1. Community Conditions & Assets
Nicole Branch, Sociology Librarian
Santa Clara University Library
Background image courtesy of Flickr user Marcin Ignac
2. Today we will…
• Explore community conditions
• Identify community assets
• Gain greater understanding of your
community context
3. Needs & Assets
• Needs: Conditions that are an impediment for
community members
• Assets: Resources in the community that can
sustain or improve the quality of life for the
community
4. Community Conditions
• Physical Environment
• Demographics & Health
• Housing
• Income & Poverty
• Community Resources & Transportation
• Safety
• Early Childhood/Parenting
• Education
• Employment
5. Assets
• A person
• A physical structure or place
• Community service
• Business
• Cultural or community characteristic
10. Scholarly Articles
• Research studies
• In-depth analysis of community conditions
and interventions
• Can provide context
11. Identifying Community Conditions
& Assets
• Break into assigned groups
• Select an issue area to explore
• Feel free to work in pairs, but divide the issue
areas to cover many different ones
• Using suggested resources or your own search
explore the issue area
• Identify at least one data point related to your
issue and one community asset
• Complete the form
