CHL 610 Week 4 Community Assets, Resources and Gaps Example

Seven Churches, One Clinic and No Grocery Store: Mapping the East Side's Assets, Resources and Gaps

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

CHL/610: Community Health Assessment

Week 4 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The neighborhoods, organizations, services, counts, distances and maps are composites written for a model paper modeled on Yakima, Washington; research findings come from the sources cited.

At a steering committee meeting, a resident who had helped collect survey data read the draft summary of findings and objected: it described the east side as a list of problems, as if nothing good happened there. She pointed out that the community had organized food deliveries during the pandemic without any agency's help. The committee agreed to map assets as carefully as needs. This paper presents that map and the gaps it revealed.

An Asset-Based Approach

Asset-based community development argues that communities are rebuilt by starting from their own capacities, the skills of residents, the power of local associations and the resources of local institutions, rather than from lists of needs that cast residents as clients (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1996). The approach does not deny problems; it insists that solutions begin with what the community already has.

Assets: Individuals

Residents bring skills that often go unrecognized: bilingual speakers who interpret for neighbors, cooks who feed dozens at church events, mechanics, seamstresses, former teachers from Mexico and young people fluent in social media. The survey asked residents what they could teach others; 46% named at least one skill.

Assets: Associations

The east side has seven congregations, two parish festival committees, a soccer league with 400 children, a mutual aid network, parent groups at three schools, a senior club and a farmworker advocacy group. These associations carry trust that formal agencies lack, and several already run health-related activities, from blood pressure checks to food drives.

Assets: Institutions

Institutions include three elementary schools and a middle school, the community center, a branch library, a community health center clinic and a nonprofit housing organization. The hospital and health district sit outside the east side but serve it.

Assets: Places

Places that support health include the soccer fields by the river, a community garden, the church halls and the library. Residents named the river path as a favorite place to walk, though parts are poorly lit.

Assets: Local Economy

Small businesses include Mexican groceries, taquerias, a pharmacy, auto shops and the weekend flea market. The grocers stock produce familiar to residents and extend informal credit to families at the end of the month.

How the Inventory Was Built

The inventory drew on four sources: the survey question about skills, focus group discussions of where people go for help, a walking audit by youth photovoice participants and a list of services from the county's information and referral line. Residents on the committee reviewed drafts and added dozens of informal assets, such as a retired nurse who checks neighbors' blood pressure after Mass and a barber who hosts voter registration.

Resources: Health and Social Services

The team mapped 24 health and social services used by east side residents, recording location, hours, languages, cost and capacity. Only the community health center clinic and one pharmacy are on the east side itself. Most services close by 5 p.m.

Matching Needs and Resources

Each need identified in earlier data was matched against resources. Where resources existed but were unusable, because of hours, language, cost or capacity, the team counted a gap.

Gap One: Primary Care Capacity

The clinic's new-patient wait is seven weeks, and it cannot absorb the 31% of surveyed adults without a usual source of care. Farmworkers face added barriers. A review of farmworker health services lists obstacles rooted in culture, the organization of services, law, cost and distance, and it calls for formal evaluation of programs that address them, such as mobile clinics and extended hours (Arcury & Quandt, 2007).

Gap Two: Healthy Food

The east side has no full-service supermarket; the nearest is 2.4 miles away, and many households share a single car. A systematic review of 31 US studies on food access and food deserts found that researchers used nine different measures of access and summarized the evidence in several major conclusions, including that access varies with neighborhood income and racial composition (Walker et al., 2010). Small grocers fill part of the gap with familiar foods, but fresh produce costs more and choices are limited.

Gap Three: Mental Health Services in Spanish

Only two licensed counselors in the city offer therapy in Spanish, both with waiting lists. Focus groups identified anxiety, grief and stress as common concerns.

Gap Four: Safe Places to Be Active

The soccer fields are crowded, the playground is broken and the river path is unlit at night. Inactivity estimates in the area are among the highest in the county.

Gap Five: Transportation

Buses run hourly and stop at 7 p.m. For families sharing one car, reaching the supermarket or a specialist in the next town can take half a day.

Gap Six: Services for Older Adults

Older adults described isolation, difficulty reaching appointments and limited in-home help. The senior club meets twice a week, but there is no adult day program on the east side, and home care agencies report long waits for Spanish-speaking aides. Several older residents care for grandchildren while managing their own chronic conditions.

Checking Usability

For each service, the team asked four questions: is it available nearby, is it accessible during hours people can come, is it acceptable in language and culture and is it affordable? A service that failed any test was counted as only partly usable. By this measure, only 7 of the 24 services mapped were fully usable by a typical east side family.

The Map

The final map layers assets, services and gaps over the east side's census blocks. Green markers show associations and places, blue markers show services with their hours and languages and shaded areas show where needs are high and usable resources are thin.

How Assets Can Fill Gaps

Assets suggest solutions. Congregations can host mobile clinic days. Small grocers could stock more produce with support from a healthy corner store program. The mutual aid network could coordinate rides. Bilingual residents could train as community health workers. The soccer league could partner with the city on lighting and field improvements.

Sharing the Map

The map was printed large and displayed at the community center, where residents added sticky notes marking assets and problems the team had missed. A digital version, in English and Spanish, will be updated each year and shared with partners planning services, so the map becomes a community tool rather than an appendix to a report.

Limits

Informal assets are easy to miss, and the inventory will be updated as residents add to it. Service capacity changes quickly, especially when grants end.

Conclusion

The east side is rich in associations, skills and places, and poor in usable primary care, healthy food, Spanish-language mental health services, safe places to be active and transportation. Asset-based community development reframed the assessment around capacities, research on food access and farmworker care explained why gaps matter and the map shows where assets can be mobilized to close them.

References

Arcury, T. A., & Quandt, S. A. (2007). Delivery of health services to migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Annual Review of Public Health, 28, 345-363. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.27.021405.102106

Kretzmann, J., & McKnight, J. P. (1996). Assets-based community development. National Civic Review, 85(4), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.1002/ncr.4100850405

Walker, R. E., Keane, C. R., & Burke, J. G. (2010). Disparities and access to healthy food in the United States: A review of food deserts literature. Health & Place, 16(5), 876-884. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.04.013