Small-Town Regeneration Insights #8

The Strengths We Forget to See: Finding the Assets That Hold Towns Together

What Counts as a Community Asset?

Community assets are not always the obvious ones. Some are formal, like the primary school, the fire station, the library. Others are informal, but no less important: the aunty who runs a feeding scheme from her stoep, the mechanic who fixes things for free, the soccer coach who mentors teens after school.

The STR defines assets as anything that adds value to community life and could contribute to regeneration. This includes:

• People: The skills, leadership, and lived experience of residents, whether it’s a nurse, a home-based carer, a youth coach, or an elder who remembers how things used to work.
• Places: Schools, churches, empty halls, playgrounds, and even underused spaces with potential.
• Services: From local clinics to a weekly recycling project, services that keep the town moving.
• Organisations and Institutions: NGOs, cooperatives, sports clubs, SMMEs, and local businesses.
• Environmental assets: natural spaces, gardens, land, water.

In STR, these aren’t “nice-to-haves.” They are the starting point. Asset-based development means building from strength, not waiting for external rescue.

When assets are recognised early, they become part of the foundation for what comes next.

Assets Aren’t Always Infrastructure

One of the biggest shifts this process invites is to see assets beyond the visible. Yes, there are parks and clinics and roads. But often, the most reliable parts of a town are informal. Like the Neigbourhood Food Programme in Moorreesburg that quietly supports dozens of families each week. Or the local mechanic who doubles as a youth mentor. These are the systems people trust, not because they’re official, but because they show up.

How Do You Find These Assets?

You don’t need a complex tool or an external consultant. You need curiosity, structure, and time. There’s no perfect formula, but a combination of practical tools, local insight, and relationship-building goes a long way.

Most STR towns start by:

• Working with the Community Task Team (CTT): This group, made up of local residents, often knows exactly where to start looking.
• Windshield and walking tours: Team members observe different areas at different times, taking note of community patterns, unused spaces, and informal hubs.
• Key informant interviews: Local leaders, elders, teachers, and caretakers offer rich insights into who does what, what’s working, and where trust lives.
• Asset mapping: Create a visual representation of physical and social assets—what’s where, and who’s connected.
• Focus groups: Hold conversations with diverse groups about the town’s strengths, gaps, and informal networks of care.
• Inventories: Capture both individual and organisational capacity, what people and groups can offer, and where their energy lies.
• Creative methods: Murals, storytelling, and photo projects invite people to express their knowledge in ways that feel comfortable and honest.
• Community surveys: These help triangulate findings and offer a broader perspective on what people value most.

📌 Practical tip:

1. Combine methods. Don’t rely on one format. Interviews give depth, tours give context, and surveys give reach.
2. Don’t skip over the small things. A backyard garden project or a WhatsApp parenting group might feel insignificant, but when connected with others, it becomes part of a larger support system.

What Happens After the Assessment?

The asset assessment isn’t a list that sits in a folder. It informs real decisions. A good asset assessment yields more than a list.

Here’s what it leads to:

• Shared understanding: Both the Municipal Task Team (MTT) and CTT see the same picture of what’s strong and where support is needed.
• A comprehensive inventory of the town’s resources, mapped, discussed, and documented.
• A clearer sense of where collaboration is already happening (and where it can be strengthened).
• Better project planning: When towns move into design and implementation, they already know who and what they can rely on.
• A foundation for priority setting and project design in Phase 3.
• More realistic goals: Asset-based thinking helps focus on achievable steps, especially in resource-constrained contexts.
• Pride and Participation: When people see their contributions valued, participation increases, and so does momentum.

It’s also common for early project ideas to surface here. A closed crèche, for example, may become the site of a youth hub. A long-standing garden club could take on a greening initiative. The strength of this phase lies in its ability to spark community-led solutions from the very beginning. These are small steps, but they are grounded, doable, and already connected to what people care about.

The Role of the MTT and CTT

The MTT and the CTT are not observers in this process, they are facilitators, connectors, and stewards of the work. Together, they build a picture of the town that’s grounded and usable.

The MTT supports and steers the process from within government. They help structure the assessment, provide tools and coordination, and connect findings to formal planning. Their role is to hold the administrative side of the work and make sure insights are translated into action.

Grounded in local life, the CTT brings insight, trust, and deep knowledge of what’s already working. They help identify assets others may miss, especially informal networks and everyday practices that hold the town together. Their presence ensures the process reflects lived realities, not just technical goals.

MTT Responsibilities	CTT Responsibilities
Coordinates the process, sets objectives, and ensures resources and tools are available.	Engages with local groups and residents, helping to gather insights and shape the assessment.
Oversees data collection and helps analyse patterns.	Brings contextual understanding to data and ensures diverse voices are included.
Leads the documentation process and turns findings into a usable inventory.	Assists with translation, interpretation, and outreach to groups often left out.
Uses the findings to guide planning in Phase 3.	Works with the MTT to shape next steps in a way that makes sense locally.

