Connect to Community Assets With Resource Mapping

School leaders play a crucial role in creating structures that link families and caregivers to the resources necessary to support their children’s success in and out of the classroom. To ensure that family representatives have access to the tools they need, principals must foster strong partnerships among families, districts, schools, and communities. Community resource mapping can support these efforts by identifying and tapping into family and community strengths to inform and shape family engagement plans.

Community resource mapping is a process school leaders and staff can use to identify, organize, and visualize the services and systems present in the local community to support students, families, and schools. These resources might include physical spaces, organizations, practitioners, services, and funding opportunities in health care, education, housing, transportation, food, and other social services.

A Comprehensive View

The goal of the community resource mapping effort is to provide a comprehensive and accessible view of what the community offers to meet the diverse needs of students and families. It often manifests through the development of physical maps, digital platforms, and directories listing what’s available in the community. Armed with this information, families can focus on their children’s education and participate fully in school activities, knowing that a range of needs are being met.

Community resource mapping also fosters collaboration between schools and families, strengthening trust. By sharing information, schools communicate a commitment to the whole child and family. This approach encourages families to engage more deeply with the school, knowing that it has made an investment in their children’s well-​being instead of focusing solely on academic outcomes. And when schools have a clear map of local resources, they can help families remove access barriers that impact student success.

Once community resources are identified, school leaders must work to build relationships with local organizations, businesses, and other interested parties to develop a strong foundation for collaboration. This encourages community partners to engage with these resources and ensures that families and students can access the proper support.

Community resource mapping also impacts family engagement efforts positively by providing a structure for leaders to identify existing strengths and resources within families throughout the school community. By understanding the range of skills, talents, networks, and other knowledge that family representatives, caregivers, and community members possess, leaders can tailor engagement plans to leverage their specific strengths.

Map Resources With Continuous Improvement

Principals can lift diverse community member voices by incorporating Continuous Improvement for Equity (CI4E) methodology into community resource mapping. Using CI4E protocols can help school teams adopt a community-​centered mindset to solve problems by promoting inclusivity, collaboration, and the incorporation of multiple perspectives, including those of parents and caregivers.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a community resource map:

1. Create a team that reflects school demographics. The team should represent the community at large and include family leaders and other community members who have an authentic connection to the school and local community. The more engaged the community is at the outset, the more comprehensive your resource map will be.
2. Define the purpose. Clearly outline what you hope to achieve with the community resource map. Are you attempting to identify resources for a specific initiative, such as participation in a STEM fair or increased attendance rates, or is the activity intended to build a larger sense of understanding about the strengths and needs of the community?
3. Assess the needs of the student population. Identify specifics, which might include mental wellness support, academic tutoring, or systems to address food and housing insecurity.
4. Select the assets to include. Based on the identified needs, decide which assets to map. These might include physical resources such as parks and libraries, organizations including local nonprofits and businesses, and individuals with skills and talents to lend. Are there opportunities to uncover hidden potential throughout the community?
5. List group and individual assets. Identify assets held by groups in the community, such as clubs, associations, and local businesses. Identify skills and resources that family representatives, caregivers, and community members can offer, such as volunteering or providing subject matter expertise and academic supports. Be sure to align the selection criteria for anyone providing academic support to the school’s curriculum and goals.
6. Organize the assets on a map. Create a visual representation of community assets using a map. This can be done digitally or on paper and should be easily accessible to all stakeholders. Ensure that the locations are accurate so that users can navigate them easily.
7. Use and update the map. Use the asset map to plan programs, leverage resources to meet community needs, and identify gaps. Update the map as new connections are made. Be aware that as each new asset is included, it might connect to other resources.

Build Relational Trust

Community resource mapping is a tool for schools to develop resources that incorporate the experiences and address the needs within communities. Demographic data from the National Center for Education Statistics says that the student population in public schools is rapidly getting more diverse, and the teaching workforce has yet to catch up. Because teaching requires a college degree, we can infer that a significant percentage of teachers come from households more privileged than many of their students.

School leaders can greatly enhance their ability to build relational trust with families when they collaborate with cultural “brokers” who understand both the school’s culture and the cultures present in the community. These community leaders can help bridge gaps by facilitating communication and understanding, translating cultural norms and expectations as well as language to make interactions more meaningful and respectful.

Educators and administrators can learn from community organizations and cultural leaders to enhance their cultural competency in lesson planning and communication. By partnering with community organizations, schools can offer workshops on topics such as parenting skills, financial literacy, and health education that can empower families and build trust.

Planning for Growth

As districts conduct their usual strategic planning processes, community asset mapping can provide an additional layer of information to help support the strengths of schools. Research shows that community involvement can significantly improve student attendance and academic performance.

School leaders are charged with collecting and evaluating student achievement data and developing improvement plans—an experience that often focuses on the negatives or what needs “fixing.” We also tend to look inward to the school community to address issues. But with so many needs, the old adage that “it takes a village” is more relevant than ever.

As school leaders identify gaps and areas for growth, a community resource map can leverage specific community resources to support school improvement, including:

• External agencies;
• Community organizations; and
• Families.

All can be partners in identifying and prioritizing needs, as well as contribute the resources necessary to satisfy those needs. This helps direct resources toward the areas that might have the greatest impact on student achievement and family engagement.

Strong community connections can yield volunteers, learning opportunities, and other resources. For example:

• A school promoting a new focus on STEAM and innovation might partner with a local engineering firm to help coordinate schoolwide activities and a STEAM night for families. The partnership would enhance school-level programming, while helping the company increase brand recognition, community involvement, and talent development.
• A school might address chronic absenteeism by recruiting neighborhood grandparents to call students and encourage regular attendance. The program could also provide for children in need, as appropriate.

These examples just scratch the surface of the ways in which a community’s human and financial resources can support schools in achieving their goals, without overwhelming limited budgets. Community resource mapping can move schools from a state of lamenting what’s wrong to admiring what’s strong.

Community resource mapping is a powerful tool. It creates a clear, connected system of services that encourages proactive involvement in whole child education. By realizing and leveraging the strengths and resources of families and the broader community, principals can ensure that family engagement efforts are meaningful and contribute to positive outcomes. The approach fosters a collaborative environment in which everyone works together to support student success.

Kailanya S. Brailey is the project director of MAEC’s Consortium for Engaging Families Across Maine.

Jessica Webster is a senior family engagement specialist for MAEC’s Collaborative Action for Family Engagement.