The community barometer: a breast health needs assessment tool for community-based organizations

This article presents findings from the ACCESS Project focusing on the impact of an outreach initiative that used "data sharing" as a mechanism to establish a wide variety of academic-community partnerships for cancer awareness. The Community Barometer, a brief needs assessment tool developed for this purpose, was used to collect data from clients, and sometimes staff members, of a variety of community-based organizations in New York City. Over a 5-year period, Barometer data were collected from 1,001 women who were affiliated with 20 community-based organizations. Analysis of these data supported our hypothesis that community-based organizations are more likely than chance to serve women with similar needs and preferences for breast health education and screening and that customized or tailored programs were warranted. Four case studies are presented. Limitations of the instrument and its administration in community settings as well as future research objectives are discussed.