A key element of PACE-EH is a community assessment focused on environmental health and environmental justice issues. It is a collaboration among a wide variety of people and organizations in Multnomah County who have a stake in community health. Throughout the PACE-EH assessment process, community members will work closely with members of the PACE-EH coalition, which includes representatives from community organizations, neighborhoods, local businesses, and County health officials.

What is community assessment?
First and foremost, a community assessment is of the community, by the community, and for the community. This means that community members themselves play a major role in deciding the activities of the assessment.

A crucial goal of community assessments is that communities help determine both what type of information is important to gather, and how that information should be collected. A community assessment strives to collect information that is physically, socially, and culturally accessible to the community. Community assessments typically use many ways to gather information, with an emphasis placed on those methods that empower individuals and communities.

This type of assessment is often called participatory action research (PAR) or community-based participatory research (CBPR). These processes aim to engage community members as equal partners alongside researchers in defining the problems, collecting information, and analyzing the data. All activities are geared toward locally relevant action for social change. Some examples of community-based assessment activities include community meetings, neighborhood walking tours, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, house parties, taking pictures, door-to-door surveys, and phone/mail surveys. To learn more about these types of research, check out our Links page.