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There is one note of caution as you do these consultations with your community, and particularly with those you are hoping to serve. When you begin sharing your dream and asking people questions about their needs, they will often get excited about the possibilities, and perhaps even start to form expectations of having their needs met. Creating expectations that you cannot meet can be an unfortunate, albeit unintended, consequence of consultations with your community and potential clients. It can also be argued that, in asking a client group about their needs, you may actually “create” a perception of need where one did not exist before. It is therefore helpful, as you do the needs assessment, to consider the following:
- When doing your inquiries, make it very clear that your intention at this point is only to gather information in order to determine the potential needs of the community, and that the creation of services to meet any needs is in no way a certainty.
- Following your inquiries, ask those whom you are consulting what their expectations are of you, and for having their needs met in the future. Use this as an opportunity to correct any misperceptions they might have about what you are able to deliver.
- Be sure to seek information to assess and confirm the community need from a variety of sources, not just the client group. Other sources can provide additional or alternative viewpoints regarding the need.
Carefully consider the timing of your consultations with the client group. You might decide, for instance, that it is important to first seek information from schools, community associations, recreational groups, and other community services regarding the need for an after-school recreational program before speaking with the young people themselves. After speaking with these groups, you might discover that a better coordination of the existing services is what is required. By waiting to talk with the youth, you have avoided disappointing them with discussion of a new recreational program that may not actually be warranted or feasible.
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