Page 3 - Digital Skills - Quick Start Guide 1.0

UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET

A community needs assessment (CNA) is a
formal process that uses a variety of data to
offer your Goodwill tremendous learning
and ensures your mission services are in-
line with current and emerging community

need.

WHY CONDUCT A CNA?

Simply put, you need to plan for success. Out of
good intentions, programs and services are
implemented as a response to an assumption of
need. Sometimes the assumption may be correct,
other times it may not. A formal, fact-based CNA will
help find the data, facts and statistics to make sound Labor Market Information (LMI) is
decisions, allow your organization to strategically comprised of data that describes the
plan success, and gain the maximum return on economic conditions of a Goodwill territory.
investment of limited resources.

VALUE OF THE CNA
WHY IS LABOR MARKET
The CNA helps position you as a valued contributor INFORMATION USEFUL TO
to community planning and can help position your
organization to optimize return on mission GOODWILL®?
investment.
GII offers Labor Market reports for each local
Use the results of your CNA to develop a strategic Goodwill member using a tool called EMSI Analyst,
plan for mission services, to convince stakeholders which contains comprehensive information on
that there is an unaddressed need and that you can industries, occupations, and demographics — as
deliver results, and to leverage additional resources. well as data on occupation, education, and training.
Using data to back up decisions increases your
credibility and grounds your activities in fact. The reports on MyGoodwill are specific to your
Goodwill’s territory and are published monthly with
The Community Needs Assessment Toolkit offers the most up to date data. This online tool helps
you multiple resources to walk you step-by-step analyze data on labor market and economic
through the process. conditions within local Goodwill markets. This tool
supports workforce and business development
For a brief overview of the 9-step process, download professionals by providing market intelligence and
this CNA Checklist. assessment for business development and
workforce development programs.

2 DIGITAL SKILLS PROGRAMS – QUICK START GUIDE