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Windshield Survey/Community Needs Assessment
In this assignment, you will identify and assess the needs of a community or neighborhood of your choice.
There are two ways to identify needs of a community: a Windshield Survey or a Virtual Community Survey. If possible, I recommend that you conduct a Windshield Survey as the experience can be highly enlightening! A Windshield Survey is an authentic experience that public health workers conduct as a part of their roles.
In this assignment, you will also connect with a servant leader of an organization or agency in your community.
Each step in the instructions below includes both the Windshield Survey and the Virtual Survey option.
NOTE: The Service Learning Project Orientation you viewed this week highlights an abbreviated Windshield Survey being conducted by course instructors of the Riverbend Neighborhood near Mercy College in Des Moines, which is the most underserved community in the State of Iowa.
Evaluation:
This assignment will be evaluated out of 50 points, according to the Needs Assessment rubric, attached.
Instructions:
Step 1: Choose a Neighborhood or Community
Get to know your own community. What neighborhood is the most underserved in your area or region? Choose a community or neighborhood with which you are familiar and understand has high needs for service.
Step 2: Research Your Chosen Community
A windshield survey consists of driving around a neighborhood either in a car or with public transport and observing. Then making notes about what you see [not while driving]. Download and answer questions in the Needs Assessment Worksheet at the end of this document. Be sure to pay attention to organizations you see that might present opportunities to serve this community. Other elements you’ll pay attention to in a neighborhood include access to nutritious food, green space, schools, healthcare facilities, evidence of health indicators such as drug use, adequate housing, and substance use.
Some research about the demographics of a neighborhood can be readily researched online, regardless of whether you are conducting a windshield survey or not.
To conduct a virtual community survey, use the Internet to research the demographics of your chosen community. Use Google or Apple Map software and search for schools, food stores, healthcare facilities etc. Make notes about green space, businesses, and housing. This method will not be as effective in observing people and all that can be gleaned from this observation; it is not a full substitute for a Wind

shield Survey, but will suffice for the purpose of this assignment. Be sure to search for and make note of the many potential opportunities for service in your community. A short list of organizations that might present such opportunities includes:
? The Salvation Army
? St. Vincent de Paul
? Catholic Charities
? Food banks
? Health clinics
? Long term care homes
? Daycares and schools
? Community and senior centers
? Other charitable organizations
Step 3: Identify an Organization to Serve
Choose one or two organizations with whom you might like to serve. If you are serving in the Des Moines area, please communicate your wishes with your Instructor as there is a need to coordinate service efforts in order to ensure that community partners are not overwhelmed and burdened inadvertently.
Step 4: Make Contact with Your Chosen Organization
Find a contact name with email, phone, or physical address via the Internet, or in person if appropriate. Reach out and, applying Greenleaf’s characteristics of servant leadership, ask about the needs of the organization and how you might best help serve.
Best practices for making first contact include:
Prearrange a meeting to make sure you are not intruding inadvertently on their busy schedule.
Be persistent to make contact without being intrusive. (i.e., if you don’t get a response to one email, this does not necessarily mean that the contact is not interested in connecting. Use email, telephone, etc.). Don’t take it personally if you do not hear back from your first choice of contact. Try another agency!
In your communication, be courteous, polite, respectful, and professional. This includes in your introduction of yourself and your service learning project in writing, on the phone, and in person. Remember you’re a representative of Mercy College.
Step 5: Complete the Needs Assessment Chart
With the information you have gleaned from your communication with a community partner, fill in the rest of the Needs Assessment Worksheet, indicating whether you have been successful in finding an opportunity to do your service leadership project.
Step 6: Consider Service Objectives
Once you have identified the primary needs of a community partner, consider what you might do to meet those needs through your service. Write your thoughts about how service could mitigate the needs as Service Leadership Project Objectives.
Step 7: Submit your Completed Needs Assessment Worksheet
Upload your worksheet/chart as a .doc, .docx, or PDF file.