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Asset Based Community Development

Asset MappingWhat is Asset-Based Community Development?ABCD is a place-based framework pioneered by John McK-night and Jody Kretzmann founders of the ABCD Institute atNorthwestern University. Its foundation rests on a few simpletruths: 1) everyone has gifts, 2) everyone has something to con-tribute, and 3) everyone cares about something and that pas-sion is his or her motivation to act.

Strong, safe, and healthy neighborhoods and communities arebuilt on the strengths and capacities of their residents and as-sociations that call the community home. We cannot buildstrong caring neighborhoods without unlocking the potentialof residents. e most powerful question we can ask is “Whatcan we do with what we already have to get what we need?”

e traditional approach to delivering health and human serv-ices focuses on providing services from the outside to addressthe community´s and its residents´ needs and deficits. eABCD approach starts with discovering the assets and gifts al-ready present in the community. is is followed by asking resi-dents to share their gifts and connecting people with the samepassions to act collectively and provide care. e essence ofABCD and Asset Mapping is Discover, Ask and Connect.

It is the capacities oflocal people and their

associations that buildpowerful communities.

What can we do withwhat we already have…

to get what we need.

To improve individual and family well-being requires communities, neighborhoods and their residents to be involved as coproducers of their own and their community’s well-being. Everyone has something to contribute and we need their “gifts and assets”. Using the principles of Asset-Based Community Development and asset mapping we can help create powerful community partnerships to build healthier, safer and stronger neighborhoods and communities.

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The Path of Residents

Client: People as recipientsof service.

Advisor: People as advisorsfor institutional action.

Producer: Coproducers oftheir own and community

well being

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Asset Based Community Deevelopment

Asset MappingThe Role for Residents/Our ClientsTraditionally, individuals have been relegated to one role, that of arecipient of service--a client, customer, or patient. As clients, individualsare objects of service, dependent on the professionals and institutions fortheir overall well-being.To unlock the power of community, we need torethink how to view individual residents. We must acknowledge residents’skills and identify their existing resources. We must expand their rolesbeyond that of a client to include serving as advisers, helping institutionsprovide more useful services. But their greatest value is that of producersof their own and their community’s well-being. Rather than just askingpeople what do you need, we need to ask “What can you contribute?”

Residents in the most successful and effective systems participate inall three roles. If a person breaks his leg, for example, he is rightfullyidentified as a client or patient. If an individual has particular knowledgeabout her neighborhood and its residents, she may advise an agency onhow to most effectively serve the neighborhood and to define whatservices the neighborhood actually wants/needs. As coproducers,residents become part of the solution. If we want to make sure thatevery household with young children has age-appropriate books tohelp them learn to read, neighborhood parents who have a passionfor reading can organize a book drive. is activity does not requireinstitutional or government resources.

True resident engagement requires institutions, funders,local governments and nonprofits to lead by stepping back tocreate space for residents to be involved as producers.

To help you create opportunities for your clients to be involved ascoproducers, here are five questions for you to answer about your work and your clients:

1) What can residents do by themselves for themselves? (We donot really need to do it for them.)

2) What can residents do with a little help from institutions?

3) What do residents need done that they can’t do? (Only we can do it.)

4) What can we stop doing to create space for resident action?

5) What can we offer to the community beyond the services we deliver tosupport resident action?

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The effective framework to createhealthy children must includeresident action, neighborhoodaction and institutions doing onlythose things they can uniquely doand stepping back to create spacefor citizen and community action.

We must believe that everyone has gifts thatcan be shared to build a stronger neighborhoodor community.

Relationships build a community; we need to takethe time to build relationships as the first step inengaging residents.

Place-based citizen-centered organizations are thekey to community engagement. To effectively engageresidents they need to be involved from the beginningto provide input and direction to the effort; not merelyto provide input after the plan has been developed.

Leaders involve others as active members of thecommunity. Effective leaders are connectorsencouraging people with the same passions towork collectively for the common good.

Everyone cares about something and whathe or she cares about is his or her motivation toact. We must start by discovering what peoplecare about and then ask them to get involved.

Listening conversations discover passions andgifts. e simple process of asking questions ratherthan giving answers invites stronger participationand engagement.

