Needs Assessment A Systematic Approach to Data Collection

The idea of collecting citizen input before making decisions that would affect the lives of the citizens is fundamental to a democratic society where the people in power are supposed to serve the citizens. Collecting this information becomes crucial when it is the citizens money that would be spent by those in power. Needs Assessment: A Systematic Approach to Data Collection provides a road map for collecting citizen input whereby the input is reliably collected and honestly used, especially in the age of the connected citizen who has numerous digital ways of making oneself heard. As is the case in any scientific method, this book offers a treatment that can be conducted by anyone who is able to follow the directions in the book correctly. This makes the process repeatable and testable, both of which are critical to the scientific method. For the recreation practitioner, this book would show the best practices of collecting citizen data and, most important, allow the recreation professional to recognize the unscientific attempts at citizen data collection and be wary of information generated by less reliable methods.