Strengthening Community Education:

The Basis for Sustainable Renewal

MAPPING
COMMUNITY
ASSETS
WORKBOOK

Northwest Regional
Educational Laboratory
Rural Education Program
Mapping Community Assets Workbook

by Diane Dorfman

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

Rural Education Program
Joyce Ley, Director

1-800-547-6339
Fax: 503-275-0654
http://www.nwrel.org/ruraled/

Clipart provided by Art Parts™

Workbook design by Gambee Hammons Creative

Permission to reproduce in whole or part for use in educational and other not-for-profit groups is granted
with the acknowledgement of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory as the source on all copies.

The contents of this publication is based on work sponsored wholly, or in part, by the Office of
Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), Department of Education, under contract number
RJ6006501.The contents of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views OERI, the Department,
or any other agency of the U.S. government.

© Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory: September 1998.

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

101 SW Main Street, Suite 500, Portland, OR 97204
Strengthening Community Education:
The Basis for Sustainable Renewal

MAPPING
COMMUNITY
ASSETS
WORKBOOK

by Diane Dorfman
INTRODUCTION

Asset: An item of value owned; council that runs it? The “crime problem?” The
a quality, condition, or entity that unemployment rate? These may all be attributes
serves as an advantage, support, of a place, but they are also just perspectives.
resource, or source of strength Perspectives can be diverse, and each one changes
the nature of what it is you are observing. From a
Mapping: To make a map of; to
community development perspective, it helps to
show or establish the features or
think of our communities in terms of the wealth
details of, with clarity like that of a
in people, things, services, and resources that exist
map; to make a survey of, or travel
there. And that is what our work here is: to try to
over for, as if for the purpose of
understand how to approach what we do from a
making a map
positive, creative, productive perspective—a per-
spective that builds from strengths, resources,
Asset mapping, drawing a map of what is valuable and assets.
in our communities, is an exercise in community Asset mapping reveals and explores those resources
development. If you are looking for a way to begin and assets. More importantly, it shows all the inter-
work towards organizing local people to take an connections among assets; these interconnections
active role in the place where they live, it is a good reveal ways to access the assets. How you get to
idea to start with what you know. If you don’t know the assets and use them, and the people involved
the place where you live, how will you know how in the getting and using, all these are also assets.
to take advantage of all there is to offer? How will Assets—the relations among them and access to
you know how to build a strong, active community use them—these are the grounds on which com-
without the foundation of assets that are already munities are built.
right there?
This workbook
asks us to sit down
and think about
who and where
we are as a first
step in getting to
where we want to
go.What is this
community we
want to develop?
Is it its geographic
dimensions? Its his-
tory? Its demogra-
phy? Is it the town

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Starting from the Top: My Stuff
What do we consider assets? Put yourself in the center and begin a personal asset map. Around you,
write down your assets.

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You have begun a personal asset map.You have
put down what you consider valuable that is yours.
Is everything on your map a material good (a car,
house, bank account)? Are these all your assets?
Does a beautiful smile count? How about fluency
in three languages?
Go back and fill in any nonmaterial thing
you did not include that you might consider
an asset.
Assets are more than cars and houses,
or even a great pitching arm. How has
your life been affected by people? How
did you get the stuff? Did you borrow
money for a car? From a bank? From
family or friends? How are people and
their relationship to you assets?

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As your map grows, we begin to see that assets are both things (material objects)
and people (relationships with others and others’ involvement in your connec-
tion to things). People and things surround us, make up the whole of our world.
Trade your map with a neighbor (preferably someone you do not know well).
With just a glance or two at this person’s map, what do you learn about him or her?

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What kinds of things does this map of people and things NOT tell us about this person?
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Perhaps a more detailed map would help us know more.What kinds of things would need to be included
so that we could know this person really well just by reading his or her map?

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Some things seem to define us, while oth- This is really what asset mapping is about:
ers tell less about “who we really are.” Learning about something by finding out
But each item on the map brings us clos- all that comprises it.This knowledge can
er to knowledge of the whole person. be one of the most important com-
Breaking ourselves down item by ponents in community work.
item, person by person, helps us How would you begin an asset
build an encompassing picture of map of a place?
the whole; it helps us learn who or
what that whole is.

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What would the things you previously listed tell you about the place you are mapping?

