Needs assessment

Have you ever gone to the grocery store with your mom or dad and they made a list of all the things they needed to buy? They did this so they wouldn't forget anything and could get everything they needed to make the food for the week. Well, a needs assessment is kind of like that but for bigger things like schools or towns.

A needs assessment is when people ask questions and look at things carefully to figure out what a place or group of people needs. Let's say we are trying to figure out what a school needs to make it a better place for kids to learn. We would ask questions like: Do the kids have enough books to read? Are the teachers happy and supported? Do the classrooms need better chairs and desks? We would also look at things like how many students go to the school, how much money the school has, and what other schools in the area are like.

When we have all of this information, we can make a plan to help the school get what it needs. Just like making a grocery list helps us get everything we need at the store, a needs assessment helps us get everything a school or community needs to be happy and healthy.