This is a "Text Only" version of:

"OurBook is YourBook" Thinking About Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping©

3rd printing - 2000

If you wish to order the book, please use the order form or contact us:

Community Building Resources
c/o Jasper Place High School
Room 681 8950 - 163 Street
Edmonton, AB T5R 2P2 Canada

Phone: (780) 484-9045
Fax: (780) 484-9099
e-mail: raff@cbr-aimhigh.com
Web Site: www.cbr-aimhigh.com

Acknowledgment:
Thank you to the many people and communities who have shared their experiences with us and allowed us to be part of their lives - to the Caritas Health Group for getting us started, the Alberta cities and towns of Edmonton, Swan Hills, Whitecourt, Calling Lake, Alberta Community Development, and of course Stratford PEI; and all the e-mailers and Community Builders who have talked to us and shared what they are doing! Thank you also to John McKnight for his words of wisdom and to Gary Racich and Hilda Sucre, our our wonderful friends and informal community leaders who showed us the way!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Community Building - Introduction and Background

II. It Is Time To Talk ... The Mindshift
- Thinking about Asset-based Community Building

• Open the doors and windows, breathe the fresh air
• Asset-based lenses

III. Where Are We - What Has Happened?
- Boxing - How to break out of the box

• Building from assets, rather than fragmentation through needs assessments
• The new is really the old way

IV. Getting There - language, values, assumptions

• Words - do they match the action?
• The language, buzz words - words, words, words!
• Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping© (CCB&AM©) - what are the values?
• Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping© (CCB&AM©) - what are the assumptions?

V. Are You Ready to meet the Challenge?

VI. References

VII. Appendices

• Appendix A
  - Community Capacity Building and Asset Mapping©: Philosophy
• Appendix B
  - Community Capacity Building and Asset Mapping© Revised Model Summary
  - Spiral with Steps to Capacity Success©
• Appendix C
  - Words, Words, Words
• Appendix D
  - Community Building and Gift-Sharing Stories and Challenges

I. COMMUNITY BUILDING Introduction and Background

WHAT IS THIS BOOK ABOUT?

We hope you enjoy reading "OurBook is YourBook" as much as we have enjoyed the experiences and the writing that has contributed to it. This book was created in answer to the many questions that people (who connected to us through our home page on the Internet, or by word-of-mouth) have asked. We thought this would be a great way to further share our thoughts and experiences - so enjoy, think hard, challenge yourself, and talk to others!!

"OurBook is YourBook" may guide you to a "mind shift." It will generate excitement as you begin, or continue your journey to find, recapture or share the feeling, philosophy, or optimistic view of the world through "asset-based lenses." Through these lenses, the incredible potential of the gifts of fellow citizens will come into focus. The excitement of discovering gifts builds momentum so we can move from the present way that many of us work and live, in a service provider, dependency - promoting, needs driven, environment. This new environment is creative. Everyone works and lives interdependently through discovery and building, talking and asking, finding, nurturing, connecting, and sharing citizens' and communities' resources and assets.

This is Building on Capacities, (Community Capacity Building), Asset-based Community Building (ABCB), or Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD)! In "OurBook is YourBook" each of these means creativity, opportunity, interdependence, the feeling of family and friends, and potentiating the resources and assets of citizens and communities!

The development of community, through Asset-based Community Building connects, animates, and informs citizens. In "OurBook is YourBook" we will discuss how our community experiences have taught us to think, and as well, the mindshift that is key to successful Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping©, and to the development of social and economic structures that nurture local sustainability.

We have found ways to operationalize Asset-based Community Building (ABCB). We have learned the catalysts to the discovery and connecting of the wealth of unrecognized gifts and resources in a community. Our next book, "Making It Happen - Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping©", will guide you and your community in the actions necessary for Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping© to happen.

