Asset Mapping

Introduction

Mapping the individual, civic, institutional, private and governmental assets in your neighborhood.

Overview

Learning to see our community as a glass "half full" instead of a glass "half empty" to mobilize community assets to meet our community's goals.

Page Index

  • Key Issues
  • Common Problems and Solutions
  • Successful Strategies
  • Annotated Web Resources
  • Topic Library
  • Sub-Topics and Vendors


    • Key Issues Related to this Topic

  • Neighborhood associations are the stewards of their community’s vision. By engaging local residents in sharing their fears and hopes for their neighborhood, a neighborhood association can help develop a community-wide vision that encompasses the diverse needs and interests of neighborhood residents and stakeholders. By developing a neighborhood vision and bringing community partners together to work toward that vision, neighborhood groups can add focus, energy and effectiveness to the work of block clubs, churches, businesses, schools, parks, libraries, city departments and private foundations.

  • In the Twin Cities, neighborhood groups emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, often starting with a "confrontational" organizing model and evolving toward a "win/win" or partnership organizing model. Organizing efforts in Twin Cities neighborhoods tended to focus more on meeting needs and solving problems in the 80’s and have shifted toward identifying, mobilizing and strengthening community assets in the 90’s.

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    Common Problems and Solutions

  • Expanding beyond a small core group. Every neighborhood group starts its work with a smaller group of dedicated residents and stakeholders. Following the motto "each one teach one" can help a core group of volunteers mentor new volunteer leaders to share the work load.

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    Successful Strategies

  • Bring in public and private partners. Once you have identified and mobilized your individual, civic and institutional assets from within your community the job of brining in matching resources from public agencies and private funders to help you meet your community’s goals will be much easier.

  • Engage local institutions. Your neighborhood’s park, school, police station, businesses, banks, hospitals and universities all have staff time, volunteer time, physical plants and resources which can be used for the benefit of your neighborhood.

  • Use the power of civic associations. Every neighborhood already has dozens of civic associations, including block clubs, churches, garden clubs, sports teams, bowling leagues and cultural associations. Neighborhood groups can become an "association of associations" mobilizing the talents and energy of all of the civic associations in a neighborhood to realize the community’s vision.

  • Identify individual assets. Each resident, property owner and business owner in your neighborhood has talents and resources to offer. One-on-one interviews, participatory group methods and individual asset surveys can be used to identify individual assets. Individual and family assets can be tracked on a map, in a rolodex or a database.

  • Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) has proven to be an effective way of revitalizing inner city neighborhoods, nation-wide. The premise of ABCD is that your volunteers and staff will have more energy to work for community change if you look at the glass as being "half full" instead of being "half empty." Effective groups must not only have "needs maps" but "asset maps" as well. In Kretchman and McKnight’s book on ABCD "Building Communities from the Inside Out," they recommend starting with mapping individual assets, then mapping the assets of civic associations in your community, then tracking the assets of community institutions and finally including the assets of government and private partners.

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    Annotated WebLinks

  • Local Asset Based Community Development Trainer
    Lyndale Neighborhood Association   06/14/04
    Lyndale staff and volunteers provide training to other neighborhoods on how to link residents to share their assets to meet one another's needs.

  • Asset-Based Community Development Institute
    Northwestern University's Institute for Policy Research   06/14/04
    The ABCD Institute spreads its findings on capacity-building community development in two ways: (1) through extensive and substantial interactions with community builders, and (2) by producing practical resources and tools for community builders to identify, nurture, and mobilize neighborhood assets.

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    Library

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    Vendors by Sub-Topic

    Asset Mapping Training  
        Alliance for Sustainability
        Asset-Based Community Development Institute
        BIHA Women in Action
        Community Leader.Com
        Freeport West
        Gameliel Foundation
        Great River Earth Institute
        Headwaters Fund
        Insitutute for Local Self-Reliance
        ISAIAH
        Lyndale Neighborhood Association
        Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program
        Powderhorn-Phillips Cultural Wellness Center


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