1. Asset Based Community Development Michael Marcus
Presentation for:
The Aging and Disability
Resource Center Grantees
August 3, 2006
Asset Based Community Development
Michael Marcus
Consultants for Community Resources
(847)
Thanks to The Leadership Practice, a joint project of Public Allies and The ABCD Institute, Northwestern University

2. What is this ABCD? Asset Based Community Development Needs to Assets
Assets & Use
Gifts & Talents
Associations & Social Capital
Transforming Institutions
How We Serve

3. Presentation Objectives
By the end of this presentation:
Each person will hear about the difference between needs & assets
Each person will have the chance to question how their organization operates in the community
Each person will reflect on his or her own capabilities
Each person will reflect on his or her organization’s capabilities

4. Needs Map :: Community Unemployment Housing Projects
Poor disability services
Elder abuse
Isolated seniors
Unwed mothers
Illiteracy
Poverty
Unmet caregiving needs
Mentally Ill
Often times communities are described only by their problems
We have too many gangs
Our homeless population is growing
Poverty rates are climbing
Crime, addiction, etc. plague our streets
Possible discussion question for the workshop participants:
Who do you think perpetuates this image?
Discuss answers:
- Media
- Universities - study crime, study deficiencies
- Funders - the first section of most grant applications is a statement of need
-Social services - view people as clients with problems & promote social services as the answer
-Others?
Homeless
No accessible housing
No transportation
Uninsured
Crime & Delinquency

5. Needs Map Functions Internalized labels Destroyed relationships
Foundation funding decisions
Foundation funding categories
Power gained by pointing out needs
Failure rewarded therefore dependency
Hopelessness created
When communities and/or individuals are recognized or identified only by their needs, the effects are troublesome.

6. Y / N Welfare/SSI Form Examples
Inadequate housing?
Limited job skills?
Lack job seeking skills?
Poor work history?
Lack a high school diploma / GED?
Lack training for a career goal?
History of drug or alcohol abuse?
Felony record?
Losing benefits (food stamps, medicare, etc.)?
These questions were excerpted from an actual state welfare interview. People hoping to leave welfare were asked a series of questions, which focused solely on what they were lacking.
-Tell me about your bad eyes, your poor work history, all of the failures that you have experienced, etc.
At the end of the interview, there was one open ended question, which asked the interviewees if they had anything else to add.
Discuss how this would impact a person emotionally? How would you feel after an interview with these questions? Would this prepare you for a job?
(Refer to the Consequences/Effects of a needs map).

7. The Two Approaches Needs Assets Services Consumers Programs
Connect & Contribute
Citizens
People
The needs versus asset-based approach can be illustrated using the “glass half full/glass half empty” prop.
All individuals and all communities have needs and assets. However, only by focusing on assets/skills/gifts will goals be accomplished.
An example – tell them the needs-based things first – and then tell them you’re talking about professors – so they’ll know that they already automatically consider some groups of people in an Asset-based manner even if they know needs-based things about those people beforehand.
University professors from a needs perspective:
Professors have needs. Some have been divorced a few times, some can’t balance their checkbooks, some have personal issues.
University professors from an asset perspective:
These same professors also have the ability to teach, to research, to mentor students, etc.
By focusing on the needs, the situation appears hopeless. However, by capitalizing on the assets, these professors create a thriving university.

8. ABCD Principles & Goals
Everyone has gifts
For ABCD to work, everyone must give gifts
Identifies and mobilizes the assets of individuals, especially those who are marginalized
Builds relationships among community members, especially those that are mutually supportive
Gives community members more roles and power in local institutions; citizens lead efforts

9. Citizens’ Associations
Asset Map :: Community
Local Institutions
Businesses
School
Citizens’ Associations
Churches
Block Clubs
Gifts of Individuals
Income
Artists
Parks
Libraries
Disabled
People
Labeled People
Elderly
This is a description or conceptual map of a community from the asset based perspective.
-When assets are identified, opportunities emerge. When communities look inward, they often find that they already possess the resources needed to accomplish their goals.
A brief bit of background:
In the early 1990s, John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann were given a large grant from the Chicago Community Trust to go to some of the “poorest or most distressed neighborhoods” and interview key leaders and neighborhood residents. They found that these neighborhoods had at least 6 types or categories of assets or resources that could be tapped and mobilized. Thus, the asset map was created to transform the deficit thinking.
Culture Groups
Hospitals
Community Colleges

10. Gift Survey :: Gifts
From New Prospect Baptist Church of Cincinnati, OH
Introduction
My name is_________________. What is your name?
Gifts are abilities that we are born with that can change
What positive qualities do people say you have?
Who do you give to? How do you give to them?
When was the last time you shared with someone else? What was it?
What do you give that makes you feel good?
This is one example of a gift/”capacity” inventory, which is used to uncover the gifts, skills and abilities of individuals. Often times gifts are overlooked unless conscious efforts are made to ask about them.
This gift survey was developed by New Prospect Baptist Church. New Prospect ran a soup kitchen and each week the same faces would return. New Prospect wanted to figure out how they could make more of an impact, while still providing needed sustenance.
They developed the gift survey and interviewed the people who came to the soup kitchen.