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Below we will begin the process of learning about our communities by mapping them.

Mapping a Community
NOT NEEDS BUT ASSETS
Does your list above focus on what your com-
When you think of your community, do you see a munity needs and how to make up for what it
geographic map in your mind? Or perhaps you see a lacks? It is common in community develop-
retail and residential map that tells you what’s avail- ment work to begin by assessing needs.
able and where people live.
This approach to knowing communities
We know a lot of things about our communities, but basically maps deficiencies. It seems logical
there is often much we never know about because that it will be a lot harder to build or develop
we do not know how or what to your community from nothing (what it does
ask about them. not have) than from something (its assets).
What do we know about the To build from what you do have requires
places in which we live? Maybe asking different kinds of questions to learn
one thing we know is that some- different kinds of things about where we live.
how we want to develop, renew, We can create a map of our community that
or revitalize the place. If you are tells us what and where its assets are: the posi-
interested in strengthening your tive, powerful people and things that con-
community, you must have some tribute ideas, resources, and capacities.This
sense of it.Why do you believe it should be devel- is the focus and goal of asset mapping.
oped, or that anything should be done with it?

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Communities can only be built by focusing on the strengths and capacities
of the citizens who call that community home. Those who have escaped
the lures of deficiency, therefore, have been drawing up a new map based
on old truths, an “Assets Map”... At the center of the map, and of the
community building process, lie the “gifts” of individual residents, their
knowledge, skills, resources, values, and commitments.

(John Kretzman,1997).

5
 First we must learn to know our places.Where do we start? Is there any one thing that
instantly springs to mind when the name of your community is uttered? Skiing? Wheat?
An annual festival? Can you map your community with whatever is special in the center?
Who and what comprise or are connected to this special center?
You have now begun to map your community as
a collection of assets, as a positive, useful resource.
At the center is a main event, feature, or product.
From here radiate, perhaps, the wheat farmers, their
market, their suppliers, and their connections to
each other.
This is the beginning of learning about our commu-
nities as places FULL of positive, useful resources.
What other resources could you list that did not
appear on the map?

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We can return to our personal maps and recall that we distinguished there
between things as assets and people as assets. Did you include any of those assets
in your community map? How many people have you listed on your community
map? Are there two or three? Go back to a couple of the people, list them below,
and write briefly about your relationship with them.

Person Relationship

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People are important on these maps in several make richer, wider ranging, more illustrative maps.
ways.We can think of them as resources, relation-
Therefore, it is best to work in partnership with
ships, and mappers. Let’s start with the last term:
others to create these maps.
mappers. If a community is more than the sum of
its parts, it is also not any one of those parts alone. Now, let’s continue to think about people. How
So it would be hard, if not impossible, for a single are people resources (owners of goods, knowledge,
member of that community to create its asset maps. and skills)? Return to the people you listed and
People working together—drawing on multitudes think about them in terms of resources.What do
of relationships, experiences, resources, and skills— you come up with?

Person Resource

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Where did you start? Did you think of these people Or did you include both kinds of things? If you
in terms of stuff they own (material things) or started with material goods, now list their knowl-
knowledge, skills, and abilities they have to offer? edge, skills, and abilities (or vice versa).

Person Resource

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We may be able to do this for a few people that we • Enterprising interests and experience, aimed at
know, but how do we learn about members of our uncovering past and present business experi-
communities we haven’t met? To elicit information ence, culture, and arts skills.
on community assets in order to draw our maps, a • Minimum personal information, for follow-up
first step could be to develop a questionnaire that purposes (Kretzman, 1997).
may be sent out to a broad range of community res-
idents or used in interviews. The questions should
reflect the goals of your own community’s work. Using a questionnaire is also a great way to get to
John Kretzman and John McKnight have written a know and begin to develop relationships with peo-
book on how to learn about a community’s assets. ple.You may find that the quiet man who is known
According to them, a typical questionnaire might only as a heavy drinker is a carpenter; a math
cover: teacher is a cellist.

• Skills information, including skills people have Briefly put together a questionnaire with about six
learned at home, in the community, or at the to 10 questions that cover the information listed
workplace. Usually people are asked to identify above. Questions might touch on whether a person
their “priority skills,” those about which they are has cared for children or aging parents; what kinds
most confident. of repairs or improvements they have done on
• Community skills information, aimed at uncover- their homes; whether they make their own gifts,
ing precious community experience give a lot of parties, or work/play on
and potential interests. computers. How would you answer
your questions?

