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Felt Needs and Anticipatory Needs: Reformulation of a Basic Community Development Principle
Abstract
"Felt needs" is a basic concept in community development. Felt needs are changes deemed necessary by people to correct the deficiencies they perceive in their community. The use of felt needs in community development practice involves the process of identifying needs, ranking their importance, and building programs based on the ranking. A frequent application of the concept is the methodology of needs assessment as a technique to gather data used for program definition and design. This paper explains why the concept of felt needs is inadequate for contemporary community development practice and why the needs assessment methodology is not an appropriate basis for program design. Felt needs are products of a past-to-present orientation. Continuing to function on the basis of felt needs will contribute to community development becoming increasingly irrelevant and incapable of addressing today's major social and economic issues. Felt needs should be replaced by the concept "anticipatory needs," which identifies what needs to be done in order to move toward a specified future. Anticipatory needs are products of a present-to-future orientation. The distinction is critical to the practitioner because felt needs and anticipatory needs are very different "needs" and, therefore, lead to different programming activities and patterns of relationships with community groups.
... The second path that may be taken is a path on which there is a clear commitment to discovering the capacities and assets of a community (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993:1-2). According to Wade (1989), as part of the field's early conceptualisation, the emphasis on felt needs and problems was an important principle in community development during the 1920s and 1930s. Felt needs and problems has become such a basic element of community development that an activity that does not address a felt needs issue is not considered by most professionals to be proper community development. ...
... The deficiency-based approach is not designed to bring about change, but to improve community services, facilities and people's lives (Wade, 1989). The intention is to provide individuals and groups who are " left out " , with fuller access to the benefits of a democratic, industrial society. ...
... The intention is to provide individuals and groups who are " left out " , with fuller access to the benefits of a democratic, industrial society. Wade (1989) said: " The central goal is not change, but rather it is improving a community's services, facilities, living conditions and material well-being and upgrading the quality of social amenities " . Felt needs and problems identify perceptions of past problems as manifested in the present. ...
Since the abolition of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 the policies and practices of social and
community development has gained wide recognition as the most appropriate way to address
inequities in South African society. As a result, a wide variety of community training programmes
and models have been introduced and a great deal of resources have been invested in the training
of students in community development. However, up to now the outcomes have mostly been
disappointing. Most training programmes are based on the so-called top-down “expert approach,”
with deficiencies or deficits as the point of departure and an emphasis on felt needs, problems and
the role of the community developer as expert. This is problematic because the concept of felt
needs is inadequate for contemporary community development practice and a needs-assessment
methodology is not an appropriate basis for programme design. Felt needs are products of a pastto-
present orientation in which attempts are made to fix the past. Such an approach is incapable of
addressing South Africa’s social and economic problems (Wade, 1989).
... Study suggests any community education session is always helpful when it is designed according to the felt need of the community. 10 In this present study students had done this exercise using focus group discussion and based on the finding health educational session was planned. The benefit of the FGD is that it allows students to find out indepth information about the felt need of the community also to gather different views, perceptions and ideas of the villages. ...
Aim: "Swachh Bharat Summer Internship programme" is an initiative of Indian government to involve the youth of the country for cleanliness activity in the community. It was utilized by MBBS students of a university in Bathinda, India as a source of opportunity for community medicine learning and service in the community. Materials and Methods: A mixed method study was planned in the month of June 2019 to assess attitude of the community towards solid and liquid waste disposal, provide community service related with this and arrange health education sessions for waste disposal. Nukkad natak, focus group discussion and video clipping were used to educate community and data were collected. Cleaning of roads and market area were done as service to the community. Feedback from the community about different activities and from the students about the whole programme was collected & analyzed. Results: Findings of the study have shown that villagers had a huge interest for different newer methods which were utilized for community health educational session. Similarly students had also liked the community service sessions however finding shows that requires some improvement in qualitative research techniques. Conclusion: Community's positive attitude towards waste disposal should be utilized judiciously for improving environmental cleanliness of the village. Similarly Positive feedback by the students' necessities that authority should conduct more and more community service and learning exercise involving different education model.
... Felt need is one of the main concepts and principles in community development because it prioritises community needs identification, ranking the needs in order of importance and designing interventions based on the ranking (Wade, 1989;Onyenemezu & Olumati, 2013;Sheriff, 2020). In other words, felt needs are changes considered necessary by individuals in the community to eradicate the challenges perceived in their community. ...
