Asset Based Community Develpement :Towards a Sustainable Approach.

Presented by
Salma Akter Surma
Lecturer,
Architecture Department, premier University,
Chittagong, Bangladesh
Masters of Science in Human Settlements
(KU, Bangladesh)
Bachelor of Architecture ( KU,Bangladesh)
Fellow of CDD( Bala-Vikasa, India)
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ASSET BASED COMMUNITY DEVELOPEMNT :
TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH

Presentation Outline : What are we going to learn?
1. Historical and Theoretical Influences on Asset-Based Approaches
2. What is Asset and What is Need?
3. Goal and Objectives of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)
4. Key Asset of ABCD
5. Essential Elements of an Asset-Based Community Development Process
6. Guiding Principles of ABCD
7. Application of ABCD: ABCD As Method
8. Application of ABCD: Methodology, Strategy and Approach
9. Asset-Based Community Development: The Role of Local Government, the Business Sector, and NGOs
7.A. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach
7.B. The Social Capital Approach
7.C. The Community Economic Development Approach
7.D. The Civil Society Building up Approach
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2.A. What is the Difference between Need and Asset
3.A. Why ABCD Method? Community Development a Paradigm Shift
3.B. Community Development : A Traditional Need Map
3.C. Consequences of the Power of the Needs Map
3.D. Fundamental Truth of ABCD
4.A. How to Develop Asset Map for Community
8.A. Application of ABCD: Whole Process
8.B. ABCD: Tools and Method

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1.Historical and Theoretical Influences on Asset-Based Approaches
Inspiration, motivation and mobilization: Lessons from social activism
ABCD is a process of community building that “starts with the
process of locating the assets, skills and capacities of residents,
citizens associations and local institutions”. (Kretzman & McKnight 1883
Introduction)
Their work was also influenced by their own experience as
community organizers in Chicago during the 1860s, when the
Civil Rights movement was at its peak. Their work has therefore
always been fuelled by a strong sense of social justice, and a
keen understanding of what inspires community action, and
what (inadvertently) destroys it:

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Ask Questions
John McKnight would ask many questions of the
thousands of communities he visited,
“What have you done that has been successful
in your community that you could share with
others?”
“We both learned that the quickest way to disempower a neighbourhood is to
introduce a whole lot of social workers and lawyers” (Jody Kretzmann, personal communication, April
2002).

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Collected Stories
They collected thousands of stories about what
makes successful local initiatives
What are the building blocks they used?
What is the stuff they used?
What are the “ingredients” they used?
Over and over the same 5 ingredients appeared

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Book “Asset Based Community
Development”
Each story does not use all 5 ingredients
The guide reminds people what the 5 ingredients are and
the stories communities told that make them successful
It is the most popular book on “community
development”, selling over 85,000 copies and over 20,000
given away

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“We can’t do well serving communities… if we believe that we, the givers, are
the only ones that are half-full, and that everybody we’re serving is half-
empty… there are assets and gifts out there in communities, and our job as
good servants and as good leaders… [is] having the ability to recognize those
gifts in others, and help them put those gifts into action.”
First Lady Michelle Obama www.abcdinstitute.org/faculty/obama
“Communities have never been built upon their deficiencies. Building
communities has always depended on mobilizing the capacity and
assets of people and place.”
Kretzman & McKnight (1883) Building Communities from the Inside Out

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'A Glass Half-full' offers a fresh perspective on how to reduce
inequalities in community health and wellbeing. It proposes assessing and
building on the strengths and resources in a community to increase
resilience and social capital, and develop better ways of delivering
health outcomes.

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Community development practice has been influenced by the dramatic changes experienced in an increasingly
globalized world economy. Accompanying these changes are new ideas about how to approach community
development.
A more liberalized economic environment and technological
advances in global and local communications have provided
opportunities for decentralized economic development for
some communities.
Less Developed Countries , meanwhile, struggle for
survival, stretching their assets to unsustainable
levels. In this period of change, there is a two-fold
challenge at the community level: to create and
seize opportunities for sustainable development,
and to claim and retain the rights and
entitlements of state and global citizenship.
PositiveEffectof
Globalization
NegativeEffect
ofGlobalization
Needs to Balance

