Asset Mapping as a Research Tool for Community-Based Participatory Research in Social Work

Participatory research approaches such as community-based participatory research (CBPR) have emerged as an innovative way of conducting social work research. As social work researchers increasingly incorporate participatory approaches, they adopt and adapt research methods and procedures to fit participatory models. One such procedure, asset mapping, provides an appropriate method for conducting research and is particularly well suited to both the CBPR approach and social work's strengths-based approach to social issues. Although asset mapping as a community practice technique is not new to social work, it has been seldom used as a research tool in social work research and is generally not introduced as a research method in social work courses or in social work research textbooks.