Why is it so important to establish a vision statement at the beginning, and to develop goals to guide the resource mapping process?
There is no point in engaging in resource mapping if you do not have a clear vision of what you hope to gain through the mapping process. An established vision helps to determine the resources needed. First, a vision statement provides a touchstone to which an organization can continually refer. A vision statement establishes the reasons for a resource mapping collaboration and describes why coordinating and aligning resources is necessary. Second, the vision statement determines organizational goals, partnerships, and strategies to meet objectives. Finally, a good vision statement helps outsiders understand the purpose of resource mapping and offers compelling reasons for them to get involved. All stakeholders should be involved in establishing the vision statement, even though this may take some time. The resource mapping process brings together community agencies around a common vision and goals. Working together, key community partners identify those resources — whether human, fisc
