Contents:
- Excerpt from the article by April Doner in Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ)
- Recording of a webinar of the intersection of ABCD and Solidarity Economy
Restoring Our Capacities: How an Asset Lens Can Serve Movements Today (excerpt)
by April Doner
“ABCD was born in 1990 through the work of John McKnight and John (Jody) Kretzmann with the release and reaction to a large green book entitled Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets…
“A core motivation … was to provide a much-needed counternarrative to the common racist perception that neighborhoods of color were helpless, hopeless communities. The “big green book” boldly challenged this “deficiency lens,” noting that successful community change starts with those who are most impacted by an issue or most invested in a possibility acting together as drivers of that change, drawing first upon what they have, what is there, or assets, rather than looking first outside of the community…
“As we struggle to make sense of the turbulence of our times, what is the unique relevance of ABCD to movements today?
“We are living in immensely trying times—filled with heightening danger, dehumanization, alienation and isolation, devastation, precarity, and despair. We can also likely count on things getting harder rather than easier. Like many, my heart struggles to conceive of the world my daughter will inherit, let alone how to prepare her for it…
“What ABCD might offer in this time goes beyond its conceptual lens or a set of tools. Rather, the heart of this movement’s offering may lie in its trained focus on that “special something” that people—all people—have within them, which is held individually but only truly ignited collectively.
Recording: ABCD and Solidarity Economy
This discussion—hosted by Asset-Based Community Development Institute, Native Roots Network, Shareable, Coop Dayton, and Next System Studies—explores the intersection between these two practices and frameworks.
Leave a Reply