Assessing Community Needs and Resources:
Identifying Community Assets and Resources
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WHAT IS A COMMUNITY ASSET?
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WHY SHOULD YOU IDENTIFY COMMUNITY ASSETS?
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WHO SHOULD IDENTIFY COMMUNITY ASSETS?
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WHEN SHOULD YOU IDENTIFY COMMUNITY ASSETS?
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HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY COMMUNITY ASSETS?
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MAPPING COMMUNITY ASSETS
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USING THE COMMUNITY ASSETS YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED
Many community organizations focus on the needs or deficits of the community. Every community has needs and deficits that ought to be attended to.
But it is also possible to focus on assets and strengths -- emphasizing what the community does have, not what it doesn't. Those assets and strengths can be used to meet those same community needs; they can improve community life.
To draw upon a community's assets, we first have to find out what they are. So in this section, we will focus on identifying community assets and resources. We'll also show how they can be harnessed to meet community needs and to strengthen the community as a whole.
WHAT IS A COMMUNITY ASSET?
Our definition is broad. A community asset (or community resource, a very similar term) is anything that can be used to improve the quality of community life. And this means:
- It can be a person -- Residents can be empowered to realize and use their abilities to build and transform the community. The stay-at-home mom or dad who organizes a playgroup. The informal neighborhood leader. The firefighter who risks his life to keep the community safe. These are all community assets.
- It can be a physical structure or place -- a school, hospital, church, library, recreation center, social club. It could be a town landmark or symbol. It might also be an unused building that could house a community hospice, or a second floor room ideal for community meetings. Or it might be a public place that already belongs to the community -- a park, a wetland, or other open space.
- It can be a community service that makes life better for some or all community members - public transportation, early childhood education center, community recycling facilities, cultural organization.
- It can be a business that provides jobs and supports the local economy.
- You and everyone else in the community are potential community assets. Everyone has some skills or talents, and everyone can provide knowledge about the community, connections to the people they know, and the kind of support that every effort needs - making phone calls, stuffing envelopes, giving people information, moving equipment or supplies - whatever needs doing. This suggests that everyone in the community can be a force for community improvement if only we knew what their assets were, and could put them to use.
One student of communities, John McKnight, has noted:
"Every single person has capacities, abilities and gifts. Living a good life depends on whether those capacities can be used, abilities expressed and gifts given."
WHY SHOULD YOU IDENTIFY COMMUNITY ASSETS?
- They can be used as a foundation for community improvement.
- External resources (e.g., federal and state money) or grants may not be available. Therefore, the resources for change must come from within each community.
- Identifying and mobilizing community assets enables community residents to gain control over their lives.
- Improvement efforts are more effective, and longer-lasting, when community members dedicate their time and talents to changes they desire.
- You can't fully understand the community without identifying its assets. Knowing the community's strengths makes it easier to understand what kinds of programs or initiatives might be possible to address the community's needs.
- When efforts are planned on the strengths of the community, people are likely to feel more positive about them, and to believe they can succeed. It's a lot easier to gain community support for an effort that emphasizes the positive - "We have the resources within our community to deal with this, and we can do it!" - than one that stresses how large a problem is and how difficult it is to solve.
WHO SHOULD IDENTIFY COMMUNITY ASSETS?
Community members of all stripes and from all sectors should be involved in identifying assets. One reason here is the commitment to participatory process that you'll find in most Community Tool Box sections. An even more important one, however, is that community members from a broad range of groups and populations are far more likely to identify assets that may not be apparent to everyone. The community's perception of what constitutes an asset or a resource is at least as legitimate as the "standard" list of institutions and people with specific skills.
A number of garbage-strewn, overgrown empty lots in a neighborhood can be seen as an eyesore and a neighborhood shame. But those lots can also be seen as open space that can be turned into playgrounds, pocket parks, and farmers' markets with volunteer labor that in itself provides a neighborhood community-building opportunity. Community perception is crucial, because seeing something as an asset can make it possible to use it as one.
WHEN SHOULD WE IDENTIFY COMMUNITY ASSETS?
EVERY DAY. BUT HERE ARE SOME SITUATIONS WHEN IT'S ESPECIALLY DESIRABLE TO DO SO:
- When you are conducting a community assessment and need to find assets to mobilize to address community needs.
- When the community includes talented and experienced citizens whose skills are valuable but underutilized.
- When you can't provide traditional services, even if you wanted to, and are looking for other ways to build up the community.
- When you want to encourage residents to take pride in and responsibility for local concerns and improvements.
- When you want to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones that will promote successful community development in the future.
HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY COMMUNITY ASSETS?
Access Checklist, Examples, Tools, & PowerPoint.