You will find us in an old classroom located in an Edmonton high school. Community Building Resources, now a full-time business does the work that the Community Development office of CHA had. Susan Roberts, Angie Dedrick, Graham Mitchell,and Johanna Walkner are the CBR, (Community Building Resources) team. It is within this capacity that we have written this book and from which we work with many other groups and citizens across Alberta, Canada and the United States.

We enjoy our work with citizens and groups, with whom we facilitate the discovery and development of local supports for health that will stimulate and sustain local social and economic development. Our Community Building work is built on our belief that health is determined by many factors which are not limited to the old focus on illness and disease. These factors may include: having a nice place to raise children, the social environment, low crime rates, freedom from fear, safety, strong family life, and an economic environment that provides good jobs (Canadian Institute for Advance Research 1989 and 1991, Health Care Forum, 1994).

"Ourbook is Yourbook" is based on experiences from our work in health, as Community Development, Capital Health, and through our experiences as facilitators, catalysts and navigators with CBR.

When we began in 1993, we hoped to learn more about ways to find, connect, and develop local supports for health - that is, health in the broadest sense, (clean air, safe neighbourhoods, friendships, connections, sharing, fun, willingness to help each other, etc.).

We wanted to learn from the wisdom of local communities and we wanted to see the impacts of Community Building on the health of a community and its citizens. We started by reading the work of Kretzmann and McKnight (1993), talking with John McKnight, and partnering with the Glenwood Community League, a neighbourhood group representing a West Edmonton community. We embarked on a "Community Capacity Building and Asset Mapping©" pilot project. The project involved asking citizens, businesses and associations in that community "What supports for health would you be willing to provide to citizens in your community on a volunteer or for fee basis?" The number and wide range of community supports for health, the connections and partnerships, and the relationships that emerged from the pilot project were far greater than we expected. Because the exciting outcomes of the Glenwood pilot reached far beyond the conventional paradigm, a model or path for Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping© was developed.

This model has since been shared with many communities in the city of Edmonton, and in towns in the provinces and states of Canada, USA and UK. The model emphasises the positive - community strengths, citizen gifts, and resources. It stimulates the development of an animated, activated community. It also increases business opportunities and nurtures the development of an interdependent community (see Appendix A - Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping© Philosophy and Appendix B - Community Capacity Building and Asset Mapping©: Revised Model Summary and Spiral with Steps©). The word "model" may not be quite the right word; it is really a guide or a path to follow!

Through sharing the model with others, and working hand-in-hand with communities as they try it out, we have learned a great deal. We have learned about community involvement and citizen participation. We have also learned about ways to kindle the excitement of the unspoken majority and the unspoken minority, and ways to discover and mobilize the exchange of gifts and talents of many citizens.

Sometimes the language or words that you read in "OurBook is YourBook" may have various meanings to yourself and others. We have added in Appendix C, a list of definitions that we have developed called "Words, Words, Words." We hope it will assist you in further developing your understanding of Community Building in theory and in practise.

II. IT IS TIME TO TALK ...The MINDSHIFT
Key Words: assets, gifts, community, capacity, catalyze, interdependence, mobilize, potentiate, reciprocal

Building from within, Asset-based Community Building, is a way for you and your fellow citizens to nurture and recapture that "community and family feeling." Asset-based Community Building stimulates creativity and thought, and opens the doors and windows providing "fresh air" for citizens and communities to create communities where there are "no longer strangers." Asset-based Community Building mobilizes and potentiates the citizens' and communities' resources/assets/gifts and talents and nurtures the economic and relationship development within a community.

Unfortunately, citizen and community resources and assets are often undiscovered, untapped, and unconnected. Our competitive, high tech, time sensitive, service driven, political culture and society have not been conducive to people talking and sharing with each other. As a result, the vast array of citizen and community gifts, talents, and resources go unrecognized, unconnected, and unrelated.

