duncan nantucket abcd healthy community collaborative presentatiion

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,

dan@hdanielsduncanconsulting.org

512-788-8646

ABCD Institute – Order Publicationshttp://www.abcdinstitute.org/

Dan Duncan

dan@hdanielsduncanconsulting.org

512.788.8646