Institutional leaders must recognize that theyhave reached their limits in problem solving.To be effective in today’s world they need theresources of the community and residents toachieve the results the community needs. erole of institutions becomes one of helping toremove barriers so that the people they serve canbecome producers of their own and theircommunity’s well-being.

As coproducers, residentsbecome part of the solution.If we want to make sure thatevery household with youngchildren has age-appropriatebooks to help them learn toread, neighborhood parentswho have a passion forreading can organize abook drive. is activitydoes not require institutionalor government resources.


Asset Mapping

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Discover-Ask-Connect From Mapping to Mobilizinge goal of this tool goes beyond identifying the needsof neighborhood families and children to drive agencyservice. e ultimate measurable goal is to increase thenumber of residents who are actively involved in thelives of the children and their families in their neigh-borhood.

Asset Mapping is not just another list of resources. Itis a strategy to identify assets that are available fromwithin the community, more importantly it’s a processfor connecting and engaging the community and tounlock the talents of people to help solve problems andbuild a better community.

e asset mapping process must be led and conductedby the residents that call the neighborhood home.Because it is about relationships and asking people toshare their gifts with their neighbors, Asset Mappingwill not be as effective if it is done by professionalsfrom outside of the neighborhood.

We have to be very purposeful in implementing thethree steps of resident engagement.

Ask people to get involved, and share their giftsaround the issues they care about.Connect people with the same passions to act collec-tively for the common good.

Connect

1. Commit the staff resources forneighborhood organizing activities.

2. Identify a resident leadership team ofconnectors to guide the work in theidentified neighborhood.

3. Support the resident leadership team to gothrough the Resident Engagement/AssetMapping process and develop a plan for action.


Asset Mapping

Discover Ask

Use learning conversations to Discover the giftsandpassions of the residents

To Increase CommunityEngagement Organizations must:

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erefore, the work of the project is to identify theneighborhood residents who have a passion for theirneighborhood. ey can lead the effort and createthe Resident Leadership Team to conduct theAssetMapping process.

Resident Engagement/ Asset Mapping Process

Step 1: Create a Resident Leadership Teamof Connectors.e most effective method to identify potentialconnectors/leaders is to ask the local associations(places of worship, neighborhood associations,service clubs, etc.) who are some of the mostactive connectors in their association.

Key Attributes of a Resident TeamMember:

People who have a passion for their neighborhoodand the health of its residents.Tip: Organizations do not

work together - People Do

Working together should notbe rushed - It takes time tobuild trust and relationships

Effective partnerships arebased on:

A common purpose;

Relationships; and

Trust

When key people change, as-sume the partnership re-sets tozero - Therefore wemust al-ways be focused on building re-lationships and trust.


Asset MappingThe following outlines the9 Asset Mapping Steps todevelop greater communityengagement by the residentsin an identified neighborhood.

People who are respected in their neighborhood.

People who have gotten things done in their associations.

People who will to commit the time necessary.

People who have a history of being“connectors”(A lot of relationships).

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Step 2: Resident Leadership Team Identifiestheir initial neighborhood boundaries.Ask the Resident Leadership Team to identify the boundaries ofthe neighborhood they call home and are willing to be responsible for.

Step 3: Resident Leadership Team draws aninitial asset map of their neighborhood.Tape a large piece of paper on the wall and have the teamdraw the boundaries, streets, and most importantly theassets of their neighborhood.

Step 4: Resident Leadership Team creates a gifts survey toidentify the gifts and passions of the residents in the neighborhoodCreate a short interview survey that can be used to identify residents,their address, and the gifts (skills, knowledge and abilities) they arewilling to share and their passions (the issues they care about somuch that they are willing to get involved if asked).

Step 5: Conduct in-person conversations with neighborhoodresidents to identify resident gifts and passions.Use the Snowball interviewing technique tointerview people in the neighborhood.•Have the Resident Leadership Team interview each other.•Ask the Team to interview 5-10 of their friends who live inthe neighborhood.•Ask the people they interview to interview 5-10 of theirfriends that live in the neighborhood. Etc.

Tip:Never interview anyone youdo not know. This step willgenerate a significant numberof completed surveys withoutanyone having to interview some-one they do not know. If you inter-view someone you do not know, youwill not get theinformation you need to ask them toget involved.

Tip:Do not just hand thequestionnaires out or put themin the back of the church orask people to fill it out onthe internet. It is importantto conduct face-to-faceconversations so that youcan build stronger relationships.Remember this is aboutrelationships and actionnot just data in a database.

