assets

Project aimed to map the community assets in Wirral, and measure their impact using a social value approach.

This report provides a summary of the project methods and findings.

Report that presents results from a systematic review of the literature on the role and impact of social capital on the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents.

Report that is the outcome of a nine-month inquiry process, initiated at an international event in London in November 2009. The event focused on the applicability, challenges and potential of utilising asset-based approaches in an UK/Irish context.

Paper that explores the Scottish evidence for a link between social capital and health outcomes in order to inform the ongoing development of an assets-based approach to addressing health problems and inequalities.

It uses data from two sources - the 2009 Scottish Health Survey and the 2009 Scottish Social Attitudes survey, although the majority of the paper focuses on the former due to the inclusion of self-assessed health plus WEMWBS variables.

Research that profiles the work of 19 projects with the aim of illustrating how asset-based approaches are being supplied in Scotland.

The case studies highlight the key characteristics of asset-based working and demonstrate the strengths and challenges of the approach for individuals, the wider community and project staff.

The goal of the Oxfam Humankind Index for Scotland is to assess Scotland’s prosperity through a holistic and more representative measure of progress, beyond the dominant economic model which relies on Gross Domestic Product as the main indicator. The Oxfam Humankind Index measures the real wealth of Scotland – what really matters to the people of Scotland.

Paper that builds on an earlier publication ‘A glass half-full: how an asset approach can improve community health and wellbeing’. It promotes different ways of engaging local communities in co-producing local solutions and reducing health inequalities.

The paper argues that asset principles help us to understand what gives us health and wellbeing. It makes the case for developing ways of working that protect and promote the assets, resources, capacities and circumstances associated with positive health for everyone.

Based on analysis of available data and literature, as well as interviews with key stakeholders this paper provides a short history of the Child Trust Fund (CTF) and Saving Gateway (SG) in the UK, identifying the key rationale and drivers for their development.

It analyses the available data on the success and limitations of these policies, and consider the abolition of the CTF and cancellation of the SG.

The aim of this briefing paper is to present the current evidence and thinking on asset based approaches for health improvement, the background and rationale for these approaches, and the practical challenges of adopting these approaches in reality.

It is also hoped that it will help stimulate policy makers, practitioners and researchers to think differently about how they might minimise the risks of widening health inequalities and approach the goal of improving the health of communities and populations.

Report which is a collaborative project, produced by church action on Poverty, Oxfam, IPPR North and urban forum, following discussions at a working seminar on 2 March 2011.