At the start of my Community Powered project, I observed that many subcommunities in Racine didn’t recognize the community and resources they already had at their disposal in their city. Because of this disconnect, individuals in these communities would go outside of Racine to connect to other members of their community. Our project worked to address this disconnect by highlighting the invisible resources available in Racine and helping people connect to them and to each other.

One of the groups in Racine who would benefit from more visibility was the LGBTQIA+ community. To make visible the invisible resources for LGBTQIA+ Racine, I decided to create an asset map with the LGBT Center of Southeast Wisconsin. An asset map is a tool used to assess a community’s strengths and areas for growth. The map is informed by assets such as businesses, people, resources, events, and culture that a community finds valuable or thinks needs to be strengthened. What is unique about an asset map is that it is a living entity informed by the community, and can be co-created and co-curated, allowing the shape and assets highlighted on the map to reflect the real-time priorities, interests, and needs.

We created out map with the help of community leaders who helped decide what resources were highlighted on the map, like nonprofits, queer-owned businesses, key community leaders, and more. We also created events and activities around the map so the community could engage with it. This project shows that a tool like this can make visible the invisible assets of a community and this process is a blueprint for what other communities in Racine and beyond can do to help uncover their own people, stories, and resources that may be hidden.