Topic 4: Conducting a Needs Assessment

When thinking about how to best serve your library users with ASD, one of the first places to start should be conducting a community needs assessment. This needs assessment should help you identify what resources, programs, and services already exist in your community, who are the key stakeholders you should involve in planning your new services, and identify any gaps in services that exist in your community that the library can help fill. It is important not to waste time or effort duplicating something that another organization already offers in your community. The Targeting Autism white paper suggests keeping the following in mind when planning your needs assessment:

• Determine the scope and scale of your needs assessment and stick to it
• Identify key stakeholders
• Engage your stakeholders and keep them engaged throughout the process
• Estimate the number of people you expect to reach in your community
• Identify the people who are willing to collaborate with you
• Create an action plan
• Revisit your needs assessment periodically

You can start by setting up a roundtable discussion and invite service providers, teachers and other stakeholders to discuss autism services in your community. Learn more about conducting a needs assessment, including some case studies, from the Targeting Autism white paper and from videos of Jim Runyon's presentation at the 2015 Targeting Autism Forum: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

This topic is covered in depth in Topic 5 of this module.

References

Schriar, S., Foerster, P., & Pelich, M. Targeting Autism. (2017). Libraries partnering to serve the autism community: National forums offer direction. Retrieved from http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/library/libraries/pdfs/targeting-autism-whitepaper.pdf.