Looking at Community Assets and Needs for Two Different Communities

A few weeks back we looked at community development and community capacity building. We have decided to take this opportunity of a team blog to show you the differences in our communities using a community-development lens, to identify some of our community assets and needs.

First, a little review might be good for all of us. We learned that community development is the planned evolution of all aspects of community well-being (economic, social, environmental and cultural), where the primary outcome is to improve quality of life (Human Resources Development Canada, 1999). Community development results in mutual benefit and shared responsibility among community members and recognizes diversity of the community, the importance of social, environmental and economic matters, as well as the value of capacity building, where it takes capacity to build capacity (Human Resources Development Canada, 1999).

That said, our community assets and needs maps have been summed up below:

(Please click on the tables below to see them enlarged & clearer)

The information gathered above sheds light on our communities in a holistic framework. We are able to see the assets each possesses, which could be used to build capacity within each community and enable health within them. We can also look at the needs each possesses, and extend them to the built environment, where we can make “physical connections between the places we live, work and play” (McCann, 2003). Some opportunities for the built environment would be to increase green space and wildlife in Thornhill, have more block and cultural groups in Corso Italia, and for both to provide more attention to disabled people, in terms of support and acceptance.