Sample Initial Asset Map



Asset Mapping

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Step 6: Resident Leadership Team adds the residents to the asset map.Have the Resident Leadership team come together to map the residents

using the following three step process:

1. Group the surveys by what people care about – that is theirmotivation for action.

2.Assign a different colored sticky dots to each passion(i.e. Kids/Red, Seniors/Blue, Safety/Yellow, Animals/Green, etc.)

3.Write the residents name on the sticky dot and place it onthe map where they live.



Asset Mapping

Step 7: Resident Leadership Team connects residents that liveclose together with the same passions and ask them to come togetherto share their gifts to accomplish something related to their passion.e goal is always to increase the number of people that are sharingtheir gifts to increase their neighborhood’s well-being and the easiestway to do that is to create small groups of residents workingtogether around something they all care about.

Starting with the people that live closest to each other, theResident Leadership Team members should reach out topeople with the same passion, bring them together and askthem to do something in support of their passion to improvetheir neighborhood. e Resident Leadership Team shouldalso reach out to the organizations (agencies, governmentaloffices and businesses in the neighborhood) to connectthem to the work of the residents.

Tip: Youmight want to

ask your local governmentalplanning body to providethe team a largemapwithstreets and addresses somake it easier to map theresidents’ actual addresses.This is an example of an assetan institution could contributeto help increase community en-gagement.

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Step 8: Grow the Connections – People, Associations and Organizations.Continually ask people to bring more residents, associations andorganizations into the action. e Resident Leadership Team canalso use the map to identify areas were you have not identifiedanyone. ey can then go back to the people that are engagedand ask “Do you know anyone that lives on “X” Street or streets.

e Resident Leadership Team needs to be continually working toincrease the number of engaged residents, associations and organizations.Everyone should always be on the look-out on how they can help identifythe gifts and passions of other residents they know and ask them toget involved. e map should always be growing and evolving as morepeople, associations and organizations are brought into the process.

Tip: For long-term sustainability of theResident Leadership Team and its work, theResident Leadership Team should also alwaysbe on the lookout for residents that would liketo become part of the Resident LeadershipTeam and nurture their development.

Step 9: Recognize and Celebrate successes.To sustain and grow engagement and action we need to always take timeto recognize and celebrate our successes. Keep it fun!

Tip: Asset Mapping Lessons from Broadway United Methodist Church – Indianapolis, IN

Begin with what’s already there--and use it.

Involve yourself in what others are doing (not the other way around)

Stop doing what’s not working.

Act human.

Go to the people seen as broken and ask for their help.

Know that change is slow.

There will be drama. Thereis also forgiveness.

Recognize that everyonehas the capacity to discover gifts and build community.

Celebrate constantly.

INVITE, INVITE, INVITE!

Complied by April Doner



Asset Mapping

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Questions to help assess yourorganization’s readiness toconduct asset mapping.•What is your organization’srelationship to communityresidents?

•How accountable is yourorganization to the people andcommunity it serves?

•How does your service define andengage constituents? What powerdo they have?

•How does your service strengthencommunity relationships and socialcapital?

•What can you do to makeyour service more asset-based?

•Who do you hire fromthe neighborhood?

•What neighborhoodgroups do you belong toor meet with regularly?

•How do you relate toschools, churches, and CBOsin your neighborhood?

•What do you feel youcontribute to the neighborhoodand what else mightyou contribute?

•Are neighborhood people on yourboard of directors, advisory groups,or committees?

e role of agencies and programs should notbe to just provide services to meet client needs.e most effective role you can play is to workto remove barriers so that the people you servehave the opportunity to share their gifts andbe a producer of their own and theircommunity’s well-being.

To begin your asset mapping journey itis important to better understand how yourorganization currently interacts with yourcommunity and the people you serve andasses your readiness to begin the process. equestions found in the sidebar can help youdevelop an effective plan to build strongerrelationships with your community and theindividuals and families you serve.

How your Project Can Unlock Gifts and Make a Greater Difference


Asset Mapping

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Once you are ready to start you shouldbegin by taking a deeper look at your ownneighborhood/community and your ownorganization from an asset perspective bycompleting an asset profile of your neighbor-hood /community and your organization. It isimportant that you know your community andorganization from an asset lens before youbegin to connect with the community. See ap-pendix A for Sample community profile andsee appendix B for Sample agency asset profile.Blanks of these can be found in appendix Cand D respectively.

