1. Action Strategies For
Community Leadership
By Vivienne Ochee Bamgboye
Workshop Track: Civil Society

2. Overview
• This 2 hour session will equips you with tools for assessing your
capabilities for building social capital and developing community
leadership skills.
• During the first part of the session I will be guide you through
simple asset mapping exercises.
• In the second part we will focus on personal leadership
capabilities by conducting a simple tripartite analysis focusing on
3 main drivers
- Vision
- Alignment
- Execution

3. Content
Asset Based
Philosophy
Mapping the
Assets
Facilitating
A Community
Mapping
Session
Assessing
Leadership
Assets

4. Asset Based Philosophy

5. Asset Based Philosophy
• The traditional starting point for community
development is to focus on a community’s
needs, deficiencies and problems.
• Commonly, a needs assessment is done in
order to identify the problems, and from
there create a plan.

6. Asset Based Philosophy
The Asset Based strategy suggests an
alternative.
Mapping or identification of the personal, local
and institutional assets of a community.

7. Asset Based Philosophy
A needs assessment usually focuses on
problems : such as unemployment, poverty,
crime and illiteracy, while ignoring the
assets that exist in the community
“Needs-based" assessments tend to lead to
community dependence rather than
community development.
The problems seem insurmountable and
people are often overwhelmed

8. Needs/ Deficits
Needs Assessment
Unemployment
Illiteracy
Broken Families
Slum Housing/Homelessness
Drop Outs
Street Gangs/Militancy Groups
Crime
Sickness/Diseases
Poverty
Child Abuse

9. Asset vs Needs
• A lot of communities face a huge range of
challenges.
• A "needs-based" approach tends to lead fragmented
patchwork of tokenistic welfarist interventions that
are not appropriated to the culture or the dynamics
of that particular community.
• ‘Needs- based’ do not contribute to building
the capacity of the community or empower
individuals to be self-sufficient.

10. Case Studies From Africa
• Social Impact Assessment of Blighted Communities
• World Bank Assisted
• Niger Delta Development Commission
• Niger Delta Ministry
• RSSDA
• DFID
• European Union
• IOC’s and other private sector CSR initiatives
• MDG
• State Government Social Development Initiatives
• Religious Institutions Social Care Initiatives

11. Case Studies From Africa
Much of the aid spent does not translate into
sustainable development. WHY?

12. Asset Based Philosophy
• An asset based approach is MORE effective
because it acknowledges and values
existing resources and allows agents of
change to build on this foundation.
• When working with marginalized/blighted
communities it is particularly valuable to use
an asset based approach.

13. Asset Based Philosophy
Asset Based Community Development
A process used to mobilize a
community to use its assets to develop
a plan to solve its problems and
improve residents' quality of life
Community Assets
People, places, relationships, and lore
that can be harnessed and used to
bring about the most equitable
functioning of a community.

14. Community Assets
• Knowledge, Skills, Experience
• Personal Contacts
• Personal Values
Individual
Assets
• Religious Institutions
• Cultural Groups
• Cooperatives/Collaborative
Groups/Associations
Community
•Schools
•Businesses
•Communal Green Spaces
•Recreational Facilities
Institutional

15. Mapping The Assets

16. Mapping The Assets/Potentials
What is Mapping?
• Mapping – is a participatory planning tool
that engages members of a community in
exploring their assets within the physical
and social environment.

17. Mapping The Assets/Potentials
1. Each community has assets to be preserved
and enhanced.
2. These assets can be used by leaders as the
foundation from which to build a positive
future.
3. Combining community assets creates a
synergy that increases the capacity of the
community to meet the needs of its
residents.

18. Mapping The Assets/Potentials
1. The information collected through this
asset-mapping process may also be used as
the foundation for many other processes:
 Strategic Planning
 Mobilization
 Economic Development.

19. Mapping The Assets – The Process
• Community leaders start with a clear commitment to
discovering a community's capacities and assets.
• The asset-based approach does not remove the need
for outside resources
• It makes their use more effective by:
– Starting with what is present in the community
– Concentrating on the agenda-building and problem-
solving capacity of the residents
– Stressing local determination, investment, creativity,
and control

20. Mapping The Assets – The Process
• Is not a case of developing a simple inventory.
• The purpose is to create a concrete output – a map,
either in paper or web based format, which can be
incorporated into formal and/or informal planning
processes.
• A 'mapping' process is designed to promote
connections or relationships between:
– individuals
– individuals and organizations
– organizations and organizations.

21. Mapping Connections
Natural
Resources
Skills
Knowledge
Experience
Businesses
Community
Services
Schools/Religious
Groups

22. The Assets/Potentials
Community assets include:
• Skills, knowledge, talents and experience of local residents
• Community associations, many of which provide benefits far
beyond their mandate
• Businesses
• Schools, churches, libraries and other institutions that operate
within the community
• Community services such as police, fire, parks and recreation
services
• Other social services and community organizations E.g Women's
Associations,
• Physical structures; e.g. land, real estate, community halls
• Natural resources; e.g. river, trees, green space

23. Facilitating A Mapping Session

24. Mapping Techniques
• Visualizations - A well-designed visual image can
yield a much more powerful and memorable
reflective experience than a mere verbal or
textual description.
• Nonverbal techniques
– photographs
– videotape [and maps]
Cut through language difficulties and reveal feeling
and concepts that otherwise do not surface.”

