Assessing Communities

Before undertaking tobacco control activities and programs, a critical first step is to understand the impact of tobacco on the community and what the community would like to do about it. A community assessment can help you find specific ways to tailor and develop your activities and programs so they are culturally-appropriate and more effective at reaching your intended audience with the right message. Community assessments can also help to identify potential resources and partners, save money and avoid misdirection. Some important questions to ask are:

How important are tobacco issues to the community in relation to other issues? Can you intergrate tobacco with these other issues to make tobacco relevant?
What are the barriers that hinder the community from addressing tobacco prevention and control?
What level of impact does the tobacco industry have on encouraging tobacco use in the community?
Who in the community do you need to reach?
What does your community already know about tobacco control issues?
Who in the community could you meet, learn from and collaborate with?

Depending on the amount of time and resources available, you can opt for one or more of the following methods for conducting community assessments: focus groups, key informant interviews, surveys, community resources inventories, observations and opinion polls.

A creative and innovative approach to community assessment is through Community Participatory Research. This approach to research and data collection calls for a greater level of community participation and ownership at all levels and has its own benefits and challenges. Community participatory research highly values the process of community inclusion and strives to foster greater community empowerment.