There is increasing global interest in women empowerment and the ways in which rural women are involved and supported in community development. Women empowerment, a vital component of community development, is closely linked to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 5 in the United Nations Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which is geared toward achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls by the year 2030. While there is broad consensus about the importance of women empowerment for economic growth, scant attention is given to how community development principles inform community projects aimed at empowering women. Using a single-case study research design, the article explores the extent to which principles of community development (such as self-help, self-growth, felt need, citizenship participation, self-reliance and self-direction) are employed by a Nigerian-based non-governmental women’s organisation in empowering vulnerable and disadvantaged women in the rural context of Ondo State, Nigeria. A systematic document review of the organisation’s published bulletins, journal articles, annual reports and social media posts about its empowerment activities were analysed as part of the study. The case study shows that when women beneficiaries are actively and inextricably involved in the design and implementation of programmes intended to improve their livelihoods, the impact is exponential, and the results are achieved expeditiously. The article argues for community development programme planners and implementers to see women beneficiaries as active contributors and participants to their development instead of conceiving of them as passive recipients, and consumers of palliative interventions.
... Such collaboration is recommended by WHO but only aspired for in Indian settings [42,43]. Further, we focused on working on the felt need for canine vaccination, which is imperative for its acceptance [43,44]. Mass vaccination of dog in India are driven by Non-Governmental Organisations and dependent on trust based funding [45][46][47]. ...
Background
Annually, in India, millions of dog bite cases occur; most of them are inflicted by a stray dog. There are over 25 million dogs in the country. The rate of stray dog vaccination is suboptimal in India. This study aims to develop an intervention strategy, using Intervention Mapping framework, tailored for the target community to achieve canine rabies controlled zone.
Methodology
This is an exploratory, cross-sectional study conducted at a tertiary care Medical Institute at Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, from 2018–2019. The semi-structured, In-Depth Discussion was conducted with a multidisciplinary planning group comprising of members from veterinary, health, and administrative sectors. The In-Depth Discussion focused on knowledge regarding complete stray dog vaccination schedule, self-efficacy (to prevent dog bites), challenges, and barriers faced by residents to achieve canine rabies controlled zone. Further, discussion with veterinary stakeholders focused on challenges faced for rigorous implementation of stray dog vaccination and sterilization.
Results
In-Depth Discussion revealed the following challenges: Lack of participation by the study population for canine vaccination, incomplete knowledge about annual canine vaccination schedule, lack of understanding of dog gestures, lack of infrastructure and resources at veterinary hospitals. The majority of the dogs in the study area were stray dogs that were partially or non-vaccinated and non-sterilized. An intersectoral collaboration was achieved between the community members, veterinary stakeholders both private and Non-Governmental organisations, and heath sector. Following which 35 (76.0%) stray dogs were vaccinated, and 17 (35.4%) were sterilized with community support. Burden of dog bite cases also decreased. The stray dog density map was prepared, and community engagement activity on dog gestures was conducted.
Conclusion
The present study demonstrates the feasibility of achieving canine rabies controlled zone. When implemented in a phase-wise manner across all Medical and Residential complex, this strategy would ensure achieving canine rabies controlled zone through multi-stakeholder engagement.
... Three points must be considered in this deliberation: (1) the perspective of the management and relevant staff wanting to establish learning support (internal), (2) the perspective of those who are performing the role (external), and (3) an anticipation about the future of learning advisors trying to accomplish the felt need. According to Wade (2009), anticipating the needs involves an identification of what needs to be done in order to move toward a specified future. In short, anticipatory needs are products of a present-to-future orientation; not present-to-past framework. ...
Learning advisors are teaching professionals who play an important role in higher education. They exist in universities in order to help students achieve success in their studies and in their careers. However, learning advisors are faced with some key challenges. One issue is the seemingly vague and inferior position that they have in higher education. Another challenge includes the questions about where they belong and what key roles they perform. This paper responds to these challenges through the following propositions: (1) creating a unique and more nuanced understanding of learning advising by looking at an Australian university in Singapore, (2) making a stand that learning advisors constitute a duality of self or function, i.e., as an academic and as a professional, (3) explaining a paradigm shift in learning advising by embracing the humanistic and social constructivist ideologies, and (4) framing the role of learning advisors within key theoretical lenses that guide them in performing such roles in higher education. Examples of teaching practices are discussed by situating them within the key theoretical frameworks. This paper concludes that learning advisors are both academics (teachers) and professionals (e.g., learning resource developers) and teaching is at the core of what they do. Higher education institutions must become proactive in clarifying the misconceptions associated with learning advising and in breaking the labels associated with learning support that proliferate in the academe.