25. Mapping Techniques
1. Start with the history of your community
2. Mission/Vision
3. Primary Goals and Objectives

26. Mapping Techniques
1. What will the mapping address?
2. Why is it compelling?
3. What approaches do you (collectively) suggest
to improve the situation?
4. How are your suggestions culturally
appropriate or relevant?
5. What groups of the community will be useful
for the intervention?
6. What resources do they have?
7. How will it be used?

27. Mapping Techniques
Objective Critical Success Factors
Objective 1.
Objective 2.
Objective 3.
Objective 4.
Objective 5
CSF
• The limited number of areas in which results, if they are satisfactory, will
ensure overall performance.
• They are the few key areas where things must go right for the Vision to be
realised for the mission to flourish.
• If results in these areas are not adequate, the efforts for the period will be
laborious and wasted ."

28. Facilitation Resource Tool
Dream Tree & Visioning Exercise
The Dream Tree represents your hopes for an ideal future in their community. Eg. What
would a fulfilled community look-like? What does a sustainable Nigeria look like?
Each part of the tree will represent different values they have for the ‘ideal future’ in
their community. For example: the roots may represent large values such as culture,
sustainability, poverty alleviation etc.
The trunk of the tree may represent programs or resources in the community that could
help to achieve these values (eg. Youth Resource Centre), and the branches could be
specific outcomes
With sticky notes to write down at least 3 hopes for the future of their community.
As a group, share these hopes for the future and use them to create a ‘Dream Tree.’

29. Step 1 : Dream Tree

30. Step 2: Mapping
Create your own base map
Maps can be printed off the internet through Google Earth and blown up to a larger
desktop size.
 Use sticky dots or pins to mark the spaces in the community
You can use different colored dots to code different categories of assets—blue for
recreation, yellow for programs and services, green for safe spaces for children, red for
no-go-zones, and orange for cheap/family oriented places, businesses, religious
institutions etc.
 Connect the dots – If these assets are connected and benefit from each other
 Use bold lines for influence and thinner lines for dependent assets
• What do you notice about your community?
• What are the assets in their community?
• How are they distributed?
• What is missing that would make their community a better place to live?

31. Step 3: Review
As a group, review the mapping exercises completed in Step 2
• What are possible challenges and strengths of facilitating an Asset – Mapping
workshop with your community members when you return?
What materials do you need for facilitating an asset mapping workshop and what
preparation you need to do?
As a group, answer these key questions:
Who will the workshop be for?
When will the workshop be held?
What arrangements need to be made for the mapping?
How many people will be included? Ages?
How will you assure that a diverse range of backgrounds are included?

32. Step 4: Community Mapping Guide
1. Ask Community Members to Develop a Large Dream Tree (Collectively)
2. Building on the dream tree exercise, you can now engage the community in
creating a vision statement for their community
3. Provide them with sticky notes and ask them to write down three things they feel
are fundamental to the future of their community
4. Ask them to stick these words onto a piece of flip-chart paper and then have one
person group together the words by key themes (eg. protected environment,
clean rivers, sustainable city, active transportation)
5. Lead the group in coming up with common words to describe these key values/
themes. The example on the previous bullet may be called a “Green Lagos,”
“Sustainable Lagos” or, “Environmentally Friendly Lagos”
6. Next, as a group, string together the words into a concise vision statement. For
example: The people of Lagos envision a community that is green, culturally-
diverse, peaceful, and has ample recreation activities.
7. Keep the descriptive words that the members wrote and use them as part of the
details on which the community vision is founded

33. Assessing Personal Leadership
Assets

34. Activity
• Energy is critical to move the project
forward.
• This simple exercise will guide you in
assessing your personal assets

35. Activity 1: Body Maps
Inside the Outline
What are your hopes for
participating in BPW?
• What personal attributes do you
bring to the table?
Outside the outline
• What people do you know in the
community?
• What resources and supports do
you have in your community?

36. Activity : Body Mapping the Assets :
External
What specifically do
you wish to do in
your community?
Who will it benefit ?

37. Personal Vision
• Crafting a Vision
• Execution
• Alignment

38. Your Key Responsibilities
• Crafting a Vision
– Remain Open Minded
– Prioritize the Big Picture
– Be Bold and Long Term Oriented
– Test Your Assumption through seeking counsel
from Peers, Subordinates and Mentors
– Test Assumptions by exploring implications and
scenarios

39. Your Key Responsibilities
• Building Alignment
– Clarity – Explaining Rationale
– One Voice, shared vision
– Exchanging perspectives to agree on common
interests
– Being Receptive

40. Your Key Responsibilities
• Championing Execution
– Personal Drive
– Building Momentum
– Initiating Action
– Providing a Plan
– Monitoring Critical Success Factors
– Initiating Celebration of Quick wins and
Successes.

41. Outcomes of Asset Mapping
• Youth Guides
• Legal Literacy
• Community Policing
• Community Child Care Centres
• Community Sports Development

42. Vivienne Ochee Bamgboye
Development Consultant
1st Floor, 53 Lawson Street
Off Igbosere Road
Onikan
Lagos
Nigeria
Phone: 0803 2012568
018780752
vivienne@oyedynamix.org
vbamgboye@hotmail.com

43. CSR Consulting
Capacity Building
Socio – Economic Development Initiatives
Strategic Knowledge/Learning Management
Customised Research

44. Concepts
(Thought Leadership )
Can Do
(Skills )
What do I do?
What can I do?
Mindfulness
(Personality )
How do others perceive me?
How do I interact with others?
What value do I CREATE from my
interaction with others?
Mileage
(Experience )
Where am I coming from?
What value have I