Here’s a tool you might be able to use to get a better appreciation of the interests, skills, and needs of your constituents, and to help them connect with one another, and with other local resources. You can download the pdf by clicking on the image below. You can also edit and download the form, [...]

From the abstract to Mapping the Assets of Your Community: A Key Component for Building Local Capacity , by Lionel J. Beaulieu, Southern Rural Development Center: Asset mapping is an effective tool for understanding the wealth of talent and resources that exists in each community–even those with small populations or suffering from poverty and economic [...]

Community Tool Box is probably the most extensive (maybe even the best) Community Development resource on the planet. A public service of the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas, it contains (as of this date) over 7,000 pages of practical information. Its purpose is to make it easier for [...]

This easy-to-use and visually attractive guide, from the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center, is a roadmap to discovering, organizing and engaging your neighborhood. It takes you through the steps of community building – from identifying assets to running effective meetings – and uses real-life case studies and plenty of hands-on activities. You can download the complete [...]

Source: Discovering Community Power: A Guide to Mobilizing Local Assets and Your Organization’s Capacity | The Habitat Exchange. A. From Greyrock Commons Co-Housing Community GIFTS I CAN GIVE MY COMMUNITY GIFTS OF THE HEAD Things I know something about and would enjoy talking about with others, e.g., art, history, movies, birds. GIFTS OF THE HANDS [...]

Notes from Building Communities From the Inside Out, by John P. Kretzmann In distressed communities across the United States, savvy organizers and leaders are rediscovering ancient wisdom about what builds strong communities. Serious community builders have no choice but to return to basics, to the communities themselves to rediscover and mobilize the strengths, capacities, and [...]

Discovering Community Power: A Guide to Mobilizing Local Assets and Your Organization’s Capacity (2005) is a workbook developed by the Asset Based Community Development Institute which aims to strengthen community-based projects by enhancing both project design and proposal preparation. Based on the premise that “your community’s assets plus your organization’s assets produces strong community-based projects,” [...]