1. Focusing On Community Capacity
1.1 Identify Individual
and Community Assets
What is a Community
Asset?
A community
asset or resource is anything that can be used to improve
the quality of community life.This means:
- It
can be a person - someone who is well connected and knows
many paths into community life, someone with unique insight,
special experience or specific skills;
- It
can be a physical structure or place - a school, a hospital,
a recreation centre, a social club, a park;
- It
can be a business - that provides jobs and supports the
local economy,
- You
too are a community asset, and so are your friends, and
the people you have yet to meet. This is a very encouraging
and promising way of seeing the world.
Why Should You
Identify Community Assets?
Because
they can be used as a foundation for improving the mental
health of the community, and also because:
- External
resources (e.g. federal and provincial funding) often just
aren’t available, whether we like it or not. Therefore the
resources for change must come from within each community.1
- Identifying
and mobilizing community assets enables residents to gain
control over their lives.
- People
can become active shapers of their own destinies, instead
of passive clients receiving services from a variety of
agencies.
- Improvement
efforts are more effective and longer lasting when community
members dedicate their time and talents to bring about the
changes they want.
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When Should You
Identify Community Assets?
- When
you can’t provide traditional services, even if you want
to, and are looking for other ways to strengthen the community
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In
the rural Newfoundland communities where the Helping
Skills project took place, the restructuring of health
care services had a particularly strong impact. The
provincial health system was undergoing radical change
at the same time that the province was dealing with
reductions in federal transfer payments, and the effects
of the cod moratorium.
The
new community health boards (which were charged with
the responsibility of implementing community mental
health services) had very limited resources. They were
simply not equipped to respond to the level of distress
in rural communities with professional services.
The
Helping Skills project proposed a way to develop the
capacity of the communities to respond to their own
immediate needs. The result of the project was a powerful
and sustainable new community resource: a network of
citizens skilled in listening and providing social and
emotional
support to their neighbours.
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- When
the community includes talented and experienced citizens
whose skills are valuable but underused
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The
Elders who came together every week at the Friendship
Centre in Portage did so to discuss their concern over
what they were seeing in their community. Several generations
of community members bore the emotional, physical and
spiritual scars of residential schools, which had systematically
destroyed their language, culture and traditions.
The
children who were raised in the shadow of the residential
schools had not known healthy family and community life,
but were faced, on a daily basis, with violence, abuse
and lack of hope.
The
Elders decided to do something to improve this situation.
In their discussions, the Elders realized that they
themselves were among the few who possessed the skills
and strengths that were necessary
to address these problems. They had insights into their
community and possessed cultural understanding and wisdom
that they could use to make a difference in the lives
of the children.
By
teaching the younger generations about their culture
and traditions, the Elders were providing them
with skills and knowledge that the children’s parents
had not been able to. By acknowledging and sharing their
skills, the Elders were promoting their own, and the
children’s mental health.
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- When
you want to strengthen existing relationships and build
new ones that will promote successful community development
in the future
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Although
an enormous diversity of different people and communities
participated in the Inclusion in Community project,
they all shared an understanding of the key element
that would ensure the project’s success: relationships.
People
with mental illness have often been isolated from community
life. The Inclusion in Community project helped to focus
particular attention on opening up community life, so
that people
who have experienced mental health problems could contribute
their talents, and form the
relationships and friendships that we all need to keep
us strong and healthy.
The
relationships and partnerships that formed through the
project were wide ranging, and brought
together people who might otherwise not have met. The
bonds that were formed have outlived
the project itself - the original partners, as well
as new ones, continue to get together formally
and informally, to find new ways of opening community
doors for isolated people.
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Back
to top How Do You Identify
Community Assets?
In order
to build on the assets and strengths in your community, you
must first find out what those assets are. In the tools
section at the end of this chapter, you'll find a guide
to identify community assets and resources in your community.
1.
Focusing On Community Capacity - 1.2 Define and analyze the
issue >
1.
Focusing
on the assets that the community already has does not imply
that the community does not need additional resources from
the outside. It simply means that the communities often have
the best solution to their own problems.
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