What is it?
COMPASS II increases the capacity of people to build a better community by mobilizing community strengths and assets and by matching and connecting those strengths and assets with strategic opportunities for people to improve their community. COMPASS II is grounded in sound information and a quality process. It embraces an asset-based approach to community-building. It began with the view that the “glass is half-full, rather than half-empty” and by conducting an inventory of the capacities of two types of key community assets-local associations and organizations. COMPASS II made community strengths and assets more accessible by matching and connecting them with opportunities for people to improve the community. It assesses a community’s strengths, challenges and issues, and social, economic and environmental conditions. COMPASS II creates a vision of a positive future for the community. It develops a community agenda by selecting a limited number of priority issues in the community on which to focus efforts to improve the community. It creates a community impact plan and implements it through actions to achieve targeted community outcomes. COMPASS II tracks the process, progress and impact, as well as communicates with the public throughout the entire effort. COMPASS II includes people in the decision-making process who have an interest in community decisions and on whom the decisions will have an impact. All people have strengths and community-building supports people in contributing their strengths to improve their community. In COMPASS II, people from the whole community (in our case, eight counties), not just parts of it, are involved in defining and acting on opportunities for people to build a better community.

How is it done?
There are eight phases to the COMPASS II program:
Phase I – Form a community partnership
Phase II – Inventory key community assets
Phase III – Collect and analyze community data
Phase IV – Create a vision for the community
Phase V – Select priority issues and establish targeted community outcomes
Phase VI – Build an outcome-focused community impact plan for each of the priority issues
Phase VII – Take action to implement each of the plans
Phase VIII – Track process, progress and impact

As of January 2004, the first six phases of COMPASS II are complete. At the time of this report, action plans are being implemented and progress is being tracked.

What is in this report?
This is a report on what has been done since the inception of COMPASS II, with a look at what is to come. The report provides information about each phase of COMPASS II. It highlights much of the data that was collected in 2002-2003 from organizations, residents and leaders in the Wabash Valley. The report covers the vision statement and action plans that resulted from these surveys and interviews. Finally, the report gives the strategies and timelines that the initiative teams have set to bring together the Wabash Valley’s best resources to address its most pressing needs.

Where can I find out more?
In-depth data from the COMPASS II asset inventory, including county-specific information, is online at http://mama.indstate.edu/users/gejdg/uw/results.pdf

For more information about how to get involved with this program or with other Wabash Valley community-development projects, contact United Way of the Wabash Valley at (812) 235-6287 and ask about COMPASS II.