Asset Based Community Development is a powerful and inclusive approach to community development.
Some Principles of ABCD …
1. Finding Assets & Gifts – learning to look at people and neighborhoods as half-full, discerning the personal gifts and collective assets within.
2. Uncovering What People Care About Enough to Act On – looks at how to engage in listening and learning conversations which reveal dreams and concerns that motivate people toward action.
3. Distinguishing of Roles, People and Programs – individuals, grassroots associations, agencies, and institutions each have strengths and weaknesses, here we discover what they are and how to strive for balancing the best elements.
4. Leading by Stepping Back – helps organizations, churches, agencies to lead from a posture of humility, empowering others toward their own solutions, ideas and projects.
5. Mobilizing Groups to Action – what’s next after discovering common interests? How do we create opportunities to work together?
Pastor Kathleen Panning welcomes Pastor Jim Moynihan, founder of OneChurch, to talk about faith communities collaborating to mobilizing communities around what the community most cares about.
WORKSHOPS
The Basics of ABCD Workshop (2 hours)
Learn the basic principles and practices of ABCD in this interactive workshop.
Community-Wide ABCD Workshop (8 hours)
Learn how to focus your efforts on discovering and mobilizing the resources that are already present in your community. When people become more productive together they exercise their power to address problems and realize dreams!
• Learn to tap the potential of your neighborhood.
• Discover how to build more community engagement and involvement.
• Be challenged to be a great neighbor.
This interactive training combines theology, theory and practical tools and skills around engaging our communities. This training will provide guidance in how to discover your city faith, how to look for the assets and signs of hope in your neighborhood, how to be a champion for the people in it and how to be a catalyst of God’s hope and transformation in your community.
Church, Community Group or Organizational ABCD Workshop (8 hours)
The content of this workshop is similar to the Community-Wide workshop except that the last 2 hours will consist of a Consensus Workshop. The Consensus Workshop brings a group’s many diverse ideas for implementing ABCD in their context into agreement and infuses the group with energy for action.
Consensus Workshop (2 hours)
The Consensus Workshop brings a group’s many diverse ideas for implementing ABCD in their context into agreement and infuses the group with energy for action.
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
Community Listening Community of Practice (8 sessions / 12 hours)
This training is appropriate for any Church, Community Group or Organization that has completed an 8-hour workshop and has a defined geography with resident leadership.
Listening teams will be formed who have committed to engaging in community listening utilizing a 5 Question Survey for a period of 8 weeks (1.5 hours per session) with the coaching of OneChurch.
Community Building Community of Practice (8 sessions / 12 hours)
This training is designed for Church, Community or Organization Leaders who have developed an on-going community listening process and who desire to bring neighbors together around the issues identified through the community listening process. A minimum of 45 completed resident interviews using the 5 Question Survey is required before beginning this training.
In session 1 we provide an overview of the community building process and an introduction to community building best practices including, how to run a community convening meeting, form community action teams, and launch a neighborhood project.
In sessions 2 thru 8 we work with Church, Community or Organization teams who seek to build a sense of community. Our goal is to build relationships with the residents of the defined neighborhoods. Our primary means for doing so will be through host homes in the neighborhood. We will gather the residents around what they care most about as identified by the 45 completed resident surveys.
OneChurch will provide facilitation services for initial community convening meetings as well as coaching services for the subsequent weeks of community building activities.
Leadership Development Community of Practice (12 months)
This training is designed for Church, Community or Organization community connectors. Community connectors are strong neighborhood leaders who own their community development story. They are Great Neighbors building Great Neighborhoods!