11. Gift Survey :: Skills
Skills are talents that we’ve acquired in everyday life such as cooking and fixing things
What do you enjoy doing?
If you could start a business, what would it be?
What do you like to do that people would pay you to do?
Have you ever made anything? Have you ever fixed anything?
Possible question to ask workshop participants:
-What do you think was the most named skill?
Answer: cooking. There were a number of people that said that they enjoyed cooking. New Prospect put their cooking skills to use in their kitchen to help prepare and serve meals.
New Prospect took pictures of the people that they interviewed and hung them on the walls of the soup kitchen. Under the pictures, their individual gifts and skills were listed. Connections were made. A group of unemployed carpenters got together and formed a small co-op. A few amateur musicians formed a band that provided entertainment at the soup kitchen.
Before the gift interview, the people who came to the soup kitchen were looked at as recipients of services. After the interview, some became active participants. It’s one of the only soup kitchens that when you enter, you can’t differentiate between those who volunteer to come and those who need to come.

12. Gift Survey :: Dreams Dreams are those goals you hope to accomplish
What are your dreams?
If you could snap your fingers and be doing anything, what would it be?
Conclusion
Thank you; we’re talking to as many people as we can
The ultimate goal is to find a way to use those gifts in rebuilding the community
Can I get your full name? Address? Age?
Discussion questions for workshop participants:
How would you feel if you were asked these interview questions?
Discuss how your thoughts, reactions, etc., differ from those elicited by the welfare interview.
Why is it important to ask people about their gifts and skills?

13. Community Wheel Individuals Associations Physical Community
Institutions
Most communities have 6 categories/types of assets that can be connected, shared, and mobilized to strengthen communities.
These assets are depicted in the Community Wheel:
Talents or skills of our people
Associations and our network of relationships
Institutions and professional entities
Physical assets
Economic assets
Stories
The Community Wheel is a framework for thinking about communities. ABCD is a conceptual map, an approach, a methodology, a starting point.
Stories
Economy

14. Wheel :: Associations Associations
Disability and Seniors Advocacy Groups
Veterans’ Groups
Block Clubs
Business Organizations
Charitable Groups
Environmental Groups
Health Advocacy Groups
What are associations?
-Groups of two or more residents joined together around a common activity, often sharing a common vision and goal
-Might have a small paid staff, but
-Members always create the vision and engage in the work to achieve the goal
Often residents are not aware of the vast number of associations in their neighborhood. For example, the ABCD Institute uncovered over 500 associations in one low income Chicago neighborhood.
How can you think creatively about involving associations in your work?
For example, how can a local church choir contribute to the local economy?
Possible answers: The choir can participate in a buy local campaign; the choir can develop and sell CDs of its music and donate a portion of money; the choir can sing at a local fundraising event.
Make a list of the associations that you belong too and think creatively about how to involve them in the work you do.

15. Wheel :: Institutions Institutions Schools Police Departments
Hospitals
Libraries
Social Service Groups
Churches & Synagogues
Nonprofits
Museums
How do associations and institutions differ?
Institutions:
-Are staffed by mostly paid people
-Often directed by people who live outside the neighborhood
-Usually more formal in structure then associations

16. Wheel :: Economy Economy For Profits Chamber of Commerce Banks
Grantmaking Foundations
Corporations
Merchants
Development Corporations
The economy is both:
Formal - banks, businesses, etc.
AND
Informal - barter and exchange, networks, etc.
For example, babysitting a neighbor’s or friend’s child, running an errand in exchange for something else, ride sharing, etc. - all impact the local economy even though these transactions go unrecorded.

17. Wheel :: Stories Stories Background & Personal History Like to Do
Realizing & Engaging Skills
Community Development
Economic Growth
Addressing Racism
Including Those Who Are Marginalized
Stories are often sources of hope.
In each story, there are lessons to be learned. If an individual relays a story of a “time when the community accomplished something” like building a playground or cleaning up a block, etc., there are elements that ensured its success. Breaking down those elements is important.
Who were the key individuals? Who planned it? Who did the hard labor? Who promoted and communicated the work to the local neighborhood?
What community resources were used? Physical - land, etc?
How did the community support the effort?
* Discussing the assets and resources depicted in these stories - generates ideas and enthusiasm for new community initiatives.

18. Wheel :: Physical Physical Gardens Parks Playgrounds Bike Paths
Forests
Housing
Vacant Land & Buildings
Streets

19. Wheel :: Individuals Individual Capacities Youth Older Adults Artists
Welfare Recipients
People with Disabilities
Activists
Ex-Offenders
Parents
Ask workshop participants to share stories of how individuals (that they have worked with) have become active contributors in the community.
What are some other ways that individuals can be invited to participate, to take control?
Reflect back on the power of the New Prospect Baptist gift inventory.

