So I did a little more digging and discovered that there is actually an Asset Based Community Development Institute in Evanston, Illinois. It is part of Northwestern University. They describe their work as follows:
- Building community capacity is at the heart of ABCD’s work. ABCD engages directly with community groups to support their asset-based community development efforts. The Institute and its affiliated faculty also participate in an array of local, regional, and international conferences and workshops as keynote speakers, workshop and training facilitators, technical support providers, and learning participants.
- Using a community-based participatory research approach, ABCD partners with community residents and other local entities to conduct research that helps prepare them to achieve their own community building objectives. ABCD also works with community groups, non-profits, and an array of other institutions to evaluate asset-based community development projects.
- Working directly with students, Northwestern faculty, and other organizations, ABCD contributes to the development of the next generation of engaged civic leaders and community builders.
- Producing community building publications and other resources for practitioners and scholars in the community development field, ABCD contributes to a growing body of knowledge about the effectiveness of the asset-based approach to strengthening communities.
Did you see what the Asset map looked like from the process they described? I am curious what format they consolidated their results. It is a powerful tool to move forward with, all that synergenistic potential about to be realized!
ReplyDeleteI will definitely be looking into this further, and will post any examples that I find.
ReplyDeleteThis is great work. I think that the Jefferson County ALP team last year did something similar to this, although maybe that was just a community asset map. Am I understanding that an ABCD process would start with some kind of community asset map and then proceed to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for collaboration in the community?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI hope to learn more soon, but from what I know it starts with a strategy called IOU's, for Identify, Organize and Utilize, with the 's standing for sustain and summarize.
ReplyDeleteIDENTIFY uses a list of asset types, including individual, institutional, and organizational, government, physical and land, and cultural.
ORGANIZE involves enlisting the support of the community and determining which members would be willing to donate their assets. Individuals willing to donate their services become part of the community's individual asset bank.
UTILIZE describes the implementation of the plan.
SUSTAIN comes largely through ensuring that the community members understand the purpose and long-term goals of the process.