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Your Questionnaire

1 Question: ......................................................................................................................................................
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2 Question: ......................................................................................................................................................
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3 Question: ......................................................................................................................................................
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4 Question: ......................................................................................................................................................
Answer: ..........................................................................................................................................................
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5 Question: ......................................................................................................................................................
Answer: ..........................................................................................................................................................
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6 Question: ......................................................................................................................................................
Answer: ..........................................................................................................................................................
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7 Question: ......................................................................................................................................................
Answer: ..........................................................................................................................................................
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8 Question: ......................................................................................................................................................
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9 Question: ......................................................................................................................................................
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10 Question: ......................................................................................................................................................
Answer: ..........................................................................................................................................................
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How did you do? Now look at the answers of a can provide a strong foundation for continued
partner or member of your group.You two can building of assets and community. Relationships
already begin to build a pool of resources, skills, provide access to assets, another reason why they
and knowledge.What, though, do we do with this are assets themselves.
pool? How do we begin to put it to use?
Once you have begun to learn of all the things peo-
One thing we could do is see how our skills, ple have to offer, you can begin also to see how
resources, and knowledge complement each other. people are connected and what value lies in those
Maybe you are a potter and your neighbor an excel- connections. People can be connected through
lent accountant: a business is in the making. their assets (you are in a network with the woman
who brokered your house sale), but connections
Now, think about where or how you could offer
themselves are an asset (and she helped your sister
your resource pool to the community. Skills are not
find a house when she moved to your town).
skills unless they go to work, and unless they are
accessible, they can’t work.This is where you can Write down a recent project you worked on in
go back to thinking about services that are current- your home, job, or community (such as buying a
ly going unrendered, or things that are wanted but home, organizing little league, chairing the PTA
not yet realized for those who want them. For bake sale, etc.). Then write in all the people you
instance, if Main Street is boarded and ghostly, worked with in this project.
a pottery shop would be a vital contribution.
Project: ..................................................................................
Matching assets to needs can also be achieved in
People:....................................................................................
another way. Taking the collection of skills and
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knowledge you and your partner or group amassed,
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you can set up a skills bank and begin an exchange:
people who need your expertise can ask for it; then
they offer whatever they have to the bank and it Now return to each name and see if the people to
can be drawn at any time by anyone. Use a blank whom you are connected are connected to one
piece of paper as a ledger of accounts and begin another. What is the nature of that connection? Do
to make some deposits and withdrawals on your you even know of its existence? If one of your co-
skills bank. workers coaches the softball team of your librarian’s
daughter, important links to resources and institu-
Relationships tions can be traced through these relationships.
With every exchange you as an individual If you don’t know about these relation-
make, you become a part of a relation- ships, how could you find out about
ship.You give to someone who in turn them? One way is to have more peo-
gives to another, and you receive some ple in on your mapping. Another
wisdom, service, or object in exchange. way is to alter your questionnaire
These exchanges begin to set up so it elicits information on
networks. Once the service has relationships.Yet another
been rendered or the knowledge way is to find people
shared, the relationship can remain through places: buildings,
in place.Your link to other people groups, or institutions.

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Institutions a particular person there. He or she is another rela-
tionship, both to the person and the agency.
As you wrote in
the names on the Let’s begin to broaden our maps by including insti-
previous page, did tutions, organizations, and enterprises. First, on the
the people come following page, list those that you are currently con-
“on their own” or nected to (any office, club, league, enterprise and so
were they part of forth you are connected to). Then compare your
some organization, map with your neighbors’. Build a comprehensive
enterprise, or insti- list of local organizations and institutions, and look
tution? You may have added on to your house. for overlap. To what institutions do more than
Friends offered advice, but so did clerks at home one person belong?
improvement stores. Each clerk is a new node in a Next, compare your “people knowledge” of
network, and they are linked to their workplace, places. Ask your neighbors to list any people
which may also be counted as an asset to that they know of that belong to an institution
network. Connections to people can also be, you wrote down. See how many of those
or become, connections to resource-filled people you know yourself. Do the same
institutions. Likewise, your connection to for their lists.
some organization or institution may actually
conceal a personal relationship.You may say Look at ways in
your house loan which each place
came through “X” is also a collec-
agency, but in fact tion of people.
you worked with

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Institutions: A Map

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What else are places good for? What other assets do is connected to other churches and so congrega-
they hold? A church may have meeting rooms that tions of like or different denominations. It may even
could hold meetings or classes; kitchen facilities for have a newsletter. List three institutions from your
bake sales, meeting refreshments, or community pooled list and write down all the resources you
picnics; or blackboards, offices, and telephones. It can think of contained within it.

