Citizen participation in the specification and mapping of potential disaster assets

Asset-mapping is a strategy used in disaster preparedness planning, however participation is typically limited to a small number of organizations with specific expertise related to disaster response. Broader strategies are needed to ensure identification of assets is comprehensive and to stimulate innovative thinking about which attributes of a community are potential assets for response and recovery. As part of The EnRiCH Project intervention, asset-mapping was used as a collaborative activity to promote identification of a broad range of assets which could be used to enhance resilience and promote preparedness among high risk populations. In this paper we present a study (in progress) which explores innovation and empowerment among a collaborative community group in Canada. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze focus group transcripts from 2 sessions where the participants (n=18) learned how to use google docs and create a database of community assets, while developing collaborative relationships.