Asset Based Principles for Community Disaster Recovery and Resilience An Introduction To Asset Based Principles for Community Disaster Recovery and Resilience Keith Adams

An ASSET BASED Approach to Disaster Recovery is centered around the belief that individuals, groups, and communities have the gifts they need to address the needs they see around them. Central to an asset based approach is that individuals, groups, and communities have the gifts they need to address their needs.

Gifts are more than talents Gifts are more than talents. Gifts include our interests, motivations, styles, bodies, values, passions, hopes, dreams and life journeys. There is no hierarchy of gifts. No gift is more important than another. Core values and beliefs associated with Asset Based Community Development are: Gifts are more than talents, they include our interests, motivations, styles, bodies, values, passions, hopes, dreams, and life journeys. No gifts is more important than others CORE VALUES & beliefs

A gifted community is greater than the sum of its parts A gifted community is greater than the sum of its parts. We recognize that we are a community of believers that needs each other not only to supplement the variety of gifts but also to help release each others gifts fully. Each individual, organization, and community exists in a particular context that necessitates an approach based in a particularized, situational, and systemic understanding of gifts and discernment. There is synergy is using our gifts in community. Communities each exist in a particular unique context. CORE VALUES & BELIEFS

Developing a new way of thinking ABCD is about developing a new approach, a new way of thinking to addressing community recovery and resilience. Developing a new way of thinking

Traditionally, community recovery has been based on needs. NEEDS BASED APPROACH TENDS TO START WITH EXTERNAL ORGANIZATIONS OR EXPERTS ASSESSING EXPERTS BUILD DETAILED IMAGES OF DEPRIVATION AND SOCIAL BREAK-DOWN IMAGES OFTEN BECOME STARTING POINT. Typically, we have used a “needs” approach. So that it what comes to us naturally. Starts with assessment, typically from “outside experts” A detailed picture of wrongs to be righted and woes addressed is developed. This community image of need become the starting point. This is how you need to do it….victims…

SIGNIFICANT Consequences of needs assessment “Experts” shape perceptions, determine targets and solutions. Focus on “fixing” people through a program. Develops a “client” mentality. May come to believe that they are incapable of taking charge of their own future. Often fails to achieve sustainable transformation. Outside experts design programs to “fix” people Client mentality deprives community members of taking charge. Never achieves sustainable transformation….community resilience. Dependence is the opposite of resilience.

ASSET BASED PROJECTS FOCUS ON A COMMUNITY’S STRENGTHS AND RESOURCES Start with individuals and organizations discerning assets and capacities already present Builds image of strength and resources Connected assets mobilized to build up and strengthen the life of the community. The Asset Based approach starts with community members identifying community capacity. Builds on images of strength and resilience Connected assets are then mobilized for recovery and in process strengthen the life of the community. All disasters start and end locally. When the community applies its own resources, then uses its relationships with State and National partners to add missing assets, the ownership of the recovery stays with the community.

SUSTAINABLE CHANGE ONLY OCCURS WHEN PEOPLE ARE COMMITTED TO INVESTING THEIR OWN RESOURCES TO ACHIEVE IT. The Key is locating all the available assets and begin connecting them in ways that multiply their power and effectiveness. The key is knowing your community assets and connecting them!

The act of discovering, identifying and connecting people’s assets changes the way that individuals view themselves and those around them. Instead of seeing themselves as ‘needy’ or ‘deprived’, they begin to believe in their own potential to make their community a better place to live.

Basic ABCD Findings In every story, neighbors know about the local assets. Successful neighborhood action is the result of assets that were not connected being connected. To connect assets there must be a connector, i.e. individuals, associations or local institutions. These are the three basic findings about how assets build powerful neighborhoods. They indicate the importance of people or groups that initiate a connecting process.

“I am a retired school teacher who has a passion for teaching kids to read” “ I belong to the TxEA, the Friends of the Rockport Library, and am a parishioner at St. Mary’s Church” A key way to identify assets is to map them. Let’s do a simple exercise. On each table are some stick it notes. Start taking an inventory of your personal assets. Using a new note for each “asset”, lets start by identifying your skills, interests, gifts, talents. Now thinking of the groups you are involved with, right them down on the notes. Now thinking of the places you frequent..do the same. Do you see how these are the beginning of an asset map? How they start to show your relationships which could be leveraged for recovery? “ I work part time at the Library, go to church, and shop a the book store downtown” Asset Mapping

Citizens’ Associations Community Assets Map Youth Community Colleges Labeled People Artists Schools Business Churches/ Houses of Worship Income Older Adults Parks Hospitals Local INSTITUTIONS Citizens’ Associations Gifts of INDIVIDUALS Neighborhoods Library Now let’s think about your community. I’ll ask you to group up in your communities, LTRs, etc. Pick a scribe, and start to identify assets in your communities, one per sticky note. Remember to include physical, mental, and spiritual assets. Performing Arts

Dinners/Feeding Program/Food Pantry Community Challenges Our Assets/Gifts Hunger Members who have experience with addiction Homework Help Program Meeting Rooms Latchkey children/ Few after-school programs AA and Al Anon Meetings Classroom Space Retired Educators Addiction Community Dinners/Feeding Program/Food Pantry Kitchen Relationships with Food Bank Examples of how to connect assets to community need. Opportunities