Keywords: Critical lens; learning advising; learning support; phenomenological lens; rhetorical lens; teaching and learning; teaching practices
... The community's needs map becomes the foundation of the mental map of professionals and the collective mind map of community members about their community and determines how problems are to be addressed (Kretzmann and McKnight, 1993). Problems are then prioritised, and this is followed by choosing a suitable community work model and designing, developing and implementing a deficiency-oriented plan, project or programme to address the needs (Nel, 2006;Wade, 1989). ...
The aim of the article is to reflect on the traditional problem-based approach to community development in relation to the asset-based community development approach (ABCD). Although the traditional approach to community development has some guarantee for survival and the improvement of services and facilities, it is likely to reinforce dependency and is not designed to bring about sustainable change. The ABCD approach seems to be an alternative and complementary approach. This approach is a collaborative process between community members and professionals, allowing them to work together to determine outcomes that draw on community members' strengths and assets. In community development it is necessary that people take up their power and gather some semblance of control in their lives to prevent problems becoming the road map of their lives.
... There are some certain conditions that need to exist for citizen participation. People become more effectively involved in public policy issues when governments or public organizations provide following conditions (Wade, 1989). Participation can be facilitated by: ...
Fragmented and complex nature of contemporary public policy problems require governments to change their traditional public administration approaches and force public administrators to provide involvement of all actors such as private firms, non-profit organizations, and citizens in policy making and implementation. In this diverse policy environment, using governance tools such as contracting out some public services, building networks, and establishing citizen participation mechanisms are considered as essential components of this new approach. Public administrators should not act as the only problem solver, but they should be facilitators in collaborative problem solving to mobilize the other actors. Along with the benefits of using these tools, there are some challenges for public administrators. Considering these difficulties, appropriate use of these tools provides public administrators to effectively address contemporary complex problems such as terrorism, drug abuse, emergency management, and healthcare crisis.
... According to Wade (1989), a developmental process starts from where people are and takes them to where they want to be. It is a series of forward looking or visionary processes he calls "anticipatory needs". ...
The article draws on the concepts of “felt needs” and “politics of listening” widely used in community development and applies them more broadly to the humanitarian crisis suffered by internally displaced persons in Burkina Faso. It investigates the two-way communication stream between radio journalists and listeners drawing on feedback collected remotely from 153 representatives of internally displaced and host communities in Burkina Faso during COVID-19. It argues that while a voice must be given to marginalised communities, it must also be listened to and acted upon. Rather than radio journalism being a loudspeaker for top-down messaging, the study argues that alternative approaches should be adopted in conflict- and pandemic-affected areas. It finds that a balance is needed between the information that listeners feel they need in their new extreme circumstances and the information that radio journalists, drawing on their expertise, feel would be strategically empowering.
Automated vehicles are potential disrupters of the mobility system and are expected to address inclusive mobility issues. Yet, the transition to their full implementation in cities is expected to face numerous challenges. While companies and governments interested in their future implementation have conducted pilots to understand better their implementation in cities, there is still a limited understanding of potential users' needs. This understanding becomes even more limited when considering vulnerable groups. To address this gap, we have developed a novel Serious Game named "A shuttle for everyone". We use it as a co-creation method to engage potential users, in this case, older adults in the Noordrand-Brussels region, Belgium. This study case contributes to the co-creation and transport literature as there is scarce research focused on developing new inclusive mobility public services. Three game sessions with older adults took place. The key identified needs are related to comfort, safety, ease of use, and accessibility. Our results confirm and complete previous automated vehicle studies. We can confirm that our Serious Game as a co-creation method has facilitated anticipatory needs identification. Understanding users' needs contribute to improving design and can help to create policy recommendations that aim for an inclusive implementation of automated vehicle mobility services.
Population growth and urbanisation have been causing tremendous stress on urban housing. Over the years, housing construction has emerged as an industry and became a major contributor to pollution, environmental issues and resource depletion. There is a threat of exhausting resources with respect to housing construction. A quick glance at the housing scenario, it can be observed that there is a huge disparity in demand and supply of housing, which is more evident across the less affordable classes of society. While there is shortage in supply for the urban poor, there is over utilisation of resources to satisfy the requirements of those who could spend beyond their affordability confines. This need to be addressed with respect to the resource allocation and such an attempt requires an understanding of human requirement for housing beyond the basic desires and needs. Various studies in social science and economics have put forward theories to explain the human needs, which can be found useful in understanding the housing needs also. This paper attempts to understand such theories and frameworks on human needs and develop a sustainable approach to refine the housing requirements across different socio cultural and economic categories. Based on the studies, a broad framework is proposed categorizing human housing needs into normative, comparative, felt and expressed which can be analysed based on personal economic and socio cultural attributes. Such a framework shall help the society address the conditions of imbalance in a broader standpoint with long-term benefits.
