Mapping assets in your locality

Mapping assets in your locality

The framework asks SPLWsSPLW— Social Prescribing Link WorkerA role that supports people to access community-based services, groups and activities to meet practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing. Used internationally; equivalents in some countries include 'link worker', 'community connector' or 'health navigator'. to identify and map community assets — and to do it with community partners, not as a desk exercise.

What counts as an asset?

Five types, in rough order of importance:

1. Individuals' skills, talents, and stories. A retired teacher who runs a weekly homework club. A man who leads a silent walk for grief.
2. Citizen associations. Informal groups, often without legal structure or paid staff. Knitting circles. Walking groups. WhatsApp neighbourhood mutual aid groups.
3. Institutions. Charities, faith organisations, schools, libraries, leisure centres, GPGP— General PractitionerA doctor providing primary care, sometimes also called a family physician. Each SPLW should have a clinical supervisor — often a GP — accountable for clinical aspects of the role. surgeries.
4. Physical assets. Parks, allotments, halls, accessible green spaces, public buildings.
5. Local economy. Shops, cafés, businesses that contribute to social fabric (the café where everyone gathers, the corner shop that knows everyone).

The shadow side of asset mapping is to focus only on type 3 (institutions) — because they are the most visible and have websites. Real ABCDABCD— Asset-Based Community DevelopmentAn approach that identifies and develops the strengths and resources already present in a community to support sustainable wellbeing. pays attention to types 1 and 2.

How to do it

A reasonable cycle:

1. Start with what you already know. Walk the patch. Notice what exists.
2. Talk to known partners. Each will know other partners you don't.
3. Map by neighbourhood, not by category. A person doesn't think "I want a befriending service" — they think "I want something on Tuesdays close to the bus".
4. Share the map with community partners, primary care colleagues, your team. Maps that live in one head are useless.
5. Keep it alive. Monthly maintenance. Communities change, groups fold and form.

Tools that work

• Local council community directories (often patchy, but a start).
• Place-based directories built by GSPAGSPA— Global Social Prescribing AllianceInternational alliance of social prescribing practitioners, researchers and partner organisations working to grow the social prescribing workforce globally. Co-developer (with WHIS) of this programme. national chapters, your regional health system, or your local community development team.
• Hand-drawn maps with sticky notes — sometimes the best tool, especially in groups.
• Co-produced asset maps with people you support — they know things you don't.

Use the map to identify gaps

The WHISWHIS— World Health Innovation SummitEstablished in 2015 to improve health and wellbeing outcomes through innovation, education and partnerships. Co-developer (with GSPA) of the WHIS Social Prescribing Link Worker programme. programme also asks SPLWsSPLW— Social Prescribing Link WorkerA role that supports people to access community-based services, groups and activities to meet practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing. Used internationally; equivalents in some countries include 'link worker', 'community connector' or 'health navigator'. to identify gaps in provision, especially regarding health inequalities, and escalate them through formal feedback routes — to a clinical supervisor, a service manager, your regional health system, or an appropriate community-sector partner.

Mapping isn't an end in itself. It's the start of a conversation about how to make the offer match the need.