LibGuides: Refugee Legal Clinic: Advocacy

Needs Assessment Resources

The Needs Assessment Kit by James Altschuld (Editor)
Call Number: Cowles Stacks HD30.28 .A38852 2010
This set of five slim volumes covers all aspects of the process and is geared towards decision makers in a variety of environments.
v. 1 An Overview
v. 2 Getting Started
v. 3 Collecting Data
v. 4 Analysis and Prioritization
v. 5 Taking Action for Change
Planning and Conducting Needs Assessments: A Practical Guide by Belle Ruth Witkin; James Altschuld
Call Number: Cowles Stacks HD30.28 .W595 1995
This book is intended for a broad audience and uses examples from a variety of settings.

A Community Action Guide to Comprehensive Community Needs Assessments
Developed by the National Association of Community Services Programs, this resource covers defining the scope of the project, creating a plan, designing data collection, implementing the plan, and creating the assessment report. It also includes a variety of helpful appendices.
Community Needs Assessment Guide
This guide from the Cesar Chavez foundation provides an overview of the steps in the needs assessment process but has a service learning focus. It provides a nice summary of different approaches for gathering data along with their advantages and disadvantages. It also offers steps for data collection, conducting surveys, and conducting focus groups.

Rather than providing a road map to the process, the following links connect to post-assessment reports, but these still include a description of the process that was used in conducting the needs assessment, and unlike the sources above, all relate to the provision of legal services.

Immigrant Integration Surveys
The Catholic Legal Immigration Network offers data collection tips and model surveys to help agencies integrate immigrants into the community.
Comprehensive Needs Assessment & Priority Setting
This page from the Legal Services Corporation links to reports and assessment tools from legal service providers in a variety of states.
Needs Assessments and Impact Studies
The ABA maintains this site that links to state needs assessments and impact studies that examine the social return on investment (the financial value created by an organization through delivery of services to the community) of legal service programs.
Legal Needs Assessment
This report from Northeast Legal Aid is an example of an assessment that focused on identifying the most pressing legal needs of low-income and elderly residents.
Legal Needs Surveys and Access to Justice
This publication from the OECD can be downloaded free of charge. "It sets out a framework for the conceptualisation, implementation and analysis of legal needs surveys and is informed by analysis of a wide range of national surveys conducted over the last 25 years."

The following links will execute searches in the library's catalog for materials on specific types of assessment tools and on information visualization.

Community Education Resources

Other Resources

Asylum Seekers Advocacy Project (ASAP)

Legal Toolkits
Offers guidance on specific topics, such as representing an asylum seeker at the border.
Sample Documents
Includes examples of a variety of notices, credible fear interview worksheet, request for evidence, and more.
Other Resources
Links to educational videos and infographics, FAQs, and other helpful information.

Tracking and Commenting on Proposed Regulations

Federal Register (federalregister.gov)
Allows the public to submit comments on proposed federal regulations as well as search for proposed regulations by agency or keyword. Also allows you to subscribe to agency alerts.
Federal Register Subscription Options
This provides a general explanation of how you can subscribe to receive different types of Federal Register subscriptions. Among the places you will see subscription options are agency pages.
Using Federalregister.gov to Stay on Top of Regulatory Changes
Regulations.gov
A U.S. government portal for viewing proposed and final regulations of executive branch agencies and commenting on proposed regulations. Allows you to subscribe to docket alerts.
Regulations.gov Subscription
See the subscriptions heading in the FAQ menu.
How to Effectively Comment on Regulations
Advice from Adam Looney, former civil servant and current Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution

Refugee Legal Clinic: Advocacy

Needs Assessment Resources

Community Education Resources

Other Resources

Asylum Seekers Advocacy Project (ASAP)

Tracking and Commenting on Proposed Regulations

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