News
New report on the four essential elements of an Asset-Based Community Development process
Nurture Development have just released a new report, titled “The Four Essential Elements of an Asset-Based Community Development Process”, which is available for download here.
The primary goal of an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) process is to enhance collective citizen visioning and production. The central question that Nurture Development address in this paper is: what makes an ABCD process distinctive from other community support approaches? Their answer is: other forms of community work, often possess one or more, but not all, of four essential elements, namely:
- Resources
- Methods
- Functions
- Evaluation
The diagram above (click here for full version) illustrates the relationship between the four essential elements of an asset-based community development process, which is neither hierarchical or sequential. In other words, the elements exist in relation to each other simultaneously and dynamically, so you can start with any one or a combination of the four elements, as long as ultimately you engage with all four. Hence it is only when all four elements are a feature of your community building effort, that it can be said to be an Asset-based Community Development process.
Discover more about these four elements and their interrelationships in ABCD processes in the full report.