This document outlines the steps for conducting a community nutrition assessment to inform program planning. It discusses: - The importance of assessment in anchoring programs in community reality and engaging stakeholders. - Models for assessment including understanding community conditions, capacities, and identifying priority issues. - Key steps like convening a planning group, collecting demographic and health status data, identifying resources and prioritizing issues. - The role of the planning group in gathering data, setting priorities, developing and evaluating plans and interventions.

1. Program Planning: Community
Nutrition Assessment

2. Program Planning Basics
• Systematic process
• Continual feedback and evaluation
• Cyclical: based on increasing
understandings of the true nature of the
situation and the effectiveness of
interventions.
• Starts with an assessment of the current
situation

3. Assess
Prioritize
Analyze problem and
propose model to address
Develop Intervention
goals, objectives,
implementation plan
Evaluate outcomes
Process Evaluation
and Adjustment

4. Why Do Assessment?

5. Community Nutrition Assessment:
• Anchors program/intervention in the reality
of the community
• Essential part of ongoing process:
– Needs assessment
– Designing and implementing services
– Evaluation
– Improving programs and services
• Includes community and stakeholders as
fully active participants

6. Community Nutrition Assessment:
• Based on assets more than deficits
• Helps to integrate nutrition programs into
community-based health programs and
plans

7. Successful Community
Assessment Includes:
• Understanding current conditions of
families and individuals
• Evaluating local capacities for supporting
health and nutrition needs
• Building community support for
implementing changes

8. Models and Protocols for
Community Assessment
• Planned Approaches to Community Health
(PATCH) – CDC
• Assessment Protocol for Excellence in
Public Health (APEXPH) – NACHO (National
Association of County Health Officials)
• Moving to the Future: Developing
Community Based Nutrition Services –
ASTPHND (Association of State and Territorial Public Health
Nutrition Directors)

9. Strategic Planning for Initiatives to
Address Local Health Efforts
• Community Assessment
• Organize a community planning group
• Define community boundaries
• Gather information
– Statistical profile
– Qualitative data
– Community Resources
Agency for Health Care Policy and Research

10. Strategic Planning, cont.
• Analyze Information
– Common issues
– High risk individuals
– Unmet needs
– Prioritize
• Develop and implement community health
plan
• Monitor and evaluate community health
plan

11. Steps to Assessment
• Convene a planning group
• Define community
• Identify Community Assets
• Identify Perceived Needs
• Build Demographic Profile
• Analyze Community Health Status
• Analyze Community Nutrition Status
• Identify Community Resources and Service
Utilization
• Identify common issues and unmet needs
• Prioritize

12. Community Nutrition Planning
Group: Responsibilities
• Collect data and information
• Identify health needs and gaps in service
• Set priorities
• Develop a plan
• Help to implement interventions
• Assist in evaluation
– Of assessment, planning, and intervention process
– Of impact of intervention

13. Community Nutrition Planning
Group: Potential Members
• Community leaders
• Consumers
• Health and Nutrition Service providers
• Health organizations
• Schools
• Political office holders or their staff
• Fitness professionals
• Representatives from greater community health
planning groups

14. Define the Parameters
• Public Health Nutrition: Assuring
conditions in which people can be
nutritionally healthy
• Community: “A community is any group
sharing something in common”
Community Tool Box

15. Community Description
• Geographic boundaries
• General history
• Key people and leaders
• Demographics
• Financial & economic information
• Important issues
• Morale and involvement levels
• Key allies and rivals
• Unspoken rules and norms
• Attitudes and opinions
• Strengths and shortcomings

16. Identify Community Assets
• Physical structure, place, business
• Concerned citizens
• History of successful efforts
• Organizations
• Individual and group skills
• Communications systems
• Relationships

17. Identify Perceived Needs
• WHY?
– To understand public opinion
– To become aware of needs the planning
group doesn’t know about
– To gather support & expand group expertise
– To make decisions about priorities
– To plan programs in ways that will be
acceptable to stakeholders

18. How do we assess perceived
needs?
• Listening sessions
• Public forums
• Key informant interviews
• Needs assessment survey or survey of
concerns

19. Demographic Profile
• Economic status: income, employment, %
below poverty
• Education levels
• Age and gender
• Race & ethnicity
• Social factors: homelessness,
immigration status, family composition,
TANF utilization

20. Community Health Status
• Causes of Mortality
• Hospital discharge data
• Disease prevalence data
• Food bourne illness reports
• Years of potential life lost
• Infant mortality

21. Community Nutritional Status
• Pregnancy related:
– weight gain in pregnancy
– Pre-pregnancy weight
– Anemia
• Disease prevalence: HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular
disease, diabetes
• Activity levels (BRFSS)
• Food intake: fat, fruits & vegetables (BRFSS)
• Dental health
• Food/dieting related behaviors (YRBS)
• Food Security (BRFSS)

22. Community Resources & Service
Utilization
• What resources are available?
• To what extent are people using them?
• Sources of Information:
– Citizens
– Service providers
• Tools
– Existing data
– Interviews
– Surveys

23. Examples of Community Nutrition
Resources
• Food assistance programs (WIC, Basic
Food, etc.)
• Grocery stores with high quality produce
• Food Service with health promoting food
options
• Educational programs
• Media
• Profession and non-profit organizations
• Nutrition counseling

24. Criteria for defining/prioritizing
community problems
• Frequency
• Duration
• Scope or range
• Severity
• Perceptions
• Root causes (“but why?”) & ability to impact root
causes (effectiveness of interventions)
• Barriers to resolutions
• Political and financial support

25. Group Work: Develop Problem List
• Brainstorm nutrition related issues &
problems that arise from these data
• Choose 5 issues that are of interest to all
stakeholders
• Prioritize these issues using criteria in
these slides
• Establish the one issue or problem that all
stakeholders will be comfortable working
on for the next two weeks