Creating a Needs Assessment Framework for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment

State agencies dedicated to preventing child abuse and neglect are mandated to perform a statewide needs assessment to receive funding to implement federal community-based child abuse prevention programs. Conducting a needs assessment is an essential and useful in effectively acquiring limited funds, however, many agency staff lack the ability to carry out a high-quality specialized assessment specific to the area of maltreatment prevention. This paper provides a specific, systematic, and applied prevention framework for conducting a needs assessment and asset map with a population deemed at risk for child welfare involvement. Vital to this assessment process is the articulation of specific services, familial characteristics, risks and protective factors, and cultural elements at multiple levels of the social ecology.

This project is rooted in the increasing complexity of families at risk for involvement in the child welfare system, the lack of a systematic framework for assessing both needs and assets in the published prevention literature, as well as the demonstrated vulnerability of young children and their families at risk for child maltreatment. A needs assessment allows researchers to understand how current service delivery compares and contrasts to what is both requested by the target population as well as what services are needed but not available. Considering those at risk for child maltreatment, a needs assessment can result in elements thought to moderate and/or mediate child welfare involvement and thus allows for the development of culturally grounded, demographically specific prevention/intervention programming that is effective, efficient, and sustainable. Without the ability to assess needs and strengths, policymakers may unable to create programming that accurately reflects the needs of the population and thus are ill-equipped to secure funding or influence prevention based legislation effectively.

Readers are guided through the process and timeline for conducting a needs assessment, methods of engaging community and agency members, as well as common limitations and barriers to project completion. Key to completing an effective needs assessment is the incorporation of multidisciplinary professionals who are clear and coordinated in their approach to creating a prevention based partnership system. Creating this multidisciplinary team may prove challenging yet it has direct implications for the quality and relevancy of the data gathered during the needs assessment. Aside from being useful and timely, the elucidation of a prevention based needs assessment guides advocacy efforts and policy reform highlighting the need for primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention on behalf of at risk and vulnerable populations.