Over decades now, development-induced displacement and resettlement have taken place in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. To address the displacement and the resettlement problems, different resettlement policy strategies like total, partial and integration have been utilized. Yet, the resettlement policy strategies experimented with seemed to have not yielded any positive results. This paper investigates the extent to which they have affected the felt-needs of the communities and determined which is/are the most preferred among the policy strategies by the community members and the challenges affecting the strategies from realising the goal of resettlement in the FCT. To achieve the objectives, the study used quantities approach. Data were sourced from the respondents via questionnaire. Data collected were analysed descriptively and inferentially using means and t-test, respectively. Emerging findings indicate that total and partial resettlement is the most preferred by the community members because they influence their felt-needs positively. Total resettlement was found the most cherished by community members as it enables them to practice their ways of life freely without foreign cultural infiltration. Partial resettlement was also preferred because they felt that they should not be completely alienated from civilisation. However, integration was completely rejected. Among the challenges found inhibiting the effective implementation of the resettlement policy strategies in FCT include corruption, lack of funding, inadequate involvement of the community members in the implementation of resettlement policies among others. The study recommends the implementation of total and partial resettlement as policy strategies as well as mobilisation of adequate funds for resettlement exercise should be encouraged. Anti-corruption agencies should beam their search light on individuals and institutions saddled with responsibilities of implementing resettlement policy in the FCT since corruption was also found among the challenges confronting effective resettlement in the FCT.
What impact will the current attempts to reinvent government have? Is this effort doomed-like the planning, programming, budgeting system and zero-based budgeting-to be replaced before it has achieved its promise, or will it accomplish the desired change? An examination of the underlying structures that give rise to action suggests that myriad "structural conflicts" point to continued oscillation between goals and ultimately to disappointing results. Another type of structure, however, is designed to lead toward resolution, rather than oscillation. Through the use of appropriate strategies, managers may be able to establish a more effective structure and achieve the change they seek.
Community norms and values are important factors affecting the support of community-based development efforts. This is particularly the case when the programs are prevention efforts, including drug education programs. The purpose of this article is to describe a way to measure the readiness of a community to support drug prevention education. The readiness scale was based on the classic community development models of the social action process (Beal, 1964) and the innovation decision-making process (Rogers, 1994). Development of the scale was based on construction of 45 anchor rating statements for five dimensions of a prevention program and nine stages of community readiness. The community readiness scale was designed for use by community development practitioners working in the field of prevention, through key informants interviews with selected community leaders. Results from 45 communities indicated a bi-modal distribution of readiness levels. Implications of the results and experiences in developing and measuring community readiness are discussed in terms of community-based strategies and the potential to apply the concept of readiness to other areas of community development.
This 1998 Community Development Society (CDS) presidential address argues that soulpermeates community development but is often hidden and unspoken in the profession. Threemajor questions are explored: 1) what is soul; 2) why does soul need to be discussed within aresearch-based community development profession; and 3) how is soul integrated into communitydevelopment? The author draws upon a wide range of theoretical and empirical literature andcommunity development experiences to investigate soulful practices within the field. Thesepractices include wrestling with questions to engage community; creating a hospitable climate forpeople to tell their stories; living with the paradox of working within and against the dominantculture; building quality relationships; being still within the noise and activity of community; andgiving and receiving a blessing. The author asks community development scholars andpractitioners, "Isn't it time we talked openly about soul in community development?"
This article offers specific strategies for ensuring utilization of needs assessment findings. It is designed to help prevention specialists, community planners, program evaluators, and involved citizens maximize their efforts in developing community services by tying those services closely to community needs. Program evaluators who completed a broad-based community needs assessment commissioned by their organization, found that the organization had gone ahead in developing programs and saw the needs assessment findings as unrelated to their ongoing activities. Far from being unique, this situation is common in organizations where participants feel an urgency to get programs under way to address widespread community problems.
This study explores the concept of need in adult education literature in view of assessing its usefulness for practitioners and clarifying the issues which remain to be debated by researchers and practitioners alike. Several major uses of the term need are high lighted and McKinley's classification of diagnostic models sum marized. The following key issues are raised and discussed: whether need refers properly to both individuals and systems; who can best perceive need; the problem of shifting needs; and the critical relationship between needs and the operational philosophy of an institution. It is concluded that need assessment literature stresses technological at the expense of philosophical and normative considerations; that need assessment based solely on felt needs or on prescriptive needs is generally ineffective; and that need assess ment procedure generally favors adjustment and not education for transformation.
Energy, Society and Community
- Jerry Wade
- Betty Wells