A GUIDE TO MAPPING AND MOBILIZING THE ASSOCIATIONS IN LOCAL NEIGHBORHOODS

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♦ Designing the inventory.
♦ Training and supervising the interviewers.
♦ Collating the information in usable forms.
♦ Managing the information if it changes or is revised.
Preparing for Association Mapping
While these functions sound fairly technical it is important that your work involve
local citizens and associations as it progresses. The purpose of an associational
mapping is not to create a list or directory. The purpose is to gather usable
information to increase the power of local citizens. Therefore, the associational
information and the manner of its development, collection, and use should itself
help create new relationships between local citizens and their associations. Thus,
local residents and associational leaders ought to be involved with the sponsoring
group as interviewers and analysts of collected information.
Decide Who Will Take Action on the Information Collected
Gathering the associational information will require a careful organizational effort,
and it is important, before beginning, to decide who will be responsible for
facilitating the use of the information once it is collected. It is of little use to create
good information if there is no one to do the work that is necessary to translate the
information into action.
The facilitation of action could take several forms. It may require an organizer to
convene and staff a newly assembled group of associations. It may require several
people to facilitate new connections between associations or with local institutions.
It may require an expert knowledgeable about loan funds to counsel local
associations.
The important point is that the responsibility for facilitating the use of the
information should be carefully considered before beginning an association
mapping. As a result, important personnel and funding questions may emerge and
need to be addressed before finally deciding to proceed.
A Word of Caution
Sponsors of an association mapping should be advised that “asset mapping” has
become quite popular in many communities. As a result, there is now considerable
experience with successful efforts as well as those that have failed. Based upon an
evaluation of these efforts, three cautions are offered.
First, unsuccessful mapping initiatives usually result in lists, directories, or literal
maps that are rarely used. In these projects, the emphasis was upon data collection
rather than community mobilization. Moreover, there is a risk in computerizing the
information. If it is computerized, the information sometimes is transformed into
“data” that may be viewed as inaccessible or unusable by local residents.
A Community Building Workbook © 1999 Kretzmann & McKnight