Asset Based Community Development is a unique strategic formula to help communities ascertain the assets and liabilities in the formation of a strategic plan.
What is ABCD?
It is an approach to community-based development, based on the principles of:
◦ Appreciating and mobilising individual and community talents, skills and assets (rather than focusing on problems and needs)
◦ Community-driven development rather than development driven by external agencies
It builds on:
◦ Appreciative inquiry which identifies and analyses the community’s past successes. This strengthens people’s confidence in their own capacities and inspires them to take action
◦ The recognition of social capital and its importance as an asset. This is why ABCD focuses on the power of associations and informal linkages within the community, and the relationships built over time between community associations and external institutions
◦ Participatory approaches to development, which are based on principles of empowerment and ownership of the development process
◦ Community economic development models that place priority on collaborative efforts for economic development that makes best use of its own resource base
◦ Efforts to strengthen civil society. These efforts have focused on how to engage people as citizens (rather than clients) in development, and how to make local governance more effective and responsive.
Communities are rich with resources, passion and energy. Through the deployment of ABCD, it is possible to help communities develop strategies and plans that can inspire action and ignite passion for the future of those communities.
In Australia we are luck to have a leader in this field, Peter Kenyon from the Bank of Ideas. Peter has a passion and love of country towns and believes that given the right plan and tools country towns can be rebuilt into magnificent, inviting places to live once again.
If you community is interested in an ABCD workshop and Community Development Planning session, click here and express your interest.