How-to guides for creating an asset-based area

Taking an asset-based approach to commissioning and providing services means people's skills, interests and resources are valued and included.

Clive Miller, consultant and author, and Alex Fox, CE Shared Lives Plus offer a series of 13 How-to guides, which draw upon Alex's Asset-based Area briefing paper and his own publication (opens new window).

Transforming conventional into asset-based practice

Asset-based areas are committed to being asset-focused in everything they do. In particular they aim to ensure all their activities build and maintain family and community connections and people’s confidence, knowledge and resilience.

Commissioning must change to be more asset-based, but how?

Commissioners play a vital role in helping to shift mind-sets and relationships, and must themselves adapt to be more asset-based in their approach

Build on what exists for an asset-based area

When it comes to developing an Asset-Based Area no one is ever starting from scratch. Read How-to create an asset-based area part three.

Getting to grips with asset-mapping

Building an Asset-Based Area starts with the development and maintenance of a living map of its assets.

Relocating power to citizens for an asset-based area

Asset-Based Areas actively relocate power to their citizens. They see their role as working with, not for, people; and bring individuals and groups together.

Invest in early intervention and community capacity building

Investing in prevention, early intervention and community capacity building is a central feature of Asset-based Areas rather than a ’nice to have’ one.

Building people's resilience and social connections

Asset-based areas require all of their activities and services to contribute to building people’s resilience and social connections.

How Asset-Based Areas deliver social value

Co-commissioners in Asset-Based Areas explicitly seek to promote social value. What this means is that they (commissioners and people with lived experience) look at people’s lives as a whole and don’t focus on individual outcomes.

How to develop social and community enterprises

Social and community enterprises (SCEs) run shops and pubs, they provide transport, support fun activities, enable people to share accommodation and support them to be self-employed.

How Asset-Based Areas stimulate mutualism and use localism

Asset-Based Areas see social care as a process of supporting people to support themselves and those around them, not a service system.

How to connect people within, and between neighbourhoods and communities

Isolation has a toxic effect on people’s physical and mental health. Those with fewest assets fare the worst. At the extreme, social exclusion in the form of harassment and violence can lead to suicide.

How Asset-Based Areas invest in social action

Social action, also known as community development, is people coming together to help improve their lives and solve shared problems. People volunteer, befriend, advocate, join social movements and organise and develop community assets and services.