One way to get a sense of a community is to drive or walk around, observing and taking note of the different characteristics and opportunities that the community may have to offer.
Community Assessments are tools that allow interested citizens and community partners to gather and analyze information. While there are different modes of assessment, they are generally most useful when they capture the diversity of a community. In addition, the assessment may also be focused on a particular program, event or segment of the community.
More specifically, such reviews can:
• Gauge public opinion, rather than rely on the opinion of a few key leaders or local gossip
• Increase awareness of particular issues
• Create an opportunity for community input and/or ownership of the process
• Be required to satisfy a grant or program.
Important considerations before conducting a community assessment are the time available for the assessment, the information needed from the assessment and the diversity being captured in the assessment.
To complete a Community Asset Walk simply walk your group through your community. Throughout the walk, ask participants to write down and/or talk about what they observe — it could be vacant lots, buildings, businesses, people, etc.
Walking is key because it is slow, and it allows the group to interact and observe. The ideas are transcribed into a single list after the walk is completed. You may also include voice recordings and have people take pictures of what they observe or simply record notes to discuss later. The time requirement for an asset walk may be one or two hours to walk through a neighborhood.
To get a complete assessment of an entire community, it could require multiple walks as well as time to transcribe notes and assemble photographs into a meaningful format to be shared with others.
This exercise is also a great way to get people talking to one another as they identify areas of common interest and those they want to pursue more deeply.
Larger groups are often broken into smaller groups of eight or less people. Remember to make sure your groups are mixed appropriately.
For more information, contact Community Vitality Agent, Amanda Clasen at [email protected] or at 620-244-3826.
