Participatory Asset Mapping: Developing Collaborative Service Learning Projects
Presentation Format
Individual Presentation
Intended Audience
All Audiences
Presentation Description
In bell hooks’ Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope (2003), she writes “When we only name a problem, when we state complaint without a constructive focus or resolution, we take hope away. In this way critique can become merely an expression of profound cynicism, which then works to sustain dominator culture” (xiv). In her work, hooks highlights the significance of instilling hope in others as we work to address challenges and injustices in our communities. Building from the work of Paul Freire, hooks argues that hope is a way to “recover our collective awareness of the spirit of community that is always present when we are truly teaching and learning,” (xv). In Service Learning we sometimes dwindle or sense of hope by naming and critiquing all the issues, challenges, and problems our communities have. And while there may be many challenges, the communities in which we live, learn, serve and work also have many strengths. Just like our university communities, our larger communities have unique histories, stories, and people that make them places with many assets. As higher education institutions, we can serve as leaders in our community by providing ways to celebrate our community’s assets and build from our collective experiences and skills to empower our students, staff, faculty, and community to provide constructive focus and resolution to challenges. The work of Freire and hooks stems from a pedagogy of the oppressed, which places an emphasis on starting from what people know and do and developing collaborative spaces where everyone can contribute their ideas, experiences and skills. In this way all participants are involved in the learning process and project development.
This session builds from this pedagogy and introduces an additional method for collaborative community building: participatory asset mapping. Participatory asset mapping is a “process where community members collectively create asset maps by identifying and providing the information about their own community’s assets on a map” (The Advancement Project, p. 6). Asset mapping builds hope in our communities by moving away for a deficit model of first addressing “problems” and instead beginning by focusing on what resources we have as individuals, organizations and a community.
This session will discuss methods for identifying community needs and assets through participatory asset mapping and popular education practices. Participants will be led through a hands-on interactive workshop where they will utilize techniques that respect diverse voices and experiences. Leading the group through a participant developed project, the presenter will then demonstrate how to use this mapping technique to develop collaborative, responsive and fundable signature service learning projects that meet the needs of your community and best utilize your institutions’ resources. Participants will have an opportunity to practice participatory asset mapping, and should leave the session with resources on: (1) how to initiate forums and community events that invite community leaders, staff, faculty and students to collectively discuss their community’s assets, (2) how to utilize these community collaboration events to the develop collaborative and responsive projects, and (3) how to shape the projects into fundable proposals.
Location
Room - 210
Start Date
4-14-2016 10:45 AM
End Date
4-14-2016 12:00 PM
Recommended Citation
Cunningham, Lacey, "Participatory Asset Mapping: Developing Collaborative Service Learning Projects" (2016). Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016. 56.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gss/2016/2016/56
Participatory Asset Mapping: Developing Collaborative Service Learning Projects
Room - 210
In bell hooks’ Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope (2003), she writes “When we only name a problem, when we state complaint without a constructive focus or resolution, we take hope away. In this way critique can become merely an expression of profound cynicism, which then works to sustain dominator culture” (xiv). In her work, hooks highlights the significance of instilling hope in others as we work to address challenges and injustices in our communities. Building from the work of Paul Freire, hooks argues that hope is a way to “recover our collective awareness of the spirit of community that is always present when we are truly teaching and learning,” (xv). In Service Learning we sometimes dwindle or sense of hope by naming and critiquing all the issues, challenges, and problems our communities have. And while there may be many challenges, the communities in which we live, learn, serve and work also have many strengths. Just like our university communities, our larger communities have unique histories, stories, and people that make them places with many assets. As higher education institutions, we can serve as leaders in our community by providing ways to celebrate our community’s assets and build from our collective experiences and skills to empower our students, staff, faculty, and community to provide constructive focus and resolution to challenges. The work of Freire and hooks stems from a pedagogy of the oppressed, which places an emphasis on starting from what people know and do and developing collaborative spaces where everyone can contribute their ideas, experiences and skills. In this way all participants are involved in the learning process and project development.
This session builds from this pedagogy and introduces an additional method for collaborative community building: participatory asset mapping. Participatory asset mapping is a “process where community members collectively create asset maps by identifying and providing the information about their own community’s assets on a map” (The Advancement Project, p. 6). Asset mapping builds hope in our communities by moving away for a deficit model of first addressing “problems” and instead beginning by focusing on what resources we have as individuals, organizations and a community.
This session will discuss methods for identifying community needs and assets through participatory asset mapping and popular education practices. Participants will be led through a hands-on interactive workshop where they will utilize techniques that respect diverse voices and experiences. Leading the group through a participant developed project, the presenter will then demonstrate how to use this mapping technique to develop collaborative, responsive and fundable signature service learning projects that meet the needs of your community and best utilize your institutions’ resources. Participants will have an opportunity to practice participatory asset mapping, and should leave the session with resources on: (1) how to initiate forums and community events that invite community leaders, staff, faculty and students to collectively discuss their community’s assets, (2) how to utilize these community collaboration events to the develop collaborative and responsive projects, and (3) how to shape the projects into fundable proposals.
Program Abstract
In this session we will discuss methods for identifying community needs and assets through participatory asset mapping and popular education practices. Participants will be led through a hands-on interactive workshop where they will utilize techniques that respect diverse voices and experiences. In addition, the presenter will demonstrate how to use asset mapping to develop collaborative, responsive and fundable signature service learning projects that meet the needs of your community and best utilize your institutions’ resources.