The goal of Bridging the Gap is to provide a book that takes a competing approach to Needs Assessment and shows the alternative side - the capacity building and assets of communities and individuals.

In this groundbreaking text, the author examines the synthesis of two antithetical ideas—needs assessment and asset/capacity building. At the heart of this approach is a focus on assessing the strengths and assets that communities have and demonstrating how to make those assets stronger. The author explains the foundation of needs assessment and asset/capacity building, discusses their similarities and differences, and offers a new hybrid framework that includes eight steps for how they can be done jointly for better results. The author then applies a checklist for judging the quality of this approach to six cases that represent real-world applications of hybrid principles. The last chapter demonstrates how such efforts might be studied in the future, emphasizing ways findings and results from hybrid ventures can be used effectively. A wide range of examples, tables, and figures appear throughout, with insightful discussion questions at the end of each chapter to facilitate meaningful discourse.

1. Beginnings
2. Synthesis of Needs Assessment and Asset/Capacity Building
3. Looking Closely at the First Three Critical Steps of the Framework
4. Step 4 in the Hybrid Framework
5. Steps 5-8: Completing the Hybrid Process
6. A Checklist for the Hybrid Framework
7. Cases Exhibiting Hybrid Framework Characteristics: Examples From Public Health
8. Cases From Other Fields
9. Research and Utilization