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McKnight and Kretzmann articulated ABCD as a way of counteracting what they describe as a predominantly
“needs-based” approach to development. They describe two very distinct paths to address poverty.
The first focuses on a community’s needs,
deficiencies and problems. This is the
traditional path. It creates negative images
that can be conceived as a mental “problems
map” of the community.
ReductionPoverty
This is only part of the truth about the actual
conditions, but unfortunately, this is often
taken to be the whole truth. Which “truth” is
selected depends on whether you see the
glass half-full or half-empty

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An asset-based approach to community level micro-planning encourages a shift in orientation from “needs”
and “problems” towards “assets” and “opportunities” for sustained livelihood security. By recognizing the
potential of existing skills, resources, and organizational capacity, villagers are in a better position to take
advantage of opportunities to diversify their social and economic asset base. Diversification is a critical
element of livelihood security and sustainability.
Asset-based community development (ABCD) is a methodology for the Sustainable Development of communities
based on their strengths and potentials. It involves assessing the resources, skills, and experience available in a
community; organizing the community around issues that move its members into action; and then determining and
taking appropriate action
The following are the major influences that are reflected in the ABCD approach.
 Recognition of successful community driven initiatives that have taken place with limited outside
intervention—“endogenous development”
 Deeper understanding of what motivates communities to self-mobilize
 Lessons learned from integrated approaches to community development
 Community economic development theory
 Lessons learned from theory and practice of empowerment, participation and citizenship

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“Sustainable solutions must understand the process of personal empowerment
and social transformation in order for local ownership to take hold. Communities need to
actively participate in the planning, execution, and maintenance of any development solutions that
affect them. Since interior growth takes time and is difficult to achieve, any effective development
intervention will integrate the perspectives it confronts and translate key messages in terms that can
be understood and valued by the community. This allows the community to engage the work in ways
that conform to local traditions and ways of thinking.”

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What is an asset?
“A Health asset is any factor or resource which enhances the ability of individuals,
communities and populations to maintain and sustain health and well-being. These assets can
operate at the level of the individual, family or community as protective and promoting factors
to buffer against life’s stresses.”
Antony Morgan, associate director, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), 2008
An asset is any of the following:
1. the practical skills, capacity and knowledge of local residents
2. the passions and interests of local residents that give them energy for change
3. the networks and connections – known as ‘social capital’ – in a community, including friendships and
neighborliness
4. the effectiveness of local community and voluntary associations
5. the resources of public, private and third sector organizations that are available to support a
community
6. the physical and economic resources of a place that enhance well-being.
2 .What is Asset?

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2 .What is Asset?
External Assets
Support.
Empowerment.
Boundaries and
expectations.
Constructive use of time.
Internal Assets
Commitment to learning
Positive values
Social competencies
Positive identity
Assets
Types of Asset
• They are resources for making livelihoods and coping with life’s setbacks
• They provide us with a sense of identity and meaningful engagement with the
world
• They provide an emancipatory value and give confidence to act
The assets of a community are:
1. Capacities, talents and skills of individuals
2. Associations
3. Local institutions
4. Physical assets and natural resources

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2.What is Asset?
Why are assets important?
The term asset, we often think about financial assets or houses and cars, but for community
development, seven distinct assets that make up a community profile. Those are
financial, political, human, cultural, built/infrastructure, natural/environmental and
social. “Assets can be physical things like a building, a local swimming pool or a 150-year-old
tree in the town square; assets can also be intangible, like the work that volunteer
groups do to beautify the main street or raise funds for the food bank.”
(Asset Mapping a Handbook) http://rural.gc.ca/conference/documents/mapping_e.phtml)
By discovering on their strengths, community members:
1. develop a renewed sense of pride in their community
2. grow more confident in their own abilities
3. are more willing to invest themselves and their resources into
capacity building