It is time to make the mindshift. It is time to nurture new thinking and to challenge the ways of service and systems - it is TIME to TAKE TIME to TALK

Isn't it odd that in a time when communication happens at such a fevered pitch - Internet, cellular phones, fiberoptics etc., people are relating less and less? We do not see neighbours knowing neighbours. We see more fences, security systems and window bars being installed. Our society seems focused on safety and security. Because we don't develop relationships and get to know each other, doubt, mistrust and caution are common. Why are things this way? What can we do? The answer to the why is complex but the answer to what can we do is EASY!! - START TALKING!!

** Isn't it great when you discover a talent, skill or experience that someone has when you have judged the person to be not so nice. You discover they are quite different and actually nice, because you both took time to talk. Isn't it even more wonderful when you discover there is something you both enjoy or can share? Isn't it even nicer when you actually share it?? This is how friendships and relationships begin. The way systems and society are today makes it difficult to nurture personal connections - there is no time and it doesn't seem to fit the corporate or social structures. In systems the group is the focus - not individuals - and there is little connection between home/play/pleasure and the job.**

We have been so surprised to hear neighbourhood people say things like:

• "Nobody has ever talked to me in person about this before, yes I would like to get involved!"
• "I didn't think anyone would be interested in having me help."
• "This is so positive, where did this come from?"

The Canadian and American social and economic systems have been formed at the expense of friendships and meaningful relationships. People do not know how to talk, link, and connect! The present Canadian social context prevents people from learning and talking with each other - fear for personal safety, stereotyping, stigmas, racism, economic disparity, large systems orientation, group think - all these are barriers to people talking, and finding new friendships and relationships!! Asset-based Community Building is openness and conversation; it nurtures sharing, rather than competition, and lays the foundation for community growth. Asset-based Community Building catalyzes people to talk, link, and share and encourages the recognition of the gifts and capacities of everyone and the interdependent nature of our lives. Asset-based Community Building focuses on developing relationships based on what you have to build on, your assets, not what you do not have. The negative-needs lenses change to positive, asset-based lenses. Asset-based Community Building is reciprocal - their is an exchange between people - it is two way.

III. WHERE ARE WE - WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
Boxing - How to break out of the box.

Key Words: "be"ing, boxing, breakout, controlled, dependency, disable, institution, system

Systems (education, health, social, etc.) have dictated that everyone fits in a "need box." Our Canadian society and culture has used labels, compartmentalizing, departmentalizing, hierarchical management, bureaucratic structures, and convoluted abbreviations that seem to ensure everyone depends on the services of systems. Canadians have created a mammoth network of institutions to "look after" the members of our society. We have health care, public education system, employment insurance, welfare, disability subsidies, and old age pensions. We are proud of this "safety net" as proof that we, as a society, care. But is being "looked after" to the extent that Canadians are, the same as "care?" Can we be "looked after" too much? It's common sense that "looking after" a child for too long will keep that child a child forever! By continuing to label citizens as needing "looking after," social services often create dependencies. This is beginning to be recognized for programs like welfare and employment insurance.

At the same time, our institutions are designed to look after or fix specific "parts" of the person. Attempts to categorize/ departmentalize or BOX the whole person causes them to become fragmented and the parts analysed and treated with little recognition of the relationship or interdependence between them. Different institutions or systems look after the different boxes. Our physical health is looked after by a medical/health system, our financial security by a government system of employment insurance, pensions and welfare, and our emotions by a system of services providers. Once again, it seems to be common sense that individuals can not, and should not, be boxed; for example, physical health is related to mental health and to financial security.

"Boxing" rapidly confirms and perpetuates the dependent and fragmented way of life through which the health, social and education systems in Canada have been developed. Citizens are "categorized" and "serviced" according to their deficits or needs, which are most often predetermined by the system!! "Needs labelling" and "boxing" leave very little opportunity for citizens to develop a belief in interdependence and self-responsibility. Any possible discovery and recognition of the gifts and strengths that a person has is disabled and undermined by the boxing of the system. Have you ever seen a hospital admission form, a social service intake form, a public health form, or an educational institutional form that gives people credit and recognition for their strengths and gifts, let alone one that encourages sharing? The system has forms and processes that focus on needs that feed the system - the forms and processes of the systems do not liberate. People are controlled by systems and their service providers, who themselves are dependent on the needs and boxes created by the system for their job security. Most often the systems environment precludes citizens from recognizing the gifts and capacities of each other and the development of friendships and relationships.

