Barons-Eureka-Warner (BEW) Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) Community Needs Assessment

This project includes (1) a needs-based assessment of the social policy landscape within the BEW-FCSS catchment focused upon the FCSS’ provincial prevention priorities; (2) an asset-based assessment of the resources and capacity available within that same catchment and in relation to those same priorities; (3) a scoping review (Arksey and O’Malley, 2005) of relevant peer and grey literatures regarding municipal and service responses in the priority sectors; (4) Institute-based project management, oversight, reporting and accountability; (5) University-based business services (Ethics compliance, Finance, HR, Insurance, IT, Legal services, etc.); and (6) community-based engagement and dialogue as both inputs into the needs assessment/asset inventory, and as a validation process once data have been collected, analyzed and can be reported. In turn, this project draws upon multiple approaches to needs assessment, including triangulation between sources (general public, elected officials, experts) and extant evidence (including data, peer-reviewed literature and grey literatures as applicable).

The purpose of this project is to empower the 16 municipalities in the Barons-Eureka-Warner (BEW) Family & Community Support Services (FCSS) region to make better informed decisions about how they invest in community assets and services as a prevention strategy against social challenges. This project endeavours to significantly improve regional municipal service delivery by: 

• Determining which community assets support community wellbeing, 
• Assessing the strengths and gaps of these assets in the BEW region, 
• Understanding the current and emerging wellbeing needs within the region, and 

Providing information that the 16 communities and BEW-FCSS can use for planning collaborative municipal and regional asset and services management.