Need based Asset Based
Purpose Changing Communities trough increased
Services
trough citizen involvement
Method Institutional Reform Citizen centered production
Accountability Leaders are professional Staff,
accountable to institutional stakeholders
Leaders are widening circles
Significance of Assets Assets are system input. Asset mapping
are data collection.
Assets are dots to connect, Assets
mapping are self realization and
leadership development
Production Resources Money is the key resources Relationship is the key resources
Operating Challenges How do we get citizen’s involved How do we channel and Build on
all citizen participation
System Dynamic Tends to spread itself thinner over time Tends to snow ball over time
Evaluation Success to services outcome. Measured
mostly by institutional stake holders
Success is capacity, measured
mostly by relationship
2.A. Difference Between Need based and Asset based System
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Methodology:
Participatory Method through interactive Lecture methods (ILM), sharing experiences,
Group discussions, presentations, video, case studies, field exposure visit
Knowledge To understand ABCD as an, Approach, Methodology, and Strategy.
The theoretical influences on ABCD
Need based versus Asset Based approach
Mapping the assets and resources
Abilities & tools Participants will discover the different types of assets among
themselves and the communities they are working.
How to map the assets of individuals, communities with resources
Develop abilities in community mobilization, resource acquisition and
community participation to drive their own development
Values & Change of
attitudes
Participants will discover the different types of assets among
themselves and the communities they are working.
How to map the assets of individuals, communities with resources
Develop abilities in community mobilization, resource acquisition and
community participation to drive their own development
Goal :
ABCD as an Approach, Methodology and Strategy makes the participants understand the inherent qualities and strengths in each
individual / community which are more likely to inspire positive action for change than an exclusive focus on needs and problems.
Objectives
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3. Goal and Objectives of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)

A typology of participation: How people participate in the development programs and
projects
3.A. Why ABCD Method?
Community Development a Paradigm Shift
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3.B. Community Development : A Traditional Need Map
Community development in the South has
long focused on service delivery
(governments, NGOs, etc.) using a
needs-based or problem-solving
approach.
The focus on needs and deficiencies can
make people lose sight of what they have
already accomplished and what they have
the capacity to do. 19

• Negative effects on community leadership
• “Only outside experts can”
• Deepening the cycle of dependence
• A survival strategy not a development plan
• Internalizations of the “deficiencies” identified by local residents
• Destruction of social capital
• Direction of funds toward professional helpers, not residents
• Focus on “leaders” who magnify deficiencies
• Rewards failure, produces dependency
• Creates hopelessness
3.C. Consequences of the Power of the Needs Map
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3.D. Fundamental Truth of ABCD
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4.Key Assets in ABCD
Communities can no longer be thought of as complex masses of needs and problems, but rather diverse and potent webs
of gifts and assets. Each community has a unique set of skills and capacities to channel for community development.
ABCD categorizes asset inventories into five groups:
Individuals
Associations
Small informal groups of
people, such as clubs, working
with a common interest as
volunteers are called
associations in ABCD and are
critical to community
mobilization.
Everyone
Institutions
Paid groups ;include government
agencies and private business, as
well as schools, etc. They can all
be valuable resources. The assets
of these institutions help the
community capture valuable
resources and establish a sense of
civic responsibility
Physical Assets
land, buildings, space,
and funds
Connections
exchange between
people sharing
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1 2
3 4
5
Assets

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Asset-based community
economic development
• New businesses created
(including micro-enterprises)
• New local hiring
• Increased local investment
• Increased local purchasing/sales
• Training and mentoring
activities
•Local skills exchange
•New local savings and credit
Formal
and informal,
including those
associations with
no economic
development
focus
Economic capacities of
individuals
•All skills/Priority skills
•Enterprising interests and
experience
•Artistic and cultural skills
•Ability to teach others
•Community-building interests
and experience
Savings and
expenditures
of local residents
•Local savings
•Household spending
patterns
•Consumer preferences
for products and
services not available
locally
Institutional and
business assets
•Buildings and facilities
•Materials and equipment
•Local savings
•Local hiring
•Local purchasing
•Local investment
•Local involvement
•Training
Physical
assets and
natural
resources
Associations
Source: MOBILIZING ASSETS FOR COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT, Alison Mathie Gord Cunningham,2007, Coady International Institute St. Francis Xavier University
Antigonish, Nova Scotia

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Institutions
Physical Assets/ Political
Associations
Kinship of Community
Educational
Religious
Economic

4.A.Community Asset Map
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Asset Mapping Questions
What gift (skill, interest, hobby) do you have that would surprise
most people?
What makes you a great family member?
What “absorbs” you enough that you lose track of time?
What really good thing is going on in your neighborhood?
exercise

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Why do asset mapping?
• It is a guide for relationship building, not just data.
• Knowing others in your community that have similar interests allows
groups to gather for a common cause
• Asset mapping is a very powerful tool in community building.