**You are old so you "need" help, you are a single parent with no job so you "need" parenting skills and social assistance. Oh yes, I am old - I do "need" help, and oh yes, poor me, I am a single parent with no job, I do "need" help! Community development within the service sector has meant working with the disadvantaged and working with - "half empty cups"!!**

But don't we all have needs and deficiencies? People all have cups that are half full AND half empty. It really is a question of which half you concentrate on, and which is a building block upon which citizens and communities can develop?

We believe that community building happens by "building on what you have rather than on what you don't have.

" Can you see how boxing happens when you look at "need - labels" only? Can you think of your own examples of how both the service provider and the citizen are forced to "box"? Social workers, employment counsellors with government employment agencies, health care workers, teachers, medical practitioners - the way they interact with citizens, and care for people is a product of the service systems. Can you see that even changing a few questions on a system form could be a small beginning to a shift from dependence to interdependence?

If you were asked, "is this cup half full or half empty, what would you say?" As John McKnight so aptly states, the obvious answer is YES!! John McKnight and all Community Builders recognize that everyone has gifts and needs. Community Building only happens, however, when we focus on the gifts and when these gifts are mobilized to build community. A community cannot be built on the needs and scars of its citizens.

What if we talked to everyone, not just serviced and advocated for people? What if we talked to older citizens, learners, the unemployed, clients and patients, and focused on the talents and gifts (those acquired through work, family and community experiences) everyone has to contribute to each other? What if together we talked and shared life experiences, talents, gifts, and skills? Would that make a difference in how citizens view their "need" for a service and how the service providers view them? Would citizens be more interested in taking responsibility for themselves and others? Would service providers let that happen? Would new friendships and relationships develop?
Can this "reframing" happen??? ...... YES!!

That is what Asset-based Community Building is all about - "breaking out" of the service forms and documents, the needs assessments and the structured paradigms and "boxes" of the service driven systems. It means together discovering the wealth of shared experiences, resources, assets and gifts of citizens and their communities; focusing on the "half full cup" and capitalising on that! Asset-based Community Building is everyone discovering, connecting, sharing and finding lasting friendships and relationships. Asset-based Community Building implies shifts in power and responsibility. The outcomes of Asset-based Community Building are citizens sharing their gifts and capacities and truly caring and supporting each other. "Your gift is your key to your community" (Damon Lynch, Cincinnati, Ohio).

This picture can be intimidating and threatening to professionals and even to citizens themselves. Over the last few decades service providers have done most of the deciding and looking after, at the huge expense of the sharing spirit, the delights of interdependence and the pleasures of "be"ing together.

The Community Building "picture" shows power shifts and changes in control; this happens when a community and its citizens begin building on their gifts and capacities and begin talking, connecting and sharing with each other. "Asset Based Community Building is everyone giving their gifts".

** John McKnight and Alexis de Toqueville - There is a community when a group HAS the power to decide what is a problem, the power to decide how to solve the problem, and the power to become an active part of implementing the solution. **

It is very difficult to predict what will happen as Asset-based Community Building takes off; in other words, you may not know from the start what, if any, program is going to be the end result. We have been asked so many times to tell others about our "program" and we have to explain - this is not a program, it is a way for communities and citizens to discover each other, to connect, share new friendships and build their community as they want it, rather than how systems want it!

