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HPAC.2 Identify: Finding a Community Health Need
Asset walks, data and big questions to choose your team's topic
Your materials
Slides (PowerPoint) Handout (Word)
For instructors
Facilitator guide Printable pre and post tests Quiz (LMS import)
What you will learn
- Use the five social determinants to spot community health needs
- Map community assets on an asset walk
- Find two or three facts that describe your community
- Choose a team topic using a SOLE big question
Start here
Walk out the front door of your school. What is the first thing you see that helps people stay healthy? What hurts?
Lesson
Five places health is made
Healthy People 2030 groups the social determinants of health into five areas.
- Money and jobs: Economic stability: steady income, food and a safe place to live.
- School: Education access and quality: good schools, reading skills, and a path to graduate.
- Health care: Health care access and quality: insurance, nearby clinics, and providers who listen.
- Neighborhood: Neighborhood and built environment, plus social and community context: safe streets, clean air, friends and family.
From a problem to a root cause
- What we see: Lots of students at a Clark-Fulton school skip breakfast and feel tired and cranky by second period.
- Why it happens (upstream): Parents leave for work early, the nearest full grocery store is far away, and corner stores sell mostly chips and soda.
- What we can build on (assets): The school breakfast program, a church food pantry, a community garden, and students who can spread the word.
How to do an asset walk
An asset walk is a slow walk to notice what the community already has.
- Pick a route: Choose a few blocks around your school, with an adult leading the group.
- Split the jobs: One person takes photos, one takes notes, one marks the map.
- Look for assets: Note people, groups, places, businesses and culture that help health.
- Note the gaps: Also note what is missing or what makes health harder.
- Map it together: Back in class, put every asset and gap on one big map.
Kinds of community assets
| Asset type | Examples near you |
|---|---|
| People | Elders, coaches, nurses, barbers, youth leaders |
| Groups | Block clubs, church ministries, sports teams |
| Institutions | Schools, libraries, clinics, rec centers |
| Places | Parks, gardens, corner stores, bus stops |
| Culture | Music, food traditions, faith, languages, murals |
Facts vs feelings: using data
Weak evidence
- Everyone knows this is a problem
- I saw a video about it once
- A random post with no source
Strong evidence
- Numbers from the Census or the health department
- A survey your team gave to classmates
- Notes and photos from your asset walk
SOLE: a big question to start
SOLE means self-organized learning environment, created by Dr. Sugata Mitra.
- The question: A big, open question with no single right answer starts the session.
- The investigation: Small groups share one device, search, talk, and may switch groups to swap ideas.
- The review: Each group shares what it found and how it found it.
Situation: too many ideas
Situation: Kendra's team in Hough has four ideas: vaping, stress, food access and dog bites. Each person wants their own topic, and the team is stuck.
How can the team pick one topic fairly?
- List each idea and the facts the team found for it
- Ask which one the community and partners care about most
- Check which assets nearby could help with each idea
- Vote, and agree to help with the winning topic
Talk it over
- What asset did you find on the walk that surprised you?
- Which of the five areas affects young people in our neighborhood the most?
- What is one question you still need answered before you choose a topic?
Study sheet
The big idea: We identify a health need by looking upstream for causes, around us for assets, and at real facts about our community.
Key points
- Healthy People 2030 names five areas that shape health: money, school, health care, neighborhood, and social connection.
- A downstream problem is what we see; the upstream cause is why it keeps happening.
- An asset walk helps us see the people, groups, places and culture our community already has.
- Good evidence comes from real sources, like Census data, health department reports and our own surveys.
- A SOLE session uses a big question, group investigation and a review to spark ideas.
- Pick a topic the community cares about, with facts, assets and something you can really do this year.
Remember
- Five areas: economic stability, education, health care, neighborhood and built environment, social and community context
- SOLE has three parts: question, investigation, review
- Find two or three facts that back up your team's topic
- Always do asset walks as a group with an adult
Ask yourself
- What do I see in my neighborhood that others might miss?
- Why does the health problem I care about keep happening?
Vocabulary
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Social determinants of health | The conditions where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship and age that shape health. |
| Political determinants of health | Laws, policies, voting and government decisions that shape the conditions people live in. |
| Health need | A gap between how healthy a community is and how healthy it could be. |
| Asset | Something a community already has that can help: people, groups, places, skills or culture. |
| Asset walk | A group walk through a neighborhood to notice and record its assets and gaps. |
| Asset map | A map or chart showing where community assets are and how they connect. |
| Demographics | Facts that describe the people in a place, such as age, income and language. |
| Data | Facts and numbers collected to learn about something. |
| SOLE | Self-organized learning environment: small groups use a device to explore a big question, then share. |
| Big question | An open question with no single right answer that sparks research and discussion. |
Real-life situations
The photo on the walk
On an asset walk in Glenville, Tyrese wants to take a photo of a man sitting on his porch to show 'the neighborhood.'
What to do
- Remind Tyrese to ask the man first, and accept a no
- Explain that people are not props; they are partners
- Suggest photos of places, signs and murals instead
- If the man says yes, thank him and ask what he thinks helps the block stay healthy
Why: Respect and consent come first. Asking also turns a photo into a conversation with a community expert.
The topic that is too big
Maria's team in Lorain wants to 'end poverty' as their HPAC project.
What to do
- Praise the team for looking upstream
- Ask what piece of the problem shows up at their school
- Help them narrow it, for example to food access for students on weekends
- Check which partners and assets could help with that piece
Why: A focused topic lets a team make a real change in one year while still working on a root cause.
The rumor as evidence
Jalen tells his team that 'half the kids at school vape' because he saw it online.
What to do
- Ask where the number came from and whether the source can be checked
- Look for a trusted source, such as a health department or CDC report
- Suggest the team give a short, anonymous survey with school permission
- Use the real number, even if it is smaller than the rumor
Why: Partners and funders trust teams that use honest, checkable facts.
Activity: Asset walk and team map
About 45 minutes.
- With an adult leader, walk three or four blocks around your school as a team.
- Record at least eight assets (people, groups, institutions, places, culture) and three gaps.
- Back in class, put them on one big map with sticky notes or a shared online map.
- Find two or three facts about your community's people from a trusted source.
- Write your team's top two possible topics and one fact for each.
Post-test
Ten questions. You need 75% to pass, with one retake. Your result is saved in this browser.