Community needs assessment to inform programming

Abstract

The Church of St. John the Evangelist (“St. John’s”), serving the Kirkendall and Durand neighborhoods, seeks to expand its outreach to LGBTQ2IA+ individuals of faith and newcomers to Canada. As demographics shift and community needs evolve, St. John’s aims to adapt their services to remain relevant and inclusive. The McMaster Research Shop set out to guide St. John’s in developing targeted programming and fostering a more welcoming environment for underserved populations by researching local community needs. However, this study reveals a critical lesson in community needs assessment: the challenges of engaging community members without pre-established relationships. Our original methodology included scanning for recently published information about the needs of the communities of interest within the focus area. Finding no published information, we attempted to engage key local informants, including representatives of local social services and LGTQB2IA+ and/or immigrant neighborhood groups. Despite extensive outreach efforts, we were unable to connect with these groups. This data collection limitation emerged as a key finding, highlighting the importance of pre-existing community relationships in conducting meaningful local research and the limitations of being an “outsider.” Consequently, we pivoted to reviewing two recent city-wide needs assessments and conducting one interview with a Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council staff member to ascertain the needs of the respective populations city-wide.