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Roles for Individuals:
• Leader – someone that can bring people together to work on an issue
• Gift Giver – a person that is willing to contribute their asset to work on an
issue.
• Invisible Person – a person that has not yet been “discovered” or been
convinced to use their assets to help achieve their dreams for or fix their
concerns in the neighborhood.
• Connector – an individual that is good at discovering what people care about
and where their assets can be used.
• Gift centered
• Well connected
• Trusted
• Believe they are welcome

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What motivates people?
• Think about a book drive to help a youth center.
• Someone that contributes may care about:
• the kids having something safe to do
• learning about a particular subject such as art
• understanding the history of their ancestors
• getting rid of some old books…

4.B. How to Build a Community Asset Inventory
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The inventory collection parameters can be very large covering and entire region or it can focus on a
single neighborhood or target population.
The Value of Asset Mapping
An asset inventory can be a valuable development tool for Extension agents, community leaders,
economic developers, neighborhood associations and any type of community planning workshop. An
asset inventory:
1. identifies community resources
2. builds a foundation for strategic planning and implementation
3. deepens understanding of key regional systems and networks
4. becomes a catalyst for developing partnerships between community organizations

4.B. How to Build a Community Asset Inventory
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Asset
category
Name of business,
organization,
institution or
association
Name of
Owner,
Director or
Manager
Mailing
Address
Email
Address for
Owner or
Manager
Phone for
Owner or
Manager
Description
of Asset
Source
Human
Built
Financial
Natural
Cultural
Social
Political

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The primary goal of an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) process is to enhance collective citizen visioning
and production through a process that combines four essential elements:
1. Resources
2. Methods
3. Functions
4. Evaluation
1. Contributions of Residents/Indivisual
2. Associations
3. Local Institutions
4. Local Places
5. Exchanges
6. Stories
1. Discover
2. Welcome
3. Portray
4. Share
5. Celebrate
6. Vision
1. Enable Health
2. Assuring Security
3. Stewarding Ecology
4. Shaping Local Economy
5. Contributing Local Food Production
6. Raising Children
6. Co –Creating Care
1. It identifies the sustainability of ABCD

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1. Resources
The local six main resources, are used to enhance local wellbeing in every sense of the term: associational,
cultural, environmental etc. These assets are abundant (there is enough/sufficient amount for everyone and
when productively shared they do not run out), universally available (every community has them without
exception), and extremely useful to communities eager to get things done to enhance community wellbeing.
The six assets are:
1.Contributions of Residents/Indivisual
The gifts, skills and passions and knowledge of residents,
which are contributed towards the collective wellbeing of
their community. Gifts are innate; people are born with
them. Skills are what people practice, learn and can teach
or share with others. While passions are what people care
about enough to take action on.
Individuals have:
1. Gifts
2. Talents
3. Dreams
4. Hopes
5. Fears

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1. Resources
1.Contributions of Residents
Focus on Gifts
Everyone has them
– we learn ways to hide them
Can remove negative labels –
diabetic / drug addict / handicapped
Gifts are not gifts unless they are
shared
Personal Asset
Head
– things you know
about (birds, movies,
art history)
Hand
things you know how to do
(carpentry, gardening,
cooking)
Heart
things you care deeply
about (environment,
education )

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1. Resources
2. Associations
clubs, groups, and networks of unpaid citizens, who create the vision and implement the actions
required to make their vision, visible, and of consequence. An association is the collective word for
citizen. As a bird is to a flock, citizen is to an association, and it is within this domain that an individual’s
gifts, skills, passions and knowledge, when joined with their neighbors, can be amplified and multiplied,
so that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
3. They take action to realize
an opportunity, create an
initiative or solve a problem
Associations powers
1. Members of associations
decide for themselves what is an
opportunity or a problem; they
don't need to consult experts
first.
2. Share in developing a plan to
exploit an opportunity or solve
a problem; they do not leave it
to experts to do it for them.

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1. Resources
Traditional associations Associations of people of the same ethnic, class or clan groups
Religious associations Associations with a clear religious mandate, often involved in social
service delivery
Social movements Associations advocating for change, focusing on the interests, concerns
and aspirations of particular people
Membership associations
a. Representational for example, peasant organizations, business and trader associations
a. Professional for example, associations of lawyers, teachers, journalists
a. Social-cultural for example, for sports and other recreational purposes
a. Self-help for example, neighbourhood committees, community based
organizations, rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs)
2. Associations
Types of Associations

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The goal of such