- Community-Centered Services
- Community at the Center of Connected Learning
- Asset Framing
- Community-Centered Partnerships
- Rethinking Partnerships
- Gathering Data
- Asset Mapping
- Talking with the Community
- Analyzing and Using the Data
- Tools for Connecting Your Community
- Starting Conversations
- Combining Your Powers
- Making Plans Together
- Working with Different Types of Partners
- Ending a Partnership
- Community-Centered Services Workbook
- Additional Resources
Gathering Data
When having conversations with community stakeholders, you are on the road to gathering data about the community in support of teens and connected learning. There are several different ways you can continuously connect data about your community. The following provides techniques to use to get started.
What questions do you want to have answered?
As you start to learn about your community a good thing to do is to make a list of questions you have about the community and/or teens. You might want to know what teens do in their spare time? Or, you might wonder about the racial and ethnic makeup of teens and their families in the area. Perhaps you are wondering what others in the community think are challenges for teens? Or, what do others have to say about the ways in which teens are helping the community? When you have a short list of questions, you’ll be able to start thinking about the type of data that will help you to answer those questions. As you read each of the potential techniques to use for community-centered data gathering, refer back to your list of questions and consider how that technique could help you to uncover the answers. As you gather answers, consider what new questions you have and how you might have those answered. As a community-centered library, asking questions about the community and seeking out answers should be an ongoing process, not something you do once.
Gathering data is a form of assessment
When you gather data about your community, you are essentially engaging in assessment! Check out the Outcomes, Evaluation, and Assessment module for more information about gathering and analyzing data.
Worksheet #3: What are your questions?
Using the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” framework of questions along with Worksheet #3, brainstorm some questions you have about your community. Try to generate as many questions as possible at this stage — you’ll choose a few to focus on next. Some sample questions are provided to help you get started.
- Who… are the local people and organizations reaching out to teens?
- What… is the racial and ethnic makeup of your community?
- When… do local teens start preparing for college applications?
- Where… do teens spend their free time?
- Why… do teens stop visiting the library once they enter high school?
- How… do teens prepare for life after high school?
Worksheet #4: Who can help you?
Consider what and who you already know which can help you to get to the answers you are looking for? Is there a friend, family member or colleague who can help you? Do you think a friend of a friend would be good to connect with? Where else might you look for background information? Or, are you starting from scratch? Select one of the questions you brainstormed in the previous worksheet, and write down people or other resources that you can use to start to find out the answers.