20. Social Capital Belief
The more relationships someone has in their community, the more likely they are to:
Be Employed
Volunteer
Participate in Political and Civic Activities
Join Clubs
Participate in Senior Centers or other community organizations
Be Honest & Trusting
Reflect back on the first two principles from Slide “ABCD Principles and Goals” - Everyone has gifts & for ABCD to work, everyone must give gifts

21. Social Capital Questions
How does your work foster communication and relationship-building among the people you serve and residents in your community?
What are the associations in your communities? What might they be able or willing to do to improve the community?
How could you increase the associational life of your community and the people you serve?
If pressed for time, these can just be an “Answer to yourself” list instead of a discussion

22. Engaging Institutions
Their Nature – legal / fiscal / political
Who controls the Institutions?
Institutional assets in your community
How can community gain more influence with these institutions?
How can these institutions’ resources be put to use to strengthen the community?
Institutional Assets
Space and facilities
Materials and equipment
Expertise
Economic power including:
Purchasing power - ability to buy supplies, materials, etc.
Employment or hiring power
Personnel

23. Engaging Institutions (con’t)
What is your organization’s relationship to community residents? How accountable is your organization to the people and community it serves?
How does your service define and engage constituents? What power do they have?
How does your service strengthen community relationships and social capital?
What can you do to make your service more asset-based?
Self assessment for local institutions.
If pressed for time, these can just be an “Answer to yourself” list instead of a discussion

24. Engaging Institutions (con’t 2)
Who do you hire from the neighborhood?
Who do you do business with from the neighborhood?
What neighborhood groups do you belong to or meet with regularly?
How do you relate to schools, churches, and CBOs in your neighborhood?
What do you feel you contribute to the neighborhood and what else might you contribute?
Are neighborhood people on your board of directors, advisory groups, or committees?
These questions help institutions assess their own involvement/contributions to the local community.
If pressed for time, these can just be an “Answer to yourself” list instead of a discussion

25. The Transformation Needs Assets Focus on deficits Problem response
Individual responses
Focus: Individual
Fix people
See people as “clients”
Programs are the answer
Assets
Focus on assets
Opportunity identification
Collective responses
Focus: community
Develop potential
See people as “citizens”
People are the answer

26. Steps to Transformation
Rediscover and mobilize the capacities of individuals and associations
Put decision making power in the hands of those affected
Practice ABCD internally and encourage, evaluate, and reward learning inside your organization
Develop leadership inside and outside your organization

27. Steps to Transformation (con’t)
Be a team player inside and outside your organization
Learn about and build relationships with other community stakeholders
Think systemically about issues and with whom you can collaborate to impact that issue
Put the community first

28. Asset Mapping
Asset mapping is looking at the community through a transformed lens
Asset mapping is not just listing community resources but how they fit into the larger picture, it is not a resource directory
Asset mapping is recognizing that your organization’s assets go beyond the staff to the volunteers, the connections each has made to other organizations, individuals and the community’s economy

29. A Simple Community Asset Map

30. Your Community’s Asset Map

31. Creating An Inventory of Your Organization’s Assets

32. Action Analysis
List, discuss, & evaluate various forces for / against proposed change
Look at big picture:
Analyze all forces impacting change
Weigh pros & cons
Pros & Cons let you develop strategies
Reduce impact of opposing forces
Strengthen supporting forces

33. Action Analysis (con’t)
Develop an action plan to implement change
Determine if proposed change can:
Get support
Identify obstacles to success
Suggest action to reduce obstacle strength

34. Action Analysis: Forces
Driving forces - help achieve changes you want
Restraining forces - work against the changes

35. Action Analysis: Forces (con’t)
Traditions
Vested Interests
Organizational Structures
Relationships
Social / Organizational Trends

36. Action Analysis: Forces (con’t 2)
Peoples’ Attitudes
Regulations
Personal Needs
Group Needs
Values
Desires
Costs
People
Events
Stories

37. Action Analysis Tool “How to” Goals
“How to” make Alzheimer’s a higher priority to Baby Boomers
“How to” ___________
Restraining forces - work against the changes
Identify Supporting & Restraining Forces

38. Action Analysis Tool: “How to”
Driving Forces
Restraining Forces

39. Action Analysis Tool: Qs
Forces valid? How do you know?
Forces significant?
Forces’ strength?
Which Forces to be altered?
Quickly?
Slowly?
Which Forces cannot be altered?
Which Forces produce rapid change?
Which Forces only slow change?

40. Action Analysis Tool: Worksheet
Remember to be specific
“How to” Goal
Driving Forces
Restraining Forces
Assets Required
Steps to Take

41. ABCD & Your Work
How will you utilize ABCD in your work?
In your life?

42. Asset Based Community Development
Michael Marcus
Consultants for Community Resources
(847)