This is an important question, but a hard one to answer briefly, because ?strengths and talents? take in a lot of territory! There are literally thousands of assessment tools that have been used for this general purpose, many of which have been designed to assess very specific strengths and talents, of many different descriptions. So an accurate general answer would be ?It depends on what particular strengths and talents you want to measure.? Once you are as clear on this as possible, then your search should become easier. However, we will mention two examples, which may help get you started. In the community development field, there are a number of tools called capacity inventories; these assess an individual?s skills and interests in participating in local community life. One downloadable example of this can be found at www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd/abcdi.html. Another quite different type of tool is one that the psychologist Martin Seligman has used to measure what he calls an individual?s ?signature strengths.? You can learn more by visiting his web site at www.authentichappiness.org. You may also wish to consult Chapter 3, Section 8 of the Community Tool Box for some more general information on Identifying Community Assets. We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thank you for writing to us, and all best wishes for success in your important work.
