Bringing the Community Needs Assessment Back: An Invitation to Participate

For much of my adult life, I’ve found myself working around the challenges facing my family and community. What started as personal thoughts led to mentoring while I was working at Papa John’s eventually grew into community organising, leadership, mental health and community health work, and the development of programs intended to help people build better futures for themselves and the people around them.

Along the way, one thing has become increasingly clear to me: we cannot build effective solutions for a community without making room for the people who live there to help shape them.

That belief is part of what led me to begin developing a community needs assessment. I wanted to create a way to hear directly from people about their experiences, their circumstances, the challenges they navigate, and the opportunities they want to pursue. Not simply to collect complaints or compile a list of problems, but to better understand the conditions that shape people's lives and what meaningful progress might look like.

Why I started this work

Over time, my thinking about community problem-solving has evolved. In particular my experience with the 1000 men and women movement inc helped me to organise issues into different departments and areas of responsibility. But people's lives don't fit neatly into categories. Our health affects our security. Our relationships affect our well-being. Our family circumstances influence our opportunities. Culture shapes how we understand ourselves, one another, and the communities we share.

That evolution helped shape the framework behind this assessment, which focuses on five interconnected areas:

• Health: Physical, mental, and emotional well-being, including the conditions that affect our ability to care for ourselves.

• Security: Stability, safety, housing, financial pressures, and the resources that help people navigate uncertainty.

• Family: The circumstances, responsibilities, and support systems that influence family life.

• Relationships: Our connections with others and the role those connections play in our lives.

• Culture: The values, experiences, shared understanding, and sense of belonging that influence how we see ourselves and our communities.

The goal is not to put people into boxes. It's to create a framework that helps us see how different parts of life connect, recognize where barriers exist, and better understand what people believe would help them move forward.

I’ve written more about the thinking behind this approach in Culture, Civic Awareness and the Power of Community Voice, along with other articles exploring community problem-solving and the role of information in turning insight into action.

Why the project paused

The assessment reached a point where I had developed the framework, built the surveys, and begun thinking about how to put them into the community. But when I shared the idea with others, I received a response that made me stop and think.

People saw the value in the work. They wanted to be involved. They didn't just want me to conduct the assessment; they wanted to help shape it.

That was encouraging. It also raised a real question: How do you make room for meaningful participation without building a process that promises more than you can deliver?

I didn't have that figured out yet. I was balancing other projects and responsibilities, and the assessment was put on hold before responses were collected.

I'm sharing that because I don't want to present this as a completed study or suggest that we already have findings to announce. We don't. While the thoughts did influence conversation and engagement it is important to collect data in a structured presentable form This is an opportunity to begin the work of gathering responses and building a more intentional process around them.

Looking back, I believe the pause also gave me a reason to reconsider how I want to approach the next phase. Collecting responses is only one part of the work. How we invite people to participate, how we interpret what they share, and how we communicate what we learn all matter, too.

What comes next

I'm bringing the assessment back with a clearer understanding that the survey should be a starting point, not the finish line.

First, we need participation. The assessment is intended to help us understand experiences and circumstances across the five areas, including the barriers people face, the support they can access, and the changes or opportunities they believe would make a difference.

Second, we need to be thoughtful about how we interpret the responses. An answer rarely tells the whole story by itself. For example, someone who has little time to invest in personal growth may not lack motivation. They may be managing financial pressure, family responsibilities, stress, or limited access to opportunities. Understanding context matters if we want information to lead to useful conclusions.

Third, I want to make space for people who are interested in contributing beyond completing a survey. That could include helping share the assessment, connecting with residents, supporting conversations, reviewing emerging themes, or helping us think through how the information might inform future action.

I'm also interested in connecting with students, educators, researchers, community organizations, and others who want to contribute their skills and perspectives. There may be opportunities to learn from the process itself, document the work, and explore how community-generated information can be used responsibly.

I don't want to overstate what has been organized or make promises before the right people and resources are in place. I do want to be more intentional about creating opportunities for people to participate as the project develops.

An invitation to the community

If you live in Baltimore, work in the community, study its challenges, support its residents, or simply care about the direction we're heading, I'd like to invite you into this conversation.

You can start by completing an available survey. You can also reach out if you're interested in helping with outreach, contributing your skills, connecting us with potential participants, or discussing how this work might be developed further.

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who believe that community information should do more than sit in a report. The purpose is to help us ask better questions, understand people's circumstances more clearly, and make more informed decisions about where we go from here.

This assessment won't answer every question, and a survey alone won't solve the challenges we face. But it can help establish a stronger foundation for conversations, collaboration, and action.

I've spent a great deal of time thinking about community development, building programs, organizing information, and trying to connect ideas with practical work. I want this next phase to reflect those experiences while remaining grounded in something simple: people deserve a meaningful opportunity to contribute to the conversations and decisions that affect their lives.

The work is starting again, and there's room for more voices in it.

If you'd like to participate, help share the assessment, or explore ways to contribute to the process, please reach out. Let's begin by listening, learning, and building from there.