Beyond Needs Assessments: Identifying a Community's Resources and Hopes

Source: Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, September 2008.

This fact sheet discusses the importance of and ways of determining what a community has, wants, and hopes before conducting a service-learning project.

Fifteen young people in the service-learning program at the Somerset Hills YMCA in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, used mapping software and training to identify the assets or resources of their community. They visited local businesses, restaurants, and community organizations to survey business owners using an asset-based instrument.