Community Conditions & Assets

Nicole Branch, Sociology LibrarianSanta Clara University Library

Background image courtesy of Flickr user Marcin Ignac

Today we will…

• Explore community conditions

• Identify community assets

• Gain greater understanding of your community context

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

Community Conditions

• Physical Environment• Demographics & Health• Housing• Income & Poverty• Community Resources & Transportation• Safety• Early Childhood/Parenting• Education• Employment

Assets

• A person

• A physical structure or place

• Community service

• Business

• Cultural or community characteristic

Example- Community Service

Example- Place

Example- Cultural Characteristic

Example- Community Characteristic

Scholarly Articles

• Research studies

• In-depth analysis of community conditions and interventions

• Can provide context

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

Questions?

Nicole BranchSociology Librarian

X5436nbranch@scu.edu