Community Assessment

Remember that the success of your service project is contingent on meeting the needs of your community. In order to mitigate the effects of poverty, you must understand the problem that you are trying to solve.

Your mindset is everything! Here are some tips:

• Remain open-minded. Don't assume that you know the community's needs.

• Don't lead with solutions. First try to understand the problem.

• Be neutral in your approach. Learn from you community, and don't let your assumptions drive your decisions.

• Genuinely listen to your community. They will teach you everything you need to know in order to serve in the best way possible.

• Work with, not for or to the community. Involve other members of your organization, members of other organizations, and members of the community in your research and planning.

Elly Thompson's Community Profile + Tips from Elly:

Hi Everyone! So happy to share my community profile resource with you all. This project created a great opportunity to get to know my host site at the beginning of service and continues to be relevant as I strive to learn more about my community every day.

Our introductory VISTA training talks about the importance of asset-based language when engaging in service. Early in my first term, my supervisor and I talked a lot about ways to prioritize this in my work and highlight the work already being accomplished by community leaders and organizers in Durham. This resource started as a personal project where I researched Durham history and current events through the lens of asset mapping. It expanded when we recognized an opportunity to share this information as an introductory guide for Duke students in our programs who are seeking out ways to engage with our community.

Below, I’ve included some tips that might help anyone looking to create a resource like this. As always, feel free to reach out with any questions: elt32@duke.edu

Tips:

• Allow for your community profile to be a living document: You will never be able to include everything, so give yourself time and space to make changes and additions as you grow as a VISTA

• Figure out your audience: Who is this resource for? The information you include will heavily depend on this.

• Determine your purpose: Again, this will guide you on what to include. Why are you creating this resource? How might this fit in your capacity building narrative? Figure out what resources already exist and what is missing.

• Utilize online resources AND human knowledge: Do your research. Spend time searching for data and stories - find what interests you. Recognize that numbers don’t tell you everything. Reach out to the people in your office and in the community. Ask questions!

• Explore various formats: I used Canva, another VISTA used ArcGIS Story Mapping, and another chose Word. Each platform provides something different. For example: what might interactive maps bring to a resource? (This is something I am still in the process of figuring out as well).

• This project is supposed to be creative and fun, so make sure you enjoy and are proud of what you’re making!