Assessment is the first step of planning health activities for the
community. There are many methods of collecting the data on population groups. Some of us are very skilled in assessing individuals, but how do you measure the health of a community?

You may want to start with a "windshield survey". Drive through the community you are interested in. What do you see? Roll down the window. Do you smell anything? What do you hear? Remember that you might see a very different community during the day than the night.

You can generate your own data through "key informant" interviews, questionnaires, surveys and observation. Or you can review data that has been collected by others. For example, annual reports of organizations, standard data sets collected by the government (birth and death rates, for example), or even documents like Healthy People 2010 or Healthy Minnesotans can be very useful.

1. Healthy People 2010 http://www.health.gov/healthypeople/default.htm
2. Healthy Minnesotans: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/chs/phg/intro.html