Deborah Puntenney, Ph.D. Working to Make Rochester Neighborhoods Healthy Places to Live Neighborhood Health Status Improvement Grantees HOPE Health Outcomes

Deborah Puntenney, Ph.D.

Working to Make Rochester Neighborhoods Healthy Places to Live

Neighborhood Health Status Improvement Grantees

HOPEHealth Outcomes through Participation, Education, and Empowerment

PALSPuentes a la Salud — Bridges to Wellness

COACHCoaching, Organizing, and Accessing Community Health

Supported by the Greater Rochester Health Foundation

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Deborah Puntenney, Ph.D.2

What We Will Do Today

• Explore what it means to do asset-based community development (ABCD).

• Understand why the Greater Rochester Health Foundation is supporting your project to use the ABCD approach to create healthy neighborhoods.

• Meet the other neighborhood grantees and hear about the work they are doing.

• Work with your own neighbors to plan projects with healthy neighborhood objectives.


The ABCD Approach

• Asset-based community development PRINCIPLES:

• Asset-based (built on positives, strengths, opportunities),

• Relationship driven (centered on the people in the neighborhood working together), and

• Locally focused (place based).

• Asset-based community development PRACTICES:

• Asset mapping (finding all the good things), and

• Asset mobilizing (doing something with the good things).

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The Choice of Perspective . . .

People and Communities have needs and deficiencies

People and Communities have ideas, skills, and talents

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Negative Assessment

Lead Poisoning Dropouts

Unemployment

Gangs Illiteracy

Truancy

Broken Families Slum Housing

Welfare Recipients

Child Abuse Crime

Grafitti

Mental Disability

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What’s Wrong With This View?

From the Outside:

•Agencies and institutions may see residents as part of the problem and not trust them to contribute to solutions.

•Outside investments may go to professionals with certain kinds of expertise, not to residents with local knowledge.

•Residents may be excluded from decision making and end up with programs and services that represent other people’s idea, not their own.

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What’s Wrong With This View?From the Inside:

•The community may start to see itself negatively.

•Residents may withdraw and become isolated from their neighbors.

•Community members may feel hopeless and defeated, unable to have a positive impact on issues.

•Residents may stop trusting the agencies and institutions that should be working with them.

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Positive Assessment: Asset Map

Local INSTITUTIONS

Local INSTITUTIONS

Citizens’ Associations

Citizens’ Associations

Gifts of INDIVIDUALS

Gifts of INDIVIDUALS

Youth

Cultural Groups Community Colleges

Labeled People

Artists

Libraries

Block Clubs

SchoolsBusinessChurches/

Houses of Worship

Income

Older Adults

Parks

Hospitals

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What’s Right About This View?• The community embraces a more positive self-image.

• The community displays a “can do” attitude.

• Residents are validated as worthwhile, capable people.

• Residents see possibilities and not just problems.

• People see themselves as the potential producers of their own well being.

• The community feels more confident and powerful.

• Residents see that they are not alone, that there are partners for them in community work.

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Gifts of Individuals

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Power of Local Associations

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Supportive Capacity of Institutions

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What’s Really Different?

• Instead of seeing problems, we focus on opportunity.

• Instead of listening only to outside experts, we listen to neighborhood residents.

• Credibility and power come from relationships, not credentials.

• “Leader” describes every involved person, not just a few.

• We move from serving people to empowering people.

• Everyone can contribute, and everyone’s contribution is important.

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Setting the Community Table

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Setting the Community Table

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What Does All of This Have to Do With Healthy Neighborhoods?

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Determinants of a Healthy Community

• Social Relationships – how much time we spend with friends, family, community . . .

• Physical Environment – where we live, the quality of the housing, streets, and parks, what’s in the air . . .

• Economic Environment – availability of jobs, level of income of residents, commercial and retail opportunities . . .

• Personal Behaviors – what we eat, how much we drink, whether we smoke, whether we exercise . . .

• Access to medical care – can we get help when we need it . . .

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Determinants of a Safe Community

• Residents who know each other.

• Residents who act together in public.

• Residents who work with the institutions charged with helping keep communities safe.

• In other words: collective efficacy, or the ability to work together to achieve a vision.

