by Kristy Delaney
This fact sheet explains how to find out about the needs of young people in your local area. This is sometimes called a needs analysis.
It is important to find out the needs of young people, so that your program or activities:
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are effective - targeted to the real needs of young people
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are efficient - you won't waste time and money trying to meet needs that don't exist
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are accountable - you will be able to explain why you are running the programs you are
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are committed to youth participation - you have provided young people with the opportunity to have their say and get involved in how the project is run
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are focused on achieving real outcomes for young people - you will be much clearer about what needs to change in the lives of young people and their community.
How can we measure need?
There are 4 main ways to measure need (this theory was proposed by Bradshaw in 1972). Your needs analysis might use one or more of these methods.
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You can measure comparative need by comparing the services available in two similar sized areas. For example if two councils had similar sized youth populations but only one funded a youth worker you could say that one area was in comparative need of a youth worker.
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You can measure normative need by asking the 'experts' for their opinions and statistics. You can get this information from:
- your local Council Social Plan - every NSW council is required by law to produce a Social Plan which includes information about the needs of local young people
- your local youth service might have written a report about local youth needs
- the Australian Bureau of Statistics has lots of information at www.abs.gov.au, or phone 1300 135 070 for 5 minutes of free advice. (Hint: if you need 10 minutes of advice, call them twice!).
- You can measure felt need by asking young people what they want, through:
- surveys
- forums
- interviews
- vox pops (video or audio interviews)
- youth committees
- website forms
- workshops
- peer research.
You can measure expressed need by looking at what young people actually do to demonstrate that they require a service, ie. how many people turn up at a band night, or put their name on a waiting list.
Developing a youth survey
There are two different types of questions - qualitative and quantitative. You can use either quantitative and qualitative questions, or a mixture of both in a survey.
Quantitative questions
Quantitative questions ask for responses which can be converted to numbers (quantities). These are closed questions - a small number of answers are provided that respondents (people who answer the survey) must choose from.
For example:
All of the answers are collated (added up) to form percentages, for example "75% of young people said they walked home "
To make quantitative survey results more accurate, get lots of people to answer the survey, and/or get lots of different types of people to answer the survey (eg. different ages, male & female etc).
Quantitative questions - advantages + disadvantages
- Easy and quick for people to fill in, particularly if some people find it hard to read
- Easy and quick for you to make sense of all the answers especially if you are surveying large numbers of people
- Easy to analyse. For example if you survey 500 people you can say "75% of people supported this idea" rather than trying to summarise 500 different comments
- Less chance that your questions will be misunderstood
- However a disadvantage is that by limiting the answers you may miss out on some really useful information. To overcome this problem you can list another box for other answers, eg:
Qualitative questions
Qualitative questions try to get more detailed or insightful statements. These are open questions and participants can give any response they want.
Question: How do you normally get home from the band night? _______________
Answers are not added up but are quoted directly in a report. For example, a report might say: "As an example of the risks which young people face, one young person said: "I can't get a lift from anyone so we usually hitchhike home ".
To make the analysis of your qualitative survey results manageable, only survey a small number of people, and/or only have a small number of questions.
Qualitative questions - advantages + disadvantages
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Takes longer for people to fill in, so less people may be willing to do it
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Much harder to analyse and summarise
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Your question may be misunderstood. For example, the question:
"When did you leave school?"
might get answers like:
"Last year"
"Year 9"
"2003"
"Haven't left yet"
In this example the results are impossible to analyse. -
However qualitative questions can draw out responses from people that are unexpected and that reveal much about their real needs and issues. For example, the question:
"What is it like to be a young person in this area?"
might get quite varied and specific responses like:
"Crap - because I'm a girl and boys sexually harass us"
"Its good when we get to play sport - I would like more comps"
Tips for surveys
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Use simple language and don't use jargon such as "multiculturalism" or "socio-economic"
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Make the survey quick and easy to fill in
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Don't ask questions to try to find out population data. For example if 80% of people who completed your survey were male, don't assume that 80% of the youth population are male! Find out local population data, such as cultural background and unemployment rate, from other data sources such as from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
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Don't ask questions about issues just out of interest. If you are not going to do anything about an issue then don't ask about it.
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Don't ask double-barrelled questions. For example "Did you enjoy the food and was there enough to eat". In this example the food might have been awful but there was enough!
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Use pictures and graphics as a fun alternative. For example:
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Always test run the survey on a few people first to check that the questions work.
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You can also ask people if they would like to help to plan activities they identify.
For example:
This survey asked about whether you wanted more skate competitions. If you would be interested in helping to organise this put your name, phone number and address here.
After you finish the survey you can then contact any of the young people who are interested. You then have a working party to start putting the ideas into action!
Ideas for small group consultations
Here are some ideas of activities you can run in small groups.
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Photo Language - Spread out a large number of pictures on the floor and ask everyone in the group to pick one picture which says something about the way they feel about a nominated topic. Then ask each person, one at a time, to show their picture to the group and explain why they picked that picture. (To prepare for this workshop you will need a large number of random and different pictures, eg from magazines. Cut these out before the group starts).
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Draw a picture - Provide textas and blank paper. Ask each person to draw an issue important to local young people. Then ask each person in the group to share what picture they drew and why.
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Relay race - Put up a piece of butchers paper on the wall and organise a relay race between two teams. Ask everyone to write one important issue for young people each time they run to the butchers paper.
After you have brainstormed issues using one of the above methods, break the group into smaller groups and hand out butchers paper and ask them to talk about and write down:
- What is the issue?
- Why is it an issue?
- What would you like to see happen?
- How could it happen?
- What things might prevent us from making this change, and how can we overcome them?
- What things might help us make this change, and how can we make use of them?
- What steps will we take?
Then ask each group to present their ideas back to the large group.
