How Do You Know What Your Community Really Needs?

By Dr. Teresa A. Smith and Dr. Terence K. Leathers

You see teenagers gathering outside a store every afternoon, so you decide the community needs a youth center. The idea sounds reasonable, but what if those young people already have activities and no way to get there? What if the larger concern is that families need safe transportation, affordable care, or a place for teens to go after existing programs close?

Knowing what a community really needs begins with slowing down long enough to separate what you notice from what residents experience. One conversation can reveal a concern, but it cannot tell you how common the concern is or who else is affected. A community need is a gap between what people are experiencing and what they need to live, learn, work, or thrive.

Start by listening to people who live with the issue. Ask what makes daily life harder, what help they have tried to find, what is missing, and what would make a real difference. Speak with residents in places they already trust, including schools, churches, libraries, neighborhood groups, senior centers, and local businesses.

Be careful not to hear only from the people who regularly attend meetings. Parents working evening shifts, residents without transportation, young people, older adults, and people who don’t speak English fluently may be affected but absent from the room. Listening may require short interviews, small group conversations, phone calls, or a simple survey rather than one public meeting.

Next, compare what people tell you with information that already exists. School attendance reports, program waiting lists, local service records, transportation routes, and public data can help show how many people may be affected. The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey provides yearly social, economic, housing, and population information, but numbers should be considered alongside residents’ experiences because numbers show patterns, not the full story.

Then look beneath the first answer. If students aren’t completing homework, it may seem that they need tutoring, yet families may identify limited internet access, caregiving duties, transportation, or the lack of a quiet place to study. You don’t have to guess which explanation is correct. Ask, check the available information, and remain willing to revise your first assumption.

A clear picture also includes what the community already has. Residents may have skills, relationships, meeting spaces, trusted leaders, volunteer networks, and programs that can be strengthened instead of replaced. Understanding those resources matters because the answer may not be creating something new. The community may already have part of the solution.

You may uncover several real needs at once, but most communities cannot address everything at the same time. Compare each issue by asking who is affected, how serious and urgent it is, what resources already exist, and whether the community is ready to help address it. People closest to the issue should help set the priority because a decision made for residents without residents can miss what matters most.

Before moving forward, share what you heard and ask, “Did we understand this correctly?” That simple step gives people a chance to correct missing or mistaken conclusions before decisions are made. Then look across what you heard and what the available information shows. When the same concerns continue to surface, you are in a better position to decide which need your community can responsibly address first.

Once you can clearly explain what people are experiencing, what the information shows, what resources already exist, and which need deserves attention, the next question becomes: What can you do about it?