+ What do you see?

+ Community Asset Mapping Is it a rabbit or a duck?

+ Standard View vs. Alternative View Needs-BasedAsset-Based Focuses on deficienciesFocuses on effectiveness Results for lack of response to local needs Builds interdependencies; knowing others in community that have similar interest allows you to gather for a common cause Focuses on service providers not residents; builds dependence Indentifies ways that people can give of their talents Maintenance and survival mentality Community development Residents positioned to be passive, powerless, and dependent on outside help and assistance Shifts power from outside to the people Key words: deficiencies and needs Key words: skills and talents, alternative, Community Driven, attention to social relationships, collaboration, self-reliant

+ Is Asset Mapping for You? How can local communities respond to pressing issues like restructuring, unemployment, the loss of social services, social isolation and dislocation? What avenues are open for people who have been marginalized and disadvantaged by economic and social change to participate as active contributors and builders of their communicates? How might local councils, government agencies and institutions support the contribution of the marginalized?

+ Goals Promotes community well-being Contribute local economic sustainability Relocate power Outgrow problem, redefine solution To enhance existing resources by developing and mobilizing (often unrecognized) assets that can be used by all stakeholders

+ So what is community asset mapping? In Building Communities from the Inside Out, Kretzmann and McKnight (1993) describe an alternative approach, one that recognizes that it is the capacities of local people and their associations that build powerful communities. The process of recognizing these capacities begins with the construction of a new lens through which communities can "begin to assemble their strengths into new combinations, new structures of opportunity, new sources of income and control, and new possibilities for production." (p. 6) “drawing a map of what is valuable in communities”

+ Get in the Right Mindset! Kretzmann and McKnight say ALL communities are gifted, resourceful, and capable Gifts are not gifts unless they are shared Gifts of the head Gifts of the hands Gifts of the heart

+ Primary Building Blocks Level 1—**Local Residents (1) Personal Income Gifts Individual Local Businesses Home-based enterprises Level 2—Associations & Organizations (2) Local Residents; unpaid Citizens’ Organizations Associations of Businesses Financial Institutions Cultural Organizations Religious Organizations Communications Organizations Secondary Building Blocks Level 3—Institutions (3) Group of people that are paid w/in the community but largely controlled by outsiders Private/Non-Profit Institutions Institutions of higher ed, hospitals, social services Public Institutions and Services Public Schools, Police, Fire Departments, Libraries, Parks Physical Resources (4) Vacant land Commercial and industrial structure Energy and waster Resources Potential Building Blocks Economy (5) Things that are shared, traded, purchased, exchanged Welfare Expenditures Public Capital Improvement Expenditures Public Information (i.e.. crime rates)

+ Strengthen link individual & community-level empowerment with a critical consciousness Paulo Freire (1970, 1973) “read” political and social reality Transform the status quo in the classroom and in personal lives Is a student powerless? Receiving knowledge Empowered to engaged in active dialogue and to challenge the conditions that kept them powerless

+ Community Profile Population Major ethnic, racial, cultural groups Household type Educational attainment Median house hold income Key industries Biggest employers Major occupations Etc……..

+ Community Asset Mapping Process 1. Develop a multidisciplinary team. 2. Examine and assess a current list of identified resources, services, and programs, and identify new ones. 3. Contact individual and community resources. 4. Develop and maintain a community resource guide, and map the assets

+ Individual Asset Research With each person, try to find out a few things: Two personal talents the person has Two learned skills the person has Two hopes or aspirations the person has for their community Two things the person believes everyone should know about the community

+ #1 Benefit IT IS FREE! Provides locations of resources and programs without imposing the pressure to find funding

+ Successful communities know… …what they have.. …What they want to do …Decide how they want to do it …Take action and do it

+ Is the glass half full or half empty?

+ Resources Minkler, M. (2002) “Mapping Community Capacity” in Community Organizing and Community Building for Health (Chapter 10). Retreived from books.google.combookshl=en&lr=&id=UE6Fy3ZETq0C&oi=fnd&pg =PA157&d=asset+mappin +history&ots=hP1MJLByYL&sig=Xcu5isLh5hZ6Jl777h1y7IphRbk#v= onepage&q&f=false Cameron, J. Gibson, K. (2001 )“Shifting Focus Alternatives Ways for Communities and Economies”. Latrobe City and Monash University. Retrieved from Cunningham, G., & Mathie, A. (January 2002). “From Clients to Citizens: Asset-Based Community Development as a Strategy For Community-Driven Development”. The Coady International Institute. Retrieved from about_publications_occasional_citizens.html Community Asset Mapping: A Critical Strategy for Service”. Bonner Curriculum: Community Asset Mapping. Retrieved from Kerka, S. (2003) “Community Asset Mapping”. Trends and Issues Alertt. 47. Retrieved from