Chapter 15 – Asset Mapping

Chapter 15 – Asset Mapping

One of the first examples of community mapping was done in the 1890’s by settlement house pioneers, such as Jane Addams at Hull House in Chicago, who did a sociological survey of the neighborhood and published Hull House Maps and Papers. More recently, John McKnight and John Kretzmann of the Asset Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University have developed a process of using “asset mapping.”

McKnight and Kretzmann have attempted to change the way professionals look at communities. Instead of seeing communities as a glass that is half empty- i.e. looking at all the problems in a community (drugs, crime, abandoned housing), they argue that professionals should look at the glass as half full and map the assets in a community (schools, community centers, green space, etc.).

On the practical level, asset mapping is the task of identifying the resources available to a given community. There are a variety of benefits to mapping assets or cataloging resources; and there are a variety of ways to go about it. What you want to achieve by mapping a community’s assets should guide how you collect the information.

Reasons to Conduct Asset Mapping

  • Get to know the community better so you don’t appear ignorant.
  • Discover the focus of people’s energy; What are they passionate about?
  • Identify and draw individuals and local associations into the community building process.
  • Compile information that will be useful in making presentations about the community or in grant applications.
  • Create interest and build relationships among people in the community.
  • Increase the probability of success by building on an already existing resource.

Ways to Conduct Asset Mapping

  • Pull statistics off the web or out of the planning department.
  • Brainstorming. At a meeting, ask participants to think of all the things they have in their neighborhood that they like.
  • Walk around the neighborhood and make notes about what you see.
  • Survey residents about their community, hobbies, and interests. Surveys can be door to door, telephone, mail, or using a drop box. A sample survey is attached (reference f).

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