2.2 What Are Assets

There are five types of community assets: individuals, associations, institutions, physical assets, and connections.

TYPES OF COMMUNITY ASSETS
Individuals	The most foundational assets of a community are the individuals that form it. Every individual has gifts that they can share with their community -- like knowledge, a skill, or physical space, to name just a few.
Associations	Association are groups of community members who gather together voluntarily around a common interest. Associations are key to getting the community involved in your teen services.
Institutions	Institutions are groups of people brought together professionally -- such as business, schools, government agencies. They often have many resources that can be shared with the community.
Physical Assets	Individuals, associations, and institutions can all provide gifts in the form of physical assets, like land, buildings, equipment, and money.
Connections	Connections are the relationships between the other types of assets. Creating new connections between community assets can greatly increase the opportunities for connected learning in your library. You can think of connections as an expression of social capital.¹

REFLECTION: A STORY OF TWO COMMUNITIES

Read A Story of Two Communities. How has your library approached your community in the past—by focusing on needs or by focusing on assets?

community mapping activity: potential connections

Create a second mini-asset map with assets your library could connect with, but hasn’t yet. Add any helpful connections that might already exist.

1: What is asset based community development?, page 4. Collaborative For Neighborhood Transformation/ABCD Institute, 2016.