Asset mapping seeks non-identifying aggregate data about existing resources, their geographic location, function, and, ultimately, their effectiveness over time. The data you seek to put on the map should demonstrate what resources are actually being deployed.
Identifying what is going to be counted and mapped can be challenging because states and localities gather data differently; even agencies at the same level of government collect different data. You and your team will need to figure out:
- What data is available?
- Is it tracked by the amount of money spent, the number of people involved in the program, the number of personnel, or some other quantifiable numbers?
- What will you do to match data if different agencies or programs track data using different methods as listed above?
- Is the data geographically identifiable and, if not, can it be made so, in order for you to place it on an actual map?
Understanding both the local and state levels and how they intersect will be another topic for your team’s analysis. There may be more specific resources to map at the local level because that is where programs operate and services are delivered. Yet, at the state-level, where coordinating initiatives and change-oriented task forces are likely to predominate, state government or important associations of local entities may have gathered data and engaged in similar tasks.
View the DC Kids Count Success Story here.
View the Children’s Health and Education Mapping Tool from the School-Based Health Alliance here.
Having figured out some of the policy and “counting” issues around what data is available for your map and how the pieces might fit together, your team can return to examining the basic resources and programs that are the focus of this Action Guide, i.e., the in-school and community-based programs and interventions that constitute the foundation of a social and emotional development infrastructure.
The School & Community Supports Template summarizes these assets. Feel free to adjust the chart. See the section with Definitions and Terms about some of these assets.
Updated June 2018
“Through the use of the maps, we are able to show where children with most “need” of mental health services…