Asset-based Community Building is exciting - it means challenging the way of systems, talking with each other, re-thinking our work and practise, expending lots of energy, and being persistent. The outcomes of Asset-based Community Building are seen at all levels of social and economic activity of the community - citizens get to know each other and begin to support and share with each other, new small businesses and partnerships emerge, and community involvement and action is the norm. Community Building is not new, it has always been part of the natural supports that we find in families, friends, and relationships; Canadian aboriginal people have always believed that the community has the solutions. We have much to learn from them. Adult education has always been guided by the life experiences and abilities of adult learning and on using these to enhance the learning experience. We all have examples from the present and we all have stories from community life in the past. These examples and stories show how we are enriched through the inclusion, relationship-building, and sharing of Community Building. There are many stories to tell about the rewards and challenges of Asset-based Community Building that we have seen - (Appendix D has a few)!

IV. GETTING THERE
- language, values and assumptions
The words that make up the language for the actions.

Perplexed by the mismatches between words and actions of others, and ourselves, we formed our own "dictionary" for the words used in Community Capacity Building or Asset-based Community Development and called it "Words, Words, Words," (Appendix C). The explanations are not static because Community Capacity Building is not static - experience enhances and adds depth to the meaning of all the words; these are the explanations for now! The explanations are not the dictionary version either, they are our explanations that have been useful in guiding our actions. Remember to always be open and that words are okay but actions DO speak louder than words - be a listener and an observer and ask of yourself and others "Do your actions match the language you are using?" The words "capacity", "community building", "community capacity building", "assets" and "resources" are buzz words right now. Strive to see that your actions match the meanings.

The Values and Assumptions

Where now? Your head is full of capacity, assets, gifts, potential, community building, potentiating, interdependence, boxing, needs and so on. Community Capacity Building happens in action by citizens talking and sharing, and we believe it is based on the following values and assumptions:

Values

• each person is unique and creative, and cannot be stereotyped, boxed or labelled
• the spirit of community - people sharing in friendship and openness

Assumptions

• every citizen has gifts, assets, talents to share and is a resource to the community
• natural helping systems exist within the community
• every citizen in the community has needs
• the ideal life context is where work, play, family and friends are all key to the whole; one does not stop where the other starts
• citizens want to be involved in their community
• citizens want the support and friendship of others in order to be happy and healthy
• groups are made up of individuals, each of whom is unique
• community can mean whatever you want it to mean, but it does mean power to act and get results
• sustainable communities are built on the strengths/assets of the citizens, and it is these strengths/assets that will sustain the healthy development of the community

What do you think? Are there others you would add?

V. ARE YOU READY TO MEET THE CHALLENGE?

The Steps To Capacity Success© that will be explained in our next book ("Making It Happen - Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping©"), moves the Asset-based Community Building thinking into action and guides you on how to create your own asset map. We will share the key elements of a process that we have seen to work, one that focuses on the assets and resources of citizens, businesses and associations. In "Making It Happen - Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping©" we also share what we, and many communities and groups have learned as Asset-based Community Building projects have been created and implemented. We have all learned to R.A.F.F. It Up!

The Reference List in this book may also be useful to you as you begin to consider putting the theory and thinking behind Asset-based Community Building into action, so we ask you......

• Have You Made The Mindshift?
• Are You Ready to Meet The Challenge?
• Can You Answer The Question - Why Focus On Building On Community Capacities and NOT a Needs Assessment?
• Can You Explain Assets, Capacities, and Asset-based Community Building To Others, and Focus on the Half Full Cup?

YES you say? THEN YOU ARE READY……..on to...

Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping© R.A.F.F. It Up - Making It Happen

VI. References (these may assist you to further understand Asset-based Community Building)
(click here to link to our on-line references)

VII. Appendices

Appendix A

• Community Capacity Building and Asset Mapping© Philosophy

Appendix B

• Community Capacity Building and Asset Mapping©: Revised Model Summary
• Spiral with Steps to Capacity Success©

Appendix C

• Words, Words, Words

Appendix D

• Community Building and Gift-Sharing Stories and Challenges

Community Building and Gift-Sharing Stories

• Henry, a retired gentleman, became an active part of a Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping© project by completing all the data inputting! Every Tuesday and Thursday for three months he shared his gifts. Henry's gifts were his time and his desire to learn how to input data.
• Veronica found a job because she voluntarily shared her gifts of enthusiasm, administrative ability, and community dedication and involvement, with a group working on restructuring children's services. This paid position was a welcomed opportunity for Veronica who was searching for work at the time. Veronica is now in school taking upgrading to get ready to be admitted to the social work program.
• Hilda and Gary, informal neighbourhood leaders, who began to see their communities through asset lenses and have spearheaded projects in their communities that address the environment, the history of their communities and Neighbourhood Watch. They have been instrumental in forming many partnerships with their neighbourhood groups and business, churches, municipal police, a health centre and schools.
• A Baptist Church striving to discover its congregation has embarked on its own plans for gift sharing through Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping© with people who attend the church. They have determined their focus to be the following: "As First Baptist Church continues to grow and change we are wanting to support and nurture its life through the interests, passions, experiences and connections of its people.
• "The "Rolling Thunder team" in a small Alberta community, Swan Hills, is working to discover what is great about their town and ways to have everyone feel that they have gifts to share to make the town a healthy place to live. The new high school and its students have been discovered to be real assets to this community building imitative. The students and the principal have assisted in making decisions about the inventory questionnaires, and they have designed the database, and will be inputting all the gift information.
• A small Prince Edward Island town, Stratford, and its dynamic team of community building people stimulated citizen pride in the community to work to discover ways to build a Dream Park, a trail system and an informal meals on wheels.
• Whitecourt, Alberta, celebrating all that is great about Whitecourt and finding the gifts that everyone has to contribute to the "SPICE of Whitecourt", (Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Creative, and Emotional). They are now setting up ways for people to connect and share their gifts through the local library.

these are just a few stories.....we are finding more everyday... just as you will as you begin, and continue your community building journey!

Challenges

We have been challenged by government systems and non-profit human services agencies. We have seen a community and its citizens, discovering and gift sharing, disabled by well-meaning service providers. We have found that the processes, the hierarchical structures, and the confinements of top down management and bureaucratic systems have rendered providers powerless and dependent, and they in turn relate to community citizens and groups in a dependency-promoting, disabling way. We have learned from experiences with a social service agency, and a government driven community initiative, that there are challenges out there. In both situations the service providers took over and citizens lost their sense of belonging and either pulled out or no longer felt valued enough to share their creativity, enthusiasm, and gifts.

From these experiences and others we have learned that Asset-Based Community Building can probably not happen through government initiatives. Community Building happens through the development of relationships and friendships. Community Building happens through citizens talking, connecting and sharing their own gifts and ideas. Community Building happens when citizens take charge and feel responsible for building their own community their way!

We also learned that if money for a coordinating position is available to the Community Building group too early in the Community Building process it seems to completely change the focus and the spirit. The ownership and involvement of the group members in community building seems to lose momentum and the paid person is expected to do it all. It is essential that as many people as possible be part of the discovery of the gifts and talents. Once the matching and sharing of gifts begin to happen, financial assistance may be helpful for managing a database for the gifts, so the matching and connecting can be sustained.

We also know that to develop a model with steps can be dangerous because the steps may be taken literally and relationships do not emerge.

CAUTION

• Service providers should be involved only if asked by the community.
• Government funded community building must be led by non-service providers.
• Be cautious about accepting money. Be sure the timing is right so the momentum of the Community Building increases as a result!
• Relationships and friendships are the key, not the Steps to Capacity Success©.

COMING SOON .....

OurBook is YourBook #2 - " Making it Happen - Community Capacity Building & Asset Mapping©" - ideas and experiences about:

• The Steps to Capacity Success©
• Relationship Building
• The Story of RAFF
• Third Places

http://www.cbr-aimhigh.com