Community Health Needs Assessment
Identify your neighborhood's most pressing health priorities and discover evidence-based programs designed to address them.
Community Health Needs Assessment
This interactive assessment helps identify the most pressing health challenges in your neighborhood. Answer six questions about conditions in your community, and we will generate a prioritized needs profile with recommended CC Health Dev programs that address each area.
About Our Assessment Methodology
The CC Health Dev Neighborhood Health Needs Assessment methodology has been peer-reviewed, published, and adopted by multiple state health departments.
Scientific Foundation
Our assessment framework integrates the CDC Community Health Assessment and Group Evaluation (CHANGE) model, the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) framework, and participatory action research principles developed through our decade-long partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity. The resulting hybrid methodology captures both quantitative population health data and qualitative community narratives that traditional epidemiological surveys miss.
Each Neighborhood Health Needs Assessment begins with a 45-item validated household health survey instrument that covers healthcare access, chronic disease burden, food security, housing stability, transportation barriers, environmental hazard exposure, mental health status, and social cohesion indicators. The survey was originally validated in a sample of 2,400 Baltimore households and has demonstrated strong internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.87) and test-retest reliability across diverse demographic groups.
Complementing the quantitative survey, our qualitative component involves 6 to 8 community focus groups stratified by age, gender, and neighborhood subsection, plus 12 to 15 key informant interviews with local healthcare providers, school nurses, faith leaders, and social service agencies. This mixed-methods approach ensures that assessment findings reflect lived community experience alongside population-level statistics.
Community Participatory Approach
What distinguishes the CC Health Dev assessment methodology from conventional public health assessments is our deep commitment to community participatory research principles. Rather than deploying external research teams, we recruit, train, and compensate 15 to 20 community data collectors from the target neighborhood for each assessment cycle. These community researchers complete 40 hours of training in survey administration, informed consent procedures, data quality protocols, and community engagement ethics.
Community data collectors work in partnership with local block captains, community association presidents, and faith congregation leaders to identify households, introduce the assessment purpose, and achieve representative sampling across all census blocks within the assessment area. This approach consistently produces response rates between 62% and 78%, far exceeding the 30 to 40% response rates typical of mailed health surveys in similar populations.
Upon completion, findings are presented in a series of community town halls where residents review, validate, and prioritize the identified health needs. This community validation step ensures that assessment recommendations reflect actual resident priorities and builds local ownership of the resulting health improvement initiatives. Our final deliverables include a comprehensive 200-plus-page assessment report, an executive summary for policymakers, interactive data dashboards, and grant-ready data packages that community organizations can use to secure funding for priority health interventions.
Published Assessment Reports
All completed Neighborhood Health Needs Assessment reports are publicly available to support transparency, community advocacy, and evidence-based policymaking.
East Baltimore NHNA (2023)
Comprehensive health profile of the East Baltimore Development Initiative area, covering 21 census tracts with a total population of 47,200. Key findings include persistent healthcare access barriers despite proximity to Johns Hopkins Hospital, elevated rates of diabetes and hypertension, and critical food access gaps in the 21205 and 21213 ZIP codes.
218 PagesPark Heights / Pimlico NHNA (2024)
Updated assessment of the Park Heights Master Plan area following the Pimlico redevelopment initiative, covering 18 census tracts with 38,600 residents. Priority findings include maternal health service gaps, environmental lead exposure risks in pre-1978 housing stock, and limited mental health crisis response capacity.
196 PagesCherry Hill / Brooklyn NHNA (2022)
Assessment of South Baltimore peninsula communities including Cherry Hill, Brooklyn, and Curtis Bay. Environmental health featured prominently due to proximity to industrial facilities. The assessment documented disproportionate childhood asthma rates and led to a successful EPA Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving grant application.
204 PagesBelair-Edison / Clifton Park NHNA (2024)
First-ever comprehensive health needs assessment of the Belair-Edison corridor, covering 24 census tracts with 52,100 residents. Key priorities identified include chronic disease self-management support gaps, food desert conditions in the northern section, and transportation barriers to specialty care at regional medical centers.
231 Pages