Determining Community Strengths, Needs and Resources

POLICY:

NOCAC Child Development conducts a community wide strengths and needs assessment in order to design a program that builds on the strengths and available resources that meet the needs of each community in the service area.

PROCEDURES:

1. NOCAC Child Development identifies community strengths, resources and needs through a comprehensive community assessment.  NOCAC Child Development services are provided in the following counties:
   1. Defiance
   2. Fulton
   3. Henry
   4. Paulding
   5. Williams
2. NOCAC Child Development ERSEA data provides resources and referrals based on the strengths and needs of the communities gathered in the community assessment.
   1. Health and Social Services
   2. Drug Abuse
   3. Health and Wellbeing
   4. HealthCare and Clinical Care
      1. Insurance and Access to Healthcare
      2. Access to Dental Care
      3. Preventive and Primary Health Care and immunizations
      4. Obesity and chronic diseases
   5. Child Health and Wellbeing
      1. Child Abuse
      2. Teen pregnancy
      3. Prenatal care
      4. Low birth weight
      5. Infant mortality
   6. Mental Health
   7. Nutrition
   8. Additional Social and Economic Factors Impacting Wellbeing
      1. Housing
      2. Median Household Income
      3. Transportation

Community wide strategic planning and needs assessment (Community Assessment)

1. NOCAC Child Development has designed a program that meets community needs, and builds on community strengths and resources, by conducting a community assessment at least once over the five year grant period.
2. The Community Assessment uses data that describes community strengths, needs, and resources and include, at a minimum:
   1. The number of eligible:
      1. Infants
      2. Toddlers
      3. Preschool age children
      4. Expectant mothers
   2. Including their:
      1. Geographic location
      2. Race
      3. Ethnicity
      4. Languages they speak
      5. Children experiencing homelessness in collaboration with, to the extent possible, McKinney-Vento Local Education Agency Liaisons
      6. Children in Foster Care
      7. Children with disabilities including type of disabilities and relevant services and resources provided to these children by community agencies.
      8. Education, health, nutrition, and social service needs of eligible children and their families, including prevalent social or economic, factors that impact their well being.
      9. Typical work, school, and training schedules of parents with eligible children.
      10. Other child development, child care centers, and family child care programs that serve eligible children, including home visiting, publicly funded state and local pre-schools, and the appropriate number of eligible children served.
      11. Resources that are available in the community to address the needs of eligible children and their families.
      12. Strengths of the community.
3. The NOCAC Data Outcomes Analysis Specialist reviews and updates the community assessment annually to reflect any significant changes including:
   1. Increased availability of publicly-funded pre-kindergarten (including an assessment of how the pre-kindergarten available in the community meets the needs of the parents and children served by the program, and whether it is offered for a full school day.
   2. Rates of family and child homelessness,
   3. Significant shifts in the community demographics and resources.
4. NOCAC Child Development considers the characteristics of the community allowing it to include participants from diverse economic backgrounds that would be supported by other funding sources, including private pay, in addition to the program’s eligible funded enrollment.
5. NOCAC Child Development does not enroll participants from diverse economic backgrounds if it would result in a program serving less than its eligible funded enrollment.

Forms and Additional Guidance: