- Community Assets
The Search Institute provides an entire website dedicated to tools and studies related to building "community assets."
- Assets Management: Chicago Communities Find Hidden Strengths
Most communities, even when money's tight, are sitting on unacknowledged treasures in the form of other assets - such as human capital. This article shows real-life examples of assets-based management at work.
The Neighborhood Works
Journal
- Rediscovering Community Through Parks
A keynote address by John P. Kretzmann, Co-Director of Northwestern University's Asset-Based Community Development Institute.
- The Big Backyard: Neighborhood Park Becomes Center of Community Activity
With locally-inspired activities that fly in the face of traditional park programs, from bread-baking to puppet shows, Toronto residents created a community place out of a park neglected by locals and city officials alike.
- Stone Soup: Mobilizing Hidden Assets for Park Revitalization
A fable illustrating the value of unearthing all community resources when money is scarce. From Steve Coleman of Washington Parks & People.
- Why Friends and Allies Are Important
Partnerships for Parks gives the rundown on the benefits of reaching out and making connections.
- Building a Successful Community Campaign
You are not alone! Partnerships for Parks' list shows the range of resources available in your community.
- Crossing Delancey, Conservancy Brings Diverse Groups Together
A New York City couple uses its deep roots in a community to cross ethnic divides and restore a drug haven into a flourishing and diverse gathering place.
- Sample Surveys for Park Users
Three simple surveys designed to obtain a basic evaluation of a park; to elicit feelings from visitors to a park; and to get feelings about a park from members of the community. From Project for Public Spaces, Inc. and Philadelphia Green.
- User Survey: Prospect Park Alliance, Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn's Prospect Park Alliance developed this simple questionnaire to
solicit community input on plans to move and redesign Wollman Skating Rink.
- Creating Social Trust: An Essay on Building New Looms
A report from the Pew Partnership for Civic Change claims that the task of community builders is "not to patch the old patterns but to build the loom on which the new patterns will be woven."