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Did You Happen to Mention the SCHOOL?

One institution that is found in almost every com- The school is important, not just because it is a
munity—one that holds valuable resources, knowl- building bursting with possibilities. List a few if
edge, and assets—is one that is often overlooked. you haven’t already:

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Now list some handy materials found in schools:

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The school may be the most important institution places they live. Rural youth may learn from TV and
you can count on for the simple reason that young print ads that urban lifestyles or what can be acquired
people are there. If a community is to be a commu- in malls define all that is good and desirable. For it
nity, it has to have identity, economic vitality, and is not enough for folks to learn about the positive
sustainability (among other things).The next gener- things in their own places; they must see the value
ation’s participation and support go a long way in those things as well.
towards insuring sustainability. But many kids leave
School and community-based learning curriculums
their communities for college or
go a long way towards getting kids to know about
work. How can we make it pos-
the places in which they live, and to see the value
sible for them to stay in or to
of that place. Moreover, by participating in commu-
return to their home towns after
nity projects, they see important places for them-
advanced schooling or training?
selves within their com-
If they learn (in school!)
munities.They can learn
locally appropriate skills—
biology and about the
through curriculum developed in
local pond. History
concert with local economic develop-
class can involve
ment initiatives—then they can graduate and be
interviews with
ideally suited for local employment possibilities.
local senior citi-
They will be able to pursue careers locally!
zens who may
Getting kids to identify with a place also have participated in the
makes them more connected to it; they founding of the town, labor
have more reasons to stay strikes, migrations, or an interna-
there, and tional war.
this too
On the next page, design
helps
classes for any subject—
achieve sus-
science, math, English, his-
tainable change.The
tory, or combinations of
school can play a big part
subjects—that gets stu-
in building connections to place. In many
dents out into their
places, kids do not think much of their com-
community. It’s not
munities—maybe they are too poor or
easy. Where would
remote. Many kids learn to identify
you begin? Who or
success and achievement with
what would need
qualities and things that are
to be involved?
found outside the

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Community as Curriculum Conclusion
.................................................................................... Learning how to ask what
.................................................................................... communities have to offer
.................................................................................... begins a process of building,
.................................................................................... creating, and developing. It brings
.................................................................................... resources, knowledge,
.................................................................................... skills, capacities, and peo-
.................................................................................... ple together. Through
.................................................................................... these connections, access
.................................................................................... to more resources and
.................................................................................. assets is at our fingertips.
As we build relationships
with people, agencies,
institutions, or businesses,
Below, list people and institutions that are involved we increase our connections
in the project you created. and access to a multitude of
.................................................................................... assets.
.................................................................................... Asset mapping can be a tool at
.................................................................................... many stages of community build-
.................................................................................... ing processes, and involve many different partici-
.................................................................................... pants. How would a map made by co-workers look?
.................................................................................... What different kinds of things could a students’
.................................................................................... map have to offer? What would happen if the stu-
.................................................................................... dents read the workers map and vice versa? What
.................................................................................... could they learn about their community and about
.................................................................................... each other?
Try mapping with different groups. See what hap-
Did you think about a project for which the pens when students, workers, administrators, police,
resources (people or places) were not readily avail- and business people build a map together.
able? What was lacking? Was it really lacking, or per- Once the assets are identified and you learn how
haps just overlooked? Would an asset map of partic- to access and use them, a variety of new ideas about
ular skills, business opportunities, or people be able directions for community building may follow. As
to help ferret out the resources you’d need? An more people come into the process and bring ideas
asset map could also show how you might modify as well as skills and resources, new approaches to
the project so that (1) it didn’t rely on locally old issues will come into the process as well.
unavailable resources, or (2) it created a way to
develop the resources that are currently lacking.
Students could be a part of developing resources
as they learn about their hometowns, what’s there,
and what they have to offer.

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