United Nations Environmental Protection agency. It explains that a needs assessment is used to determine the gap between an organization's current capabilities and desired capabilities to meet stakeholder needs. The needs assessment will identify unmet services and inform strategic planning. It will involve determining who to survey, how to collect new or use existing data, and developing a stakeholder survey with at least 10 questions and justifications for each.

1. Assignment: Capstone Project Part II: Needs Assessment
People often use advocacy to create positive change for society.
Advocacy represents the strategies devised, actions taken, and
solutions proposed to influence change for the betterment of
society. The key to successful advocacy and creating a
successful strategic plan is to conduct a needs assessment to
determine the needs or priorities for a given agency,
organization, or community.
A needs assessment is a systematic way of determining the gap
between what an agency, organization, or community has and
what is desired to meet the needs of individuals, groups,
communities, or societies. The needs assessment will reveal
whether there
may
be unmet services. It can then provide information about those
needs and help inform your planning to meet them. The needs
assessment also consists of planning
who
you need to target,
how
you will effectively gather new data, and/or how you will use
existing data to inform your planning decisions.
To prepare:
Think about the needs of the agency, organization, or
community that you identified as being the focus for your
strategic plan.
Consider how you might collect data from stakeholders

2. regarding met and unmet needs.
The Assignment (2 pages): My Organization is The United
Nations Environmental Protection
Outline/describe steps you would take to conduct a needs
assessment.
State which stakeholders you would contact and why you would
contact each.
Develop a stakeholder survey related to your professional or
societal issue.
The survey must be at least 10 questions.
Provide a justification for each question on the survey.
Provide a rationale for the type/format of questions on the
survey.
State how you would vary items on the survey based on the role
of the stakeholders who would complete it (administration,
leadership, staff, recipient of surveys).
Required Readings
Homan, M. S. (2016).
Promoting community change: Making it happen in the real

3. world
(6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.
· Chapter 4, “Putting Yourself in the Picture” (pp. 96–112)
· Chapter 5, “Knowing Your Community” (pp. 131–172)
· Chapter 12, “Taking Action—Strategies and Tactics” (pp.
379–417)
Schutz, A. (2011). Power and trust in the public realm: John
Dewey, Saul Alinsky, and the limits of progressive democratic
education.
Educational Theory, 61
(4), 491–512. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Snow, K. C. (2013). The importance of advocacy and advocacy
competencies in human service professions.
Journal of Human Services
,
33
(1), 5–16. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.