Asset mapping and community needs assessment in Huntington Park, California

Research shows that homelessness is a growing epidemic in the United States. Millions of individuals are unsheltered and unable to afford housing. In order to target this problem, Our Place Housing Solutions (OPHS) in Bellflower, CA, a non-profit organization, was created to assist local residents in obtaining permanent affordable housing. This project is intended to assist OPHS in identifying possible leaders in the community of Huntington Park and determine if a partnership can be made. By visiting sites and evaluating the programs provided, OPHS will have a better understanding of the strengths in the community and can jointly work on reaching the common goal of reducing homelessness. The findings suggest that there is a lack of services for the homeless population. Unfortunately, the services in Huntington Park are directed more towards families and seniors. Therefore, there are lots of areas of growth where OPHS can have the opportunity of collaborating with agencies and providing future services for the homeless. The project of asset mapping allowed a future social worker to utilize skills of building rapport, interacting, communicating, networking, advocating, and achieving the learning objectives desired. Going out in the community and becoming familiar with the resident's needs, strengths, resources in place, institutions, and all other subsystems is essential to the practice of social work