Beruflich Dokumente
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A KEY COMPONENT TO
STRENTHENING LOCAL GRANT
PROPOSALS
_____________________________________
Maryland
Local Government Grants Conference
January 6, 2006
Session Goals
l Better understanding of local
community perspectives and resources.
l Understand the supports and
connections within a community.
l Explore how community asset mapping
can strengthen local grant proposals.
Who has heard of asset
mapping?
What do you know about it?
What is the difference
between needs assessment
and asset mapping?
and asset mapping?
Needs Assessment Asset Mapping
Focuses on deficiencies or problems Focuses on effectiveness
Results in fragmentation of response to local needs Builds interdependencies
Makes people consumers of services, builds dependence Identifies ways people can use talents
Citizens have little voice in addressing local concerns Seeks to empower people
Shift focus from the
problem…
l Using problems to formulate human service
interventions targets resources to service
providers rather than residents.
l Fragments efforts to provide solutions.
l Places reliance on outside resources and
outside experts.
l Leads to a maintenance and survival
mentality rather than to community
development.
…to the community.
l Develop policies and activities based on an
understanding, or ‘map,’ of the community’s
resources — individual capacities and
abilities, and organizational resources with
the potential for promoting personal and
community development.
l Promote connections or relationships
between individuals, between individuals
and organizations, and between
organizations and organizations.
Benefits of Mapping:
• Builds interdependencies and collaboration.
• Identifies ways people can use their talents, skills, and abilities.
• All local residents play an effective role in addressing local matters.
• Local residents are asked to give their time and talents in implementing strategies they
have a say in devising.
• Begins by understanding what is in the community right now – the abilities of local
residents, associations, and institutions.
• Internally focused on the community.
• Relationship‑based in that it provides opportunities for local people, organizations, and
institutions to work together.
• Assets within a given community, organization, or institution can be collected/mapped
through a variety of approaches.
Challenges of Mapping:
Be cautious of asset mapping when:
• There is a crisis or problem needing immediate attention.
• There isn’t time to get citizen/community input.
• Community input cannot be gathered.
• There is a mounting feeling that people want to vent about
problems.
• There is little or no understanding of the local context.
Four Key Arenas Of
Community Asset Mapping
l People
l Culture
l Formal Institutions
l Informal Organizations
People
l Everyone has talents skills and gifts relevant to
community activities
l Each time a person uses their talents the
community is stronger and the person empowered
l Strong communities value the skills and talents
citizens possess
l Such an approach contributes to the development
“of” the community
l Four components of a “capacity inventory” of
individuals: skills information, community skills,
enterprising interests and experiences, personal
information
Culture
l Documenting cultural resources in the community —
examining long‑term customs, behaviors, and
activities that have meaning to individuals and to the
community.
l Information for cultural mapping is gathered by face‑
to‑face interviews. Communities can use cultural
mapping as a tool for self‑awareness to promote
understanding of the diversity within a community
and to protect and conserve traditions, customs, and
resources.
Formal Local Institutions
l The mapping of inter‑organizational linkages is a
form of ecomapping designed to show the
relationships that one organization has with other
organizations within the community.
l Relationships with other organizations may relate to
funding, referrals, access to resources, joint service
planning, collaborative projects with contributed
staff or funds, etc.
l Major institutions include: Kinship, Economic,
Education, Political, Religious, Associations
(KEEPRA)
Local Formal Institutions and
Community Building
• Every community has a variety of public, private and non‑profit
organizations.
• Some communities are institution rich, others are not.
• Too often, local institutions are not connected to local community
building efforts.
• Inventory local institutions, identify activities; map their assets.
• Explore the types of links that can be built between these institutions as
well as between them, local people and informal organizations.
• Seek the assistance of local institutions as conduits to resources outside
the community.
Schools as an Asset to
Community Building:
Examples
Parent/adult involvement Facilities
Materials and equipment Youth
Purchasing power Employment
Courses Teachers
Financial capacity
How Formal Institutions
Help Build Communities
l Purchase locally
l Hire locally
l Help create new local businesses
l Develop human resources
l Freeup potentially productive space
l Initiate local investment strategies (endowments,
fundraising, microloans)
l Mobilize external resources
Informal Organizations
Often carry‑out three key roles:
• Decide to address and issue/concern of
common interest
• Develop a plan to address the issue
• Carry out the plan to resolve the issue
They may be neighborhood, community or
faith‑based and involve, empower and
impact local citizens (church groups,
community groups, sports leagues).
Summary of Community
Asset Mapping
• Map the assets of individuals, institutions and
informal organizations.
• Build relationships among these local assets.
• Explore how assets can be mobilized to improve
local conditions/needs (such as expanding job
opportunities, improving education, better health
care services).
• Engage the community in visioning and planning.
• Tap outside resources that help advance local
improvement efforts.
Help with Identifying Local
Match
l “Match is the share of a project’s TOTAL COST
that a grantee must pay for with their own money,
also called the “nonfederal share.”
l There are two types of match*:
Cash (donations, nonfederal income, state)
Inkind contributions (donated services, goods)
* Governmentwide with few rare exceptions grantees cannot use other federal funds to match, must
leverage from the community
Creates New Avenues of
Leadership
•Move from a centralized mode of decision making to a polycentric
approach ‑‑ one that involves many centers of leadership.
•Helps expand the number of people who embrace community goals.
•The polycentric approach requires access to leadership opportunities.
•To realize its full potential, decisions and action plans in a
community must depend less on a pyramidal approach and more on a
series of inter‑related circles.
Contact Information
Keith J. Hart, Director
Governor’s Office on Service and Volunteerism
301 W. Preston Street, 15 th Floor
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 410.767.4803
Fax: 410.333.5957
Email: Khart@gosv.state.md.us