Planning effective health interventions requires mapping community assets. Asset mapping is a systematic process of cataloging key services, benefits, and resources within the community, such as individuals’ skill sets, organizational resources, physical space, institutions, associations, and elements of the local economy. These assets can be used by your program to overcome barriers to health.

This workbookLinks to an external site. 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. From a community development perspective, it helps to think of our communities in terms of the wealth in people, things, services, and resources that exist there. And that is what our work here is: to try to understand how to approach what we do from a positive, creative, productive perspective-a per· spective that builds from strengths, resources, and assets. Asset mapping reveals and explores those resources and assets. More importantly, it shows all the inter· connections among assets; these interconnections reveal ways to access the assets.

Work through the workbook on your own, then answer the questions below in GoReact.

What did you learn by working through the workbook? Did you think about a project for which the resources (people or places) were not readily available? What was lacking? Was it really lacking, or perhaps just overlooked? Would an asset map of particular skills, business opportunities, or people be able to help ferret out the resources you’d need? Finally, identify a RURAL community and focus area for the asset map you will create in this class. Reflection has to be 10 mins long when I record.

workbook link: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=slcecurriculum