From an asset perspective you will beginto see your organization as more than just theservices your offer to your clients. You candiscover all of the other things you can offerto your clients and their community to betterengage them as coproducers of their own andtheir community’s well-being. For example,your meeting rooms for Resident LeadershipTeam meetings, your computers that couldbe used by the residents for job searches andto create resumes, or your vacant lot thatcould be used for the neighborhoodscommunity garden.

Community / Organizational Asset Identification Tools


Asset Mapping

You can also use the Agency Asset Profile tomap the assets of other organizations in yourneighborhood / community that you wouldlike to partner with. To complete the AssetProfile about other organizations it is impor-tant to take the time to build relationshipswith key staff members of the other organiza-tions. Just like the neighborhood asset map-ping you cannot get the information you needabout what the other organizations have tooffer without taking the time to build trustingrelationships.

To help you identify the associations and or-ganizations in your community that you wouldlike to connect with you might want to com-pete the Association/Organization PartnershipIdentification Tool in Appendix E.

Once you have the information about theother organizations in your community youcan also share that information with the Resi-dent Team Leaders you are working with, tohelp them better connect the organizations intheir neighborhood with their work.

Once you complete your Agency AssetProfile you should share it with theResidentLeadership Team and talk abouthow theycould use your agency’s assets tohelp engagetheir neighborhood residents.

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It truly takes a village to raise a child and through assetmapping your organization can help create strong, safer andhealthier neighborhoods that can come together to raisetheir healthy and productive children.

Once you have taken a look at your community andyour own organization from an asset lens and identifiedthe resources and assets the next step is to help create ResidentLeadership Teams in the neighborhoods you have targeted.With your training and support the Resident LeadershipTeams can then begin the asset mapping process in theirown neighborhood. As part this process you should shareyour agency’s assets and how you can help them engage theirneighborhood residents as co-producers of their own andtheir community’s well-being. You should also sharethe asset information you have collected about otherorganizations in their community and helpthem connect with the organizations.

Together, organizations and residents canmake adifference by focusing on what they have rather thanwhat they aremissing.

Putting it All Together


Asset Mapping

e process starts with your organization adopting anasset-based perspective and seeing your clients andtheir neighborhoods as filled with resources thatyou can use together to help achieve greater results.e key question becomes “What can you contribute?”not just “What do you need?”

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Appendix A - Sample Communtiy Asset profile


Asset Mapping

Sample Community Profile

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Appendix B - Sample Agency Asset Profile Tool


Asset Mapping

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Appendix C - Blank Community Asset Profile Tool


Asset Mapping

Appendix A: Community Asset Profile Template

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Appendix D - Blank Agency Asset Profile Tool


Asset Mapping

Personnel Materials andEquipment

Space and Facilities

Expertise

tionsConstituents Economic PowerNetworks of Connec-

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Appendix E - Association / Organization Partnership Identification tool

You can add as many circles as you need to expandyour partnerships and oppertunities


Asset Mapping

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Appendix F - ABCD Resources


Asset Mapping

ABCD Websites:

ABCD Institute - http://www.abcdinstitute.org/

ABCD in Action – Online ABCD Community -http://abcdinaction.org

Abundant Community – Stories of ABCD -http://www.abundantcommunity.com

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http://www.abundantcommunity.com

http://abcdinaction.ning.com/

http://www.abcdinstitute.org/

www.hdanilesduncanconusulting.org

Clear Impact provides performance management software, training and services to help government agencies, non-profits, communities, and foundations track the performance of their programs, measure the impact of their funding, and report on the progress of their missions to improve the lives of children, families and communities worldwide.

Our performance improvement experts work side-by-side with government leaders, executive directors and public sector professionals to establish measurable performance expectations, identify the right data indicators and continuously monitor the progress of programs and partners by implementing the proven Results-Based Accountability framework to deliver long-term, measurable impact.

Our easy-to-use, web-based Clear Impact Scorecard software helps program managers, grant managers and performance directors collaborate with stakeholders and community partners to simplify data collection, standardize reporting, measure progress and improve performance on a local, regional and national scale to move beyond quantities of people served and demonstrate that communities are actually better off.

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