{"id":2467,"date":"2014-09-02T14:31:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T14:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=2467"},"modified":"2014-09-02T14:31:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T14:31:53","slug":"volunteers-help-put-community-assets-on-the-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/volunteers-help-put-community-assets-on-the-map\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers help put community assets on the map"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tower<\/a>A celebration event took place last week (Thursday, 21 August) to thank residents who helped create a new map showing the borough\u2019s most-valued community assets.
\nTower Hamlets Council recruited 28 volunteers and helped train them in how to research the views and experiences of residents in each electoral ward. The map illustrates community assets and activities in the borough.
\nA range of organisations including community centre Island House, Shortwork, the council\u2019s Idea Store and Walled City collaborated to deliver the project.
\nThe experiences have been collated on a virtual map, and it is linked to the community directory, developed and hosted by the Idea Store.
\nIt is the first time that a map of what local people value in their communities has been undertaken. Volunteers were given certificates of appreciation at Island House.
\nMore than 30 organisations provided suggestions to the voluntary teams, who set about exploring each area by asking residents about the positive impact these assets have had on their lives.
\nThe council funded the programme as part of its healthy environment and communities programme.
\nThe Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, said:
\n\u201cWe held this event to thank our residents who gave up their time to gather these assets for the map. This tool has already been a highly successful collaborative project, which we hope will continue, and it couldn\u2019t have been undertaken without our volunteers.\u201d
\nCabinet Member for Health and Adult Services, Abdul Asad added:
\n\u201cThis project proves how the council listens to residents and we thank all those who have worked together to produce an innovative and useful project. We hope the map will be valuable to others in the borough who can learn about new activities and places they may want to visit.\u201d
\nSomen Banerjee, Interim Director of Public Health, said: \u201cThis is a first step in producing a practical tool that can contribute to people\u2019s health and wellbeing by highlighting what people identify as positive and supportive in their local community.
\n\u201cIt maps the elements that can go unnoticed but really make an impact on people\u2019s lives. Our next steps will be to further develop the map and support people to make connections between mapped elements and to build on the existing strengths in the community.\u201d
\nVolunteer Zinebe Maach added: \u201cIt was really a positive and inspiring experience. I learnt to communicate with different groups of people, I also learnt a lot about the local community and met like-minded people through the asset mapping project. I was amazed at the wealth of local initiatives available at my doorstep.\u201d
\nThe volunteers began the mapping exercise in June with two days of training, provided by Shortwork.
\nThe project shows further effort to understand the opinions of local people following the Government\u2019s Localism Act legislation from 2011.<\/p>\n

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