Mapping Community Capitals: A Potential Tool for Social Work

Concept mapping can be a useful tool in social work practice at all levels. Mapping can help clarify and increase comprehension of abstract concepts, such as community capitals or assets. This paper describes community capitals, presents a simple method for mapping community assets conceptually, and demonstrates this method through two case examples. The cases detail activities of two organizations involved in work with communities. The development and leveraging of capitals is illustrated in both instances. Following the case examples, the significance and value of mapping in social work and suggestions for future research are discussed based on the mapping exercise.