H. Daniels Duncan
Faculty Member
Asset Based Community Development Institute
Asset Based Community Development
April 24 & 25, 2012
Nantucket Healthy Community Collaborative
It takes a wide variety of strategies and activities to
achieve community change
To achieve real impact requires the community and its
residents to be involved
Communities have an abundance of resources. The
issue is that they have not been identified and engaged
All of our activities should be directed at increasing and
not stifling community engagement
Suggests five lessons:
Be clear about the purposes of our work, the outcomes we are
trying to achieve
Be willing to be held accountable for achieving those purposes
Create and sustain the partnerships to achieve these purposes
Move audaciously into the world beyond programs
Have the capacity to take community-wide responsibility to
assure that actions that will lead to improved lives will actually
happen
Source: Lisbeth Schorr Keynote Address, Santa Clara
County Children’s Summit – January 31, 2008
Source: “Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed”
Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman, Michael Patton
“Unfortunately, many leaders and even some
neighbors think that the idea of a strong local
community is sort of “nice,” a good thing if you have
the spare time, but not really important, vital or
necessary. However, we know strong communities are
vital and productive. But, above all they are necessary
because of the inherent limitations of all institutions.”
-John McKnight, July 8, 2009
Primary source of our health
Safety and security
The future of our earth – the environment
Build a resilient economy
Raise our children
Provide care
1. Personal behavior
2. Social relationships (networks of support)
3. Physical environment
4. Economic status
5. Access to health care
Primary source of our health
Safety and security
The future of our earth – the environment
Build a resilient economy
Raise our children
Provide care
Needs Assets
Services toMeet Needs
Clients
“Programs are the Answer”
ConnectContribute
Citizens
“People are the Answer”
Needs Goal: Stop Violence
Need
Services to meet needs
Clients
Programs are the answer
Asset Goal: A Healthy Community
Assets
Connection and contribution
An engaged citizenry
People are the answer
Not based on an opinion poll
Not organizing the community to care about your agenda
Identifying the individuals that already care about your agenda and mobilizing their action
It starts with the simple truth, everyone has gifts
The belief that neighborhoods and communities are built by focusing on the strengths and capacities of the citizens and associations that call the community “home.”
A place based approach focusing on the assets of an identified geographic area.
The belief that the assets of a community's institutions can be identified and mobilized to build community not just deliver services.
A range of approaches and tools, such as asset mapping, that can put these beliefs into practice.
It is the capacities of local people and their associations that build powerful
communities.
What can we do with what we already have.
ABCD helps us see people and places not as problems for experts to solve, but as
being full of hidden assets, skills and strengths that can be harnessed
(Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993)
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Time & Money Exchanges
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Individual talents and skills
Local associations
Local institutions
Land, property, and the
environment
Economic strengths
:
Look inside first to solve problems
Relationships are seen as power
Have a good sense of assets and
capacities, not just needs
Leaders open doors
Citizens are involved
People take responsibility
Askthem to share their
gifts
Connectpeople with the
same passion to act collectively
Discovereveryone's
gifts and passions
Focus on the gifts of their Heart
List Individual Gifts
List Agency assets beyond the services you offer
List the services you offer
Vote with your feet
Discover how to use the assets
Act
This is a powerful way to start a meeting and demonstrate the power of resources (gifts) in the room that are available to address the issue or issues identified for action.
“consumers” of
services
“advisors" of
community
programs
“producers” of
community
well-being
Clients
People as
recipients of
service
We know what you need:
• Patients/Clients
• Dependency
• Agencies and
funders in control
• Service, not care
People as
advisors for
institutional
action
Co-producers
of their own
and
community
well-being
What do you need?
• Clients
• Dependency
• Agencies and
funders in control
• Service, not care
What can you contribute?
• Resident
engagement
• Care not just
service
Advisors Producers
Not just another list of resources
It is:
A strategy to identify assets that are available from within the community
A process for connecting and engaging the community and using the talents of people to help solve problems and build a better community
Create a Resident Leadership Team
Select the geographic area for action
Draw first Asset Map
Identify individual gifts and passions
Draw second Asset Map
Connect people with the same passions to act collectively
Celebrate
Widen the circle
Create leadership
Look for people that have a passion for their community
Look for connectors
Look for people with a passion for meetings
Church
Church
Church
School
School
Agency
Agency
Agency
Agency
Store
Store
SNAP Office
Where are assets of the residents?
NEIGHBORS THAT CARE
Name:________________________________________________
Phone:________________________________________________
Address:______________________________________________
Email:________________________________________________
Occupation:____________________________________________
What are your gifts, skills, or abilities that you are willing to share? (Examples: child care, reading, computers, gardening, singing, listening, praying, cooking,
teaching, caring for the sick, sewing, auto/home repair, construction, etc.)
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
What do you care about? (Examples: children issues, family, environment, teenagers, seniors, teenage pregnancy rates,
domestic violence issues, personal safety, education, widows/widowers)
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
What associations do you belong to? (Example: church, organizations, support groups, women and men’s groups, etc.)
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Who else do you know in the Neighborhood? Would you be willing
to interview them?
__________________________________________________________
Colored Sticky Dots
= Children and Youth
= Seniors
= Hunger
= Crime and Safety
Church
Church
Church
School
School
Agency
Agency
Agency
Agency
Store
Store
SNAP Office
Create a Resident Leadership Team
Select the geographic area for action
Draw first Asset Map
Identify individual gifts and passions
Draw second Asset Map
Connect people with the same passions to act collectively
Celebrate
Shift in Power!!!
Inclusiveness – all people have gifts and talents
Relationship building
People, not programs build power in a community
Welcoming the stranger
Learning community atmosphere
Place based
Cooperative orientation
The role of agencies and programs should not be to
just provide services to meet client needs
The most effective role we can play is to work to
remove barriers so that people have the opportunity to
share their gifts and be a producer of their own and
their community’s well-being
More than an Institution’s Products or Services
“A neighborhood may not need an agency’s hours of counseling, what they need is the agency’s copy machine or meeting room or their staff’s computer
experience.”
“Ask the neighborhood what they need…do not just tell them what services you offer.”
“Never do anything that nobody wants”
1. What functions could community people perform by
themselves?
2. What functions can people achieve with some additional help
from institutions?
3. What functions must institutions perform on their own?
4. What can we stop doing to create space for resident action?
5. What can we offer to the community beyond the services we
deliver to support resident action?
The answers become the basis for community engagement
strategy development
Resources Discovering Community Power: A Guide to Mobilizing Local Assets and Your Organization's Capacity
Everyone has gifts
Relationships build a community
Citizens at the center
Leaders involve others as active members of the community
Everyone cares about something
What they care about is their motivation to act
Listening conversations
Asking questions rather than giving answers invites stronger participation
Ask, ask, ask
A citizen centered organization is the key to community engagement
Institutions have reached their limits in problem-solving
Institutions as servants
ABCD Toolkithttp://hdanielsduncanconsulting.org/
Dan Duncan,
512-788-8646
ABCD Institute – Order Publicationshttp://www.abcdinstitute.org/