ASSET BASED

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
(ABCD)

DR. MARTHA
KIBUKAMUSOKE

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 'Every single person has
capacities, abilities and gifts.
Living a good life depends
on whether those capacities
can be used, abilities
expressed and gifts given‘

(John McKnight)
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 ‘Every living person has some gift or capacity of
value to others. A strong community is a place that
recognises these gifts and ensures they are given. A
weak community is a place where lots of people can’t
or don’t give their gifts’
(John Mcknight and John Kretzman)

‘The strength of a community is directly proportional

to the number of people who contribute their abilities
to the well-being of the community’
(Nance Diamond)
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 What is ABCD?

•ABCD shifts the focus of community development from

“problem solving” to “asset building”.
•Involves identifying and tapping all of the potential assets in a
neighborhood
•Neighborhood assets include the talents and skills of
individuals, organizational capacities, political connections,
buildings and facilities, and financial resources

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 Understanding ABCD Approach
• According to Mathie and Cunningham (2005), Kretzmann and
McKnight’s ABCD approach operates under the premise that
neighborhoods can drive the development process themselves by
identifying and mobilizing existing (but often unrecognized) assets,
thereby responding to and creating local opportunity for positive
changes.
Unrealized assets include not only personal attributes and skills, but
also the relationships among people that fuel local associations and
informal networks
Mobilizing social assets can activate more formal institutional
resources such as local government, formal community-based
organizations and private enterprise to sustain and scale up
neighborhood development process

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 ABCD approach methods for mobilizing community
members
• Methods as proposed by Mathie and Cunningham, 2003:
– Collecting stories of community successes and analyzing the
reasons for success;
– Mapping community assets;
– Forming a core steering group;
– Building relationships among local assets for mutually beneficial
problem solving within the community;
– Convening (call togather, organize, asssemble) a representative
planning group;
– Leveraging activities, resources, and investment from the outside
community.

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ASSET BASED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT – KEY ASSUMPTIONS
 Believes that meaningful and lasting community changes always origin
from within, and local residents in that community are the best experts
on how to activate that change.
 focuses on the resources and capacities of a community and its
residents, instead of dwelling on their needs problems and deficiencies.
 inherently optimistic, and assumes every single person has capacities,
abilities and gifts. Living a good life depends on whether those
capacities can be used, abilities expressed and gifts given.
 the strength of a community is directly proportional to the level that
residents want, and a re able to contribute their abilities and assets to the
wellbeing of their community.
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 Communities
have deficiencies

Communities and it’s

citizens have capacities
and assets

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 COMMUNITY NEEDS MAP

UNEMPLOYMENT

DYSFUNCTIONAL
FAMILIES

CHILD
ABUSE WELFARE
ILLITERACY
CRIME DOMESTIC DEPENDANCE
VIOLENCE
MENTAL
HEALTH

ALCOHOLISM
DRUG ABUSE

HOMELESSNESS
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 COMMUNITY ASSETS MAP

BUSINESS LOCAL INSTITUTIONS SCHOOLS

CLUBS COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS

GIFTS OF INDIVIDUALS
YOUNG ARTISTS
LOCAL
PEOPLE
SENIOR COUNCIL
CITIZENS
ALL LABELLED
RESIDENTS PEOPLE
SPORTING
TEAMS CHURCHES

HOSPITAL FACILITIES GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

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 COMMUNITY ASSETS
1. Talents and skills of residents
2. Associations and networks
3. Institutions
4. Physical assets – land, buildings,
equipment etc
5. Economic assets e.g. Local business
base, consumer spending power etc
6. Heritage and local stories

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 MAPPING INDIVIDUAL SKILLS AND
CAPACITIES
1. Skills information
2. Community experiences
3. Employment/business interests and
experiences
4. Gifts/assets
5. Dreams
6. Personal information 12
 ASSET AND RESOURCE MAPPING
 A systematic process for identifying
and detailing resources (individual
skills and organisational resources) and
strengths in a community.
 The purpose of mapping is to
mobilise assets and gifts, and to
create connections between gifted
individuals and between asset rich
associations and networks. 13
 COMMUNITY ASSET MAPPING
1. PROCESS
PLAN THE PROCESS
• Establish the asset mapping task group
• Define purpose(s) of exercise
• Select group(s) to be mapped
• Select methods to be used
• Design the mapping instrument
• collect the data
• organize/map the data
2. USE THE INFORMATION
• Disseminate the information
• Allocate the resources and covert
resources into assets
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 NEW PROSPECT BAPTIST CHURCH Cincinnati, OH Survey
INTRODUCTION Guidelines
My name is ___________. What is your name?
Thank you for coming over. Did someone talk to you about what the ‘Gift Exchange’ is all about? What do you
understand it to be? Basically, we believe that everyone has God-given talents and gifts that can be used to
benefit
the community. I’d like to spend a few minutes talking to you about your gifts and skills.
GIFTS
Gifts are abilities that we are born with. We may develop them, but no one has to teach them
to us.
• What positive qualities do people say you have?
• Who are the people in your life that 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?
SKILLS
Sometimes we have talents that we’ve acquired in everyday life such as cooking and fixing things.
1. What do you enjoy doing?
2. If you could start a business what would it be?
3. What do you like to do that people would pay you to do?
4. Have you ever made anything? Have you ever fixed anything?
DREAMS
Before you go, I want to take a minute and hear about your dreams – those goals you hope to accomplish.
• What are your dreams?
• If you could snap your fingers and be doing anything, what would it be?
CLOSING
First, I’d like to thank you. We’re talking to as many people as we can and what we’d like to do is begin a Wall of
Fame
here in the Soup Kitchen highlighting the gifts, skills and dreams of as many people as possible. The ultimate
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goal is
 APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY
AI is a reaction to problem based and deficiency focused change
methodologies. It is the cooperative search for the best in people,
their organisations and their community. It involves systematic
discovery of what has happened in the past, and what gives a person,
an organisation or community ‘life’ when most effective
and capable.

AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen

capacity to heighten positive potential. It mobilises inquiry through
crafting ‘unconditional positive questions’ that lead to sharing best
practices, magic moments and life giving experiences. In AI,
intervention leads to imagination and innovation.
AI assumes that people, organisations and / or community has
untapped, rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. When this
‘positive change core’ is directly linked to change agenda,

AI believes that changes never thought possible are suddenly and 16

 ASSUMPTIONS OF
 APPRECIATIVE
Work in the affirmative,INQUIRY
continuously seeking to discover
what has
and gives life to the community and it’s members – instead
of
working from a problem solving and deficiency paradigm.
 People can plan best using the best of what has worked in
the past.
 Communities grow toward what they persistently ask
questions about,
 Importance of narrative rich communication – AI works
through
story telling, testimonials and large group forums,
 Our future images guide our present performance – positive
images enhance community’s performance and personal
motivation. Where images are depressed or deficient,
morale
tends to be low, 17
 Example of appreciative Inquiry
questions when reflecting within an
organisation
1. Reflect on your time in this organisation. Locate an
experience, a moment, that was high point, when you
felt most effective and engaged.
2. Describe how you felt, and what made the situation
possible.
3. Without being humble, describe what you most value
about yourself, your work, your organisation.
4. Describe how you stay professionally affirmed,
renewed, energised, enthusiastic, inspired?
5. Share your three concrete wishes for the future of this
organisation. 18
 SOME CONSEQUENCES OF NEEDS AND
DEFICIENCY FOCUS

1. Internalisation of deficiency identity by

local residents.
2. Dependence on outside resources /
professionals to find and fix.
3. Outside resources go into ‘need’ boxes.
4. Focuses on ‘leaders’ who magnify
deficiencies.
5. Rewards failures and ability to ‘talk-down’
communities.
6. Perpetuates dependency and hopelessness.
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TRADITIONAL COMMUNITY ABCD
DEVELOPMENT

Top down, outside in Inside out

Weaknesses Strengths
Deficiencies, needs Assets, opportunities

Disabilities Abilities, capacities

Silo provision Collaboration

Relationships, networking

Consumers of services Producers of services

Dependence on outside Importance of

Professional’s community initiative
And relationships
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 You will only learn what you already know
The elders in a village had failed time after time to resolve a difficult problem, and so they invited a very wise
person from another village to come and help them solve their problem. And, in time, she came. And when the
people gathered to hear her wisdom, the wise woman asked them: "Do you know what I'm going to tell you?"
And the villagers shouted: "No! We don't know. We wouldn't be here if we knew." So the wise woman replied:
"You will only learn what you already know. And if you don't know what I'm going to tell you, I'm leaving." She
left. The village was in an uproar.
Months passed, and the problems didn't go away. The elders debated and planned, and finally they decided to
issue a second invitation to the wise woman. And the wise woman returned, and once again she asked her
question: "Do you know what I am going to tell you?" And this time they'd been thoroughly organized, and the
villagers shouted in unison: "Yes!" They knew a trick question when they heard one. So the wise woman looked
out at them and she said: "Well, if you already know, then I have nothing left to tell you" - and she left. And,
once again, the village was in an uproar, and the discussions got more heated, and the meetings got longer.
Convinced the woman had something important to teach them, the villagers decided to ask her back for a third
visit. This time they were terrifically organized, and she came, and once again she asked her question: "Do you
know what I'm going to tell you?" And this time, in unison, half of the villagers shouted, "Yes!" And half of the
villagers shouted, "No!" So the wise woman looked out and she said: "Now, will all of those who know what I'm
going to tell you tell everybody who doesn't know- that way we'll all know." And she left ... and never came back
again.
That night a wise leader of the village had a dream, which she reported to the gathered villagers the next
morning. She said: "Last night a voice appeared to me in my dream and told me the meaning of the message
from the wise woman." She said: "The wise woman has been trying to teach us that any really important
knowledge is already here in our village - in our culture, in our traditions, and, most importantly, in our
relationships with each other." She said: "We already know. The only thing we lack is the confidence to believe
that we know."

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 SELECT READING LISTS
Kretzman J. R and McKnight J. L (1993) Building Communities From the Inside
Out – A Path Toward Finding and Mobilising a Community’s Assets, Chicago: The
Asset Based Community Institute.

Snow L. (2001) The Organisation of Hope – A Workbook for Rural Asset – Based
Community Development, Chicago: The Asset - Based Community Institute.

Rons S. and Altman H. Asset – Based Strategies For Faith Communities, Chicago :
The Asset – Based Community Development Institute.

Mellish E (2001) The Appreciative Series Chelmer: Mellish and Associates.

Annis S (2000), The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry, Planto: Thin Book Publishing
Co.

Annis S and Royal C (1998), Lessons From the Field: Applying Appreciative
Inquiry, Planto, USA: Thin Publishing Co.

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