The best results come when both teams are active and aligned. CTT members guide the process from the ground up. MTT members make sure it’s resourced, supported, and built into the system.

📌 Practical tip:

• Rotate meeting venues to make it easier for different groups to participate.
• Use community events to share what’s being done and invite new voices in.
• Document early, but leave room for surprises; some of the best ideas come midway through the process.

What We’ve Seen on the Ground

In all three pilot towns, the community asset assessment process brought some unexpected insights to the surface, but only when people were given the space to lead, not just respond. Across the pilot sites, asset identification revealed different types of strengths. Some were obvious, like Modimolle’s strategic location and natural beauty. Others were more subtle, like the value of knowing your neighbour in a small town.

In Modimolle, the town’s economic assets included a strong agricultural base, active informal trading, and a growing tourism sector. The community highlighted skills development and educational facilities as key social assets. Importantly, there was a sense of community pride and strong participation, especially around local planning efforts and town improvement initiatives.

In Senekal, people spoke about the town’s cultural heritage, scenic landscape, and central location as significant assets. The presence of natural beauty and historic character created opportunities for tourism. But what also stood out was the community’s deep concern with the quality of services and infrastructure, and their willingness to speak about it honestly. Even in a context of mistrust, that kind of engagement is an asset in itself.

What stood out across all three towns was this: community asset mapping is not a technical exercise. It’s an invitation to reset relationships, elevate informal networks, and co-produce a shared picture of what matters. The role of the MTT and CTT in holding this space, actively listening, connecting the dots, and helping translate insight into action—proved to be one of the strongest predictors of momentum. These early findings helped set the tone for what followed. They showed that even where challenges are deep, communities hold a wealth of knowledge, networks and assets that can guide regeneration, if given the chance.

What We’re Learning as We Go

• Every town has something to build from, it just doesn’t always show up in the first meeting or on the first map. In Senekal, the early sessions didn’t reveal much beyond frustrations with service delivery. But once the process slowed and residents began to speak about what still worked, like the connection to the landscape and a shared pride in the town’s agricultural role, a different kind of picture began to emerge.
• The more tools and approaches we use, the more layered that picture becomes. A walkabout will show you things a workshop won’t. In Piketberg, walking the town helped the team notice the everyday rhythms that gave people pride: clean streets, the absence of informal settlements, and a sense of safety in public spaces. Those weren’t the focus of formal planning documents, but they meant something to residents, and shaped how they thought about the future.
• Asset-mapping isn’t just about infrastructure. It’s about what holds the town together when things don’t work. In Modimolle, for example, local agricultural knowledge, informal trading, and relationships between community groups became the real scaffolding for future plans. These weren’t always labelled as “assets,” but once they were recognised, they offered a strong base to build on.
• Informal systems are often the ones people trust most, but they’re easy to overlook unless someone names them. In Senekal, a local resident quietly mentioned how a community member helped coordinate lifts for learners without transport. That wasn’t a service on any official list, but it was an asset that mattered.
• When people see their knowledge reflected in the work, the whole process shifts. It becomes theirs. And that’s where momentum starts. In all three towns, once residents recognised themselves in the process, in the asset maps, in the notes from sessions, in the early project ideas, participation grew.
• Assets are everywhere. They’re not always obvious, but they’re there. From the skills people carry to the buildings we’ve stopped noticing, regeneration begins by paying attention to what already exists.
• That’s why using different methods matters. A conversation over tea will uncover one kind of insight. A mapping exercise will surface another. Together, they help build a fuller picture, one that’s not only richer, but more real.
• And none of it works unless the CTT and MTT are working together. One brings the community in. The other helps carry what’s found into planning. When that partnership is strong, things move, not always quickly, but with clarity and purpose.
• Because this isn’t just about collecting information. It’s about building trust. And when people feel heard and recognised, they show up differently. That kind of engagement can’t be faked, and it’s one of the strongest foundations a town can have.

The way this step is done sets the tone for what follows. What you find, and how you find it, shapes what comes next in the process. So don’t rush it. Some of the most meaningful insights only surface when the pace slows and people feel safe enough to speak.

That’s when regeneration becomes real, because it starts to belong. Not just to a plan, but to the people it’s meant to serve.

For More Information

STR Implementing Agent: CITEPLAN (Pty) Ltd | Technical Manager: Istell Orton-Nightingale at istell@citeplan.net or Communication Contact: Eriva Nanyonjo at eriva@citeplan.net
Project Sponsor: Department of Cooperative Governance | Project Manager: Prabin Govender at prabing@cogta.gov.za or Communication Contact: Moferefere Moloi at mofereferem@cogta.gov.za