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How Do Those Things Happen?

1. Residents know about and build on the community’s assets, capacities, skills, and opportunities.

2. Community building efforts seek broad-based participation, value collaboration, and welcomes everyone’s contribution.

3. Residents know each other, trust each other, and work together to build their vision while focused on positives.

4. Community builders take ownership, leadership, and pride in the work they are doing.

5. Residents advocate for both healthy individual behavior AND the policy changes that will support healthy living.

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The Role of Neighborhood Residents

Problem solvers

Change makers

Partners

Leaders

The folks with the ideas, skills, and capacities to make their community a healthier place to live

Community Connectors!

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Let’s Think Assets . . . .

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Six Types of Community Assets

1. Talents and skills of local people.

2. Associations, and the network of relationships they represent.

3. Institutions, agencies, and professional entities.____________________________________________________

4. Infrastructure and physical assets:• Land, property, buildings, equipment.

5. Economic assets:• Productive work of individuals, consumer spending power.• Local economy, local business assets.

6. Cultural assets.

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Which Individuals are Assets?

• Everyone is an asset; everyone can contribute.• Youth.• Older adults.• Artists.• Entrepreneurs.• Disabled people.• Ex-offenders.• Unemployed people.

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What Associations Will You Find?

• Block clubs• Charitable groups• Civic groups• Cultural groups• Environmental groups• Animal groups

• Fitness groups• Hobby groups• Mutual support groups• Political organizations• Religious groups

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Associational Assets

• The individual capacities of members.• The power of relationships.• Shared interests.• Common goals.• Local connections and relationships.• Leadership potential.• Energy.• Local knowledge.• Commitment.

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What Institutions Will You Find?

• Libraries.• Public schools.• Law enforcement.• Fire departments.• Hospitals.• Social service agencies.• Non-profit organizations.• For-profit organizations.

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Institutional Assets

• Facilities and equipment.• Materials.• Purchasing power.• Employment capacity.• Training and development capacity.• Employees.• Financial resources.• Political clout.• Good connections.• Mandated responsibility for community good.

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What Economic Assets Will You Find?

• Businesses and merchants.

• Consumer expenditures.

• Chamber of commerce.

• Business associations.

• Banks/credit unions.

• Foundations/philanthropic organizations.

• Community Development Corporations.

• For-profit corporations.

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What Infrastructure/Physical Space Assets Will You Find?

• Gardens

• Parks

• Playgrounds

• Parking lots

• Bike paths

• Streets/roads

• Walking paths

• Fishing spots

• Buildings

• Vacant land

• Housing/vacant houses

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What Cultural Assets Will You Find?

• Personal and community history.

• Food, cooking, and eating traditions.

• Ways of being, ways of doing.

• Interesting community characters.

• Stories about the neighborhood.

• Memories of a better time.

• How people are valued, how families work.

• Traditions newcomers bring when they arrive.

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What Do You Do With These Assets?

1. What do we want to do?– What are our goals?

– What is our vision for a healthier community?

2. What do we have here that we can start with?– What are our assets and capacities?

– Who is willing to participate?

3. Who else should be involved?– What kinds of support will residents need?

– Which organizations and institutions can we partner with?

– Who else needs to know about what we’re working on?

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Keeping a Positive Attitude

• Asking is important; you find out a lot more when you ask.

• Surface questions are a starting place; you find out more by digging deeper.

• Listening all the time is important; file information away for future use.

• An asset map is usually a “living” thing; new assets can be added as the community transforms.

• This is a relationship-driven process; it takes time.

• ABCD is a not a “one off” activity; it needs to be a habit.

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Three Rochester Examples

• HOPE project

• PALS project

• COACH project

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The Community Connector Role

Institutions Physical

Local Economy Individuals

Associations CultureCommunity Connector

• Inventory community assets.

• Connect the community assets to each other.

• Support community groups as they learn about and connect to the assets around them.

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Meet residents from other neighborhoods and learn more about

their work

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Working session with residents from your own neighborhood

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Final Questions and Comments

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Documents

Deborah Puntenney, Ph.D. Working to Make Rochester Neighborhoods Healthy Places to Live Neighborhood Health Status Improvement Grantees HOPE Health Outcomes