Asset Mapping

One of the principles of creating community  is known as asset mapping based on the work of John McKnight (Asset-based Community Development Institute). This includes:

     - Developing a method for identifying the voluntary clubs, organizations, faith groups,
       and associations in a neighborhood and fostering new productive relationships among
       them.

     -Identifying the specific gifts, skills, passions, and teachable knowledge of residents
      at the block level fostering new productive relationships between these individuals,
      their families, and children.

    - Developing a method for neighborhood planning that is based on resident ideas for
      improvement and that mobilizes these residents' productive capabilities for
      implementing their own ideas.

Yesterday I was chatting with a local neighborhood resident, a Native Canadian and
well know artist in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver BC (DTES). There is a large

totem pole that was carved and donated to First United Church a few years ago, and
Edgar was showing me the part he carved.

I went to the kitchen to get us a cup of coffee and when I returned he had retrieved
two colors of paint and a brush out of his backpack and had started painting. I had
earlier mentioned my attraction to red tail hawks and I soon saw that was what he was
painting. Then when he was studying my face I knew he was also including me. In no more than 10 minutes he gifted me with this painting.

Edgar is a prime example of how gifted so many of the residents of DTES are and
what a gift he is to the community I feel so privileged to be part of.