Community Assessment

Introduction paragraph should include: name of community being assessed (County and state or city and state), information about data gathered vs. data generated, why would a community assessment be completed?

Defining the Community
For this section keep the community focused on the whole city or county and discuss the following questions:
Describe the population that is being assessed?
What is/are the race(s) of this population within the community?
Are there boundaries of this group? If so, what are they? (boundaries should be physical boundaries if there are any: ocean, mountain, river, etc.)
Does this community exist within a certain city or county?
Are there general characteristics that separate this group from others? (Discuss general characteristics of the population)
Education levels, birth/death rates, age of deaths, insured/uninsured?
Where is this group located geographically…? Urban/rural?
Assessment
In this paragraph discuss:
Why is a community assessment being performed? What purpose will it serve?
How will information for the community assessment be collected?
Data Gathered
This is the section that you will discuss data gathered though internet research. For example go to County Health Rankings and look for Whitley County, IN. In reviewing the data, you are looking at areas in which this county is ranked below the top performers and the state of Indiana. If your county is a relatively health county for the state, look at where you county ranks compared to top performers. For Whitley County the areas of concern are: Smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, access to exercise opportunities, alcohol impaired deaths, STDs, Teen births, Access to healthcare providers (physicians, dentist and mental health), and Flu vaccinations,
Now I have a list and need to think which ones could possible go together and discuss the top 2 health concerns. I could like Obesity, physical inactivity, and access to exercise opportunities together. Access to healthcare could be considered more of a determent of health so I will remove that concern for the moment. Then I could look at other websites to see what other topic is the biggest concern for my county: alcohol, smoking, STDs, teen births, or vaccinations.
When I go to American Health Rankings, I notice that smoking and immunizations are listed as a concern. Finally, I looked up what Indiana has listed as their HP2020 goals and smoking was on the list.
https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/healthy-people-in-action/State-and-Territorial-Healthy-People-Plans
So my 2 health concerns based on the data gathered are obesity and smoking. For this section of the paper I will have at least 1 paragraphs discussing the data gathered for each of the concerns.
Data Generated
For this section, based on your two health concerns complete observations, interviews, focus groups, surveys, etc. to find out how prevalent the problem is, is the problem truly a problem, does the community view this as a problem, etc. Three different techniques should be utilized and discussed in this section.
Health People 2020 Goals and Objectives
For this section state the HP2020 goals and objectives that align with the identified health concerns.
Conclusion
Conclusion paragraph should recap the paper and not provide new information.

Rubric components:
Defining the Community Weight: 20% (100 points)
Expertly defines the geographic area of the community. May include a map in the appendix. Defines cultural context of the population. Specifies population demographics, including age, race, education, birth/death rates, life expectancy, insurance status, and other pertinent details. Connects community context and demographics with Healthy People 2020 objectives and identifies health concerns (will be at the end of the paper).
Data Gathering Weight: 30% (150 points)
Demonstrates expert ability to gather data from at least three government websites.  Other scholarly data sources used to provide depth to the assessment. Gathered data presented in a logical and meaningful manner.  Clear connections drawn between data gathered and health issues.
Data Generation Weight: 30% (150 points)
Data generated using at least three techniques. Multiple layers of the community context revealed through data generated.  Demonstrates quality and depth of observation skills, identifying many cultural and contextual observations that impact health. In-depth comparison made to gathered data.  Clear connections to health issues.
Quality of Written Communication Weight: 10% (50 points)
Style and voice are not only appropriate to the given audience and purpose, but also show originality and creativity. Word choice is specific, purposeful, dynamic and varied. Free of mechanical and typographical errors. A variety of sentence structures and effective figures of speech are used. Writer is clearly in command of standard, written, academic English.
APA Format Weight: 10% (50 points)
A broad understanding of APA format and style is evident. Accurate citations and references are presented. No APA errors are evident.  In-depth and meticulous process of writing and organizing assignment.