Capital Assessments & Creating a Strategy for Change
/If community builders have as their primary task helping a system achieve its greatest potential, then they’re are going to need to continuously develop the deepest and broadest possible understanding of that system possible. This is what we mean by a capital and community assessment: a map, a lay of the land, an understanding of the market. What this assessment involves in primarily mapping stakeholders and theirs forms and levels of capital holdings.
Stakeholders are, quite apparently, any people or institutions that have some stake in the relevant systems. Again, these may range from single individuals to large institutions, but together they make up the “agents” within the system.
Capital, at its most basic, is a store of some kind of power that can be converted to get something done. Understanding the different forms of capital, being able to identify and discuss them, is an essential tool in understanding communities and the dynamics of the groups within them. The most relevant forms of capital are: economic, cultural, social, and symbolic. In different systems these capital holdings may take on different forms and will certainly be subject to unique rules of exchange. But since these forms of capital are the stuff by which things do get done, it is absolutely essential that community leaders are constantly striving to understand and map where they are located and how they can be best utilized for the health of the entire community.
Finally, the goal of capital and community assessment goes beyond merely helping the teams in their work. Others can also greatly benefit from this analysis. Thus, in some form or other these assessments should be open to the community at large, thus allowing network and community members to better understand their own community and affect the changes they seek.
Here is an example developed by Andy Stoll for Seed Here. This document outlines Seed Here’s understanding of the capital stores, resources needed and actions to take to support entrepreneurs: