Needs Assessment

Chambers County Children's Policy Council

Each of the sixty-seven county Children’s Policy Councils are required to submit a Needs Assessment by July 1st of each year.

In 2007, the Alabama Children's Policy Council began utilizing Results Based Accountability to establish the desired results for Alabama’s children.  This work produced a set of ten results for Alabama’s children which include:

·         Children Are Safe

·         Children Are Healthy

·         Children Are Ready for School

·         Children Are Successful in School

·         Children Transition Successfully to Adulthood

·         Children Stay Out of Trouble

·         Families Are Strong and Stable

·         Families Are Hopeful and Positively Engaged in Their Children’s Development (0-19)

·         Communities Are Safe, Engaged, and Supportive

·         Communities Are Thriving

Using these same ten results, each County Children’s Policy Council was asked to follow a new procedure in completing its 2008 Needs Assessment.  Each county was asked to:

·         Choose three of the ten results which were most important to that particular county,

·         Select one indicator for each result to measure progress toward that result,

·         Plot the data for the selected indicator beginning with the year 2000 and projecting through 2010,

·         Determine the “story behind the curve” by relating why the trend looks the way it does,

·         Make a list of partners who need to have input in achieving the desired result,

·         Determine an action plan based on what would work to get the trend moving in the right direction,

·         Utilize the Needs Assessment as a planning tool for work during the coming year