As an entrepreneur, investor, and community builder, I've often pondered whether decisions and actions are truly beneficial for the community as a whole. In my experience, extracting value from a community isn't necessary if we focus on building a conscious community that inherently gives back to its members and the builders themselves. This approach leads to self-sustaining ecosystems guided by intention rather than control.
ABCD: An Approach to Community Building
In the pursuit of conscious community-building, the concept of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD)1 has resonated deeply with me. ABCD centers around community assets and strengths rather than solely addressing problems and needs. It aligns perfectly with the notion of creating a thriving, ethical, and sustainable ecosystem.
ABCD2 is based on four foundations:
Focus on Strengths: By emphasizing community assets and strengths, ABCD shifts the focus from problems to opportunities.
Mobilize Assets: The approach identifies and utilizes individual and community assets, skills, and passions for community-driven development.
Community-Driven: ABCD builds communities from within, empowering residents to take ownership of their growth.
Relationship-Driven: The approach values relationships as vital components in community growth.
Shifting from Needs to Strengths
Traditional community empowerment approaches often start with analyzing needs and gaps. However, this overlooks the inherent strengths of distressed communities. Instead of seeing them solely as aid recipients, we should recognize their competencies and build solutions around their strengths.
This perspective shift is akin to the Strengths Finder 2.03 concept, where identifying and leveraging strengths leads to empowerment. By focusing on what communities excel at, we can create solutions that uplift them holistically.
Unearthing Community Strengths
To understand a community's strengths, consider these questions:
What needs to change in the community?
What barriers hinder change?
What are the community's strengths and assets?
These assets include:
Individual Skills: The talents and competencies of community members.
Infrastructure: Both physical and social structures that support the community.
Cultural Heritage: Stories, traditions, and values that define the community.
Local Economy: Formal and informal economic activities within the community.
Existing Initiatives: Government, non-profit, business, and religious efforts.
Valuing Community Assets
Valuing these assets automatically leads to valuing local knowledge, culture, resources, skills, and processes. Not only do relationships within the community become assets, but building connections among these assets becomes integral to community growth.
“Not only are the relationships and social networks that exist within communities assets in their own right but building relationships between ‘assets’ within the community is an essential part of ABCD and asset mapping (Mathie & Cunningham, 2003)” - What is Asset Based Community Development?
To drive positive change, consider these steps:
Rethink Approaches: Challenge the half-empty perspective and adopt a half-full outlook for community development.
Learn from Successful Models: Look to marketplaces like Go-Jek/Tokopedia that leverage community assets for sustainable growth.
Watch, Learn, Implement: Gain insights from Cormac Russel's TEDx Talk on "Sustainable community development: from what's wrong to what's strong."
Let's reimagine problems in healthcare, education, and agriculture. We can solve these challenges through the marketplace, fintech, or logistic-tech approaches while placing the community at the heart of solution design.
What do you think about valuing community assets / ABCD Framework? Share it in the comments or with me at sagar@idexaccelerator.com.
What is Assed Based Community Development? by Graeme Stuart
Introduction to "Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets," by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight.