{"id":457,"date":"2011-01-26T11:56:12","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T11:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leedscd.wordpress.com\/?p=457"},"modified":"2011-01-26T11:56:12","modified_gmt":"2011-01-26T11:56:12","slug":"asset-based-community-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2011\/01\/26\/asset-based-community-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Asset Based Community Development…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I ran a workshop for the Yorkshire and Humber Community Development Network on Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), what it is, and why we should think about it.<\/p>\n

And one of the questions I got was ‘What is the relevance of ABCD to health promotion?’<\/em><\/p>\n

An excellent question.<\/p>\n

But first let’s establish what we mean by ‘asset based community development’. \u00a0Or even ‘community development’. \u00a0But wait, can we even agree on ‘community’? Or ‘development’?<\/p>\n

Community development, at its best, helps individuals and groups of people develop the power that they need to make the progress they choose in their own lives.<\/p>\n

This is done either through a focus on ‘assets’ or a focus on ‘needs’, giving us ‘asset based community development’ or ‘needs (or\u00a0deficit) based community development’. \u00a0The following table gives some examples of assets and needs as they might be described in relation to individuals and communities.<\/p>\n

\"assets<\/a><\/p>\n

So, in ABCD we start with what people and the community already have and with what they want to achieve, individually or collectively. \u00a0Development starts where the people are, and works with what they have got. \u00a0It embraces a philosophy that\u00a0says\u00a0we already have\u00a0everything\u00a0that we need in order to make progress.\u00a0“Start change from where you are, and with what you’ve got.”<\/p>\n

On the other hand, needs based community development starts with some sort of judgement of what is wrong with a community or individual. \u00a0What is missing. \u00a0This takes the form of some sort of assessment, usually done by an external agency, with a view to working out what needs to be fixed and how this might be achieved. \u00a0The vast majority of what is described as ‘community development’ work in the UK takes this needs based form. \u00a0It\u00a0starts\u00a0from a philosophy that says \u00a0‘we know what is good for the community\/individual and we will work to bring it about’. \u00a0 \u00a0It might be characterised as ‘Start from where we\u00a0want\u00a0you to be, and work with what we give you’<\/em>. \u00a0The vast majority of health promotion work is close to this needs based model. \u00a0These needs based projects often use the tools and techniques of ‘community development’ recruiting local champions, building interest groups and generally doing what is needed to achieve the funders policy goals. \u00a0But is it community development? \u00a0Does it give people and groups the power to work on their agendas, or does it merely seduce them into working on the agendas of the funder? \u00a0And if course when the funder runs out of money, or the\u00a0policy\u00a0goal changes the community development stalls.<\/p>\n

It is worth noticing that if you adopt a need based\u00a0approach\u00a0your stance will essentially have to be one of nagging, nudging or nannying however carefully you present it. \u00a0Whereas if you choose an asset based approach your role will be to facilitate, coordinate and connect.<\/p>\n

So what would an ‘asset based’ approach to\u00a0health\u00a0development look like?<\/p>\n

Well first of all it would not be on the agenda just\u00a0because\u00a0a funder had identified a need. \u00a0It would only be on the agenda if local people or groups recognised that they needed to work on\u00a0health\u00a0issues in order to make the progress that they\u00a0want\u00a0to make. \u00a0This implies that funders would need to learn to\u00a0respond\u00a0to the self-determined needs , or wants, of the community. \u00a0They need to understand working responsively as well as their more usual strategic perspective.<\/p>\n

Health\u00a0would be negotiated alongside enterprise, culture, employment and many other topics that the community may wish to\u00a0address. \u00a0The development agenda in an asset based\u00a0approach\u00a0is much more\u00a0likely\u00a0to be\u00a0holistic,\u00a0whole system and person centred. \u00a0This\u00a0contrasts\u00a0with need based\u00a0approaches\u00a0which\u00a0frequently lack integration, only work on part of the system and are centred on policy goals rather than people and their\u00a0aspirations<\/p>\n

An asset based\u00a0approach, starting from where we are, working with what we have got, would be much less sensitive to the changing funding priorities of policy makers and is more\u00a0likely\u00a0to enable prolonged and steady progress. \u00a0It is also much more\u00a0likely\u00a0to build long-lasting social capital, of all types.<\/p>\n

So why then are so\u00a0many, the overwhelming majority in fact, of community development projects ‘needs based’ rather than ‘asset based’? \u00a0Well it has little to do with efficacy, in my opinion, and\u00a0everything\u00a0to do with\u00a0accommodating\u00a0the policy goals, timescales and resources of funders.<\/p>\n

With the asset based\u00a0approach\u00a0you never really know what issues you may end up working on or what might be achieved. And,\u00a0regardless\u00a0of what might be done to help\u00a0individuals and groups of people develop the power that they need to make the progress they choose in their own lives, which funder is going to invest in a methodology that will not allow them to tightly control outcomes, milestones and resources?<\/p>\n