Engaging Community Through Our Strengths: Asset Mapping in COVID
By Amanda Palmer
On Monday, May 3, 2021 we hosted a Meet Up on “Engaging Community Through Our Strengths: Asset Mapping in COVID”. This Meet Up was inspired both by the development of a new asset mapping tool, as well as the upcoming Jane’s Walk happening May 7-9 in Calgary and around the world!
We were able to record this Meet Up, and have included the recording below! To access the slides shown, and the embedded links to additional resources, click here.
Jane’s Walk 2021
The Calgary Foundation has put together some incredible resources to support the annual Jane’s Walk this year. This includes a Toolkit if you’d like to plan your own walk, some existing maps that you can follow, walking tour videos if going on a walk this weekend isn’t right for you, and more. The Jane’s Walk is a beautiful invitation to (re)discover the communities you are a part of, or to use this as an opportunity to discover someplace new! If you do go on a Jane’s Walk this year, the Calgary Foundation would love to know and share. Tag them in your social media (Instagram and Facebook) posts using @janeswalkcalgary and/or use the hashtags #WhenIWalk and #JanesWalkYYC.
Neighbourhood Asset Mapping Tool
When asset mapping, “it is important to remember that we aren’t creating a directory. The real value in asset mapping is bringing people together so they discover each other’s strengths and resources, and to think about how they can build on what is already in the community.” - Graeme Stuart, 2013.
So how do we do this during COVID when it isn’t so easy to bring people together? Tyson’s worked on creating a tool to help facilitate this process! We’re encouraging you to share this tool with other community members and to put it into practice, each going on your own walks…. and see what emerges! You can download the file here.
Let us know if you use this tool! Send us an email, or tag us in social media @CDLICalgary!
We’re going to be hosting an hour long data party on Monday, May 17 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. for those who put this tool into practice over the next few weeks and would like to make sense of it all together. You can register for that here, which you’ll need to do to receive the Zoom link!
ABCD Virtual Marketplace
During this Meet Up we also re-shared the Virtual Marketplace tool that we first shared at our August 2020 Meet Up. This is a technique that we learned at the virtual ABCD Unconference in 2020, at a session hosted by the Community Innovation Network and NeighborUp out of Ohio. They developed this virtual practice based on an in-person process developed by Trusted Space Partners which was shared with them back in 2012.
We took our learnings and captured it in this reference sheet to help others who may want to use it! You can download it here with clickable links.
As always - if you end up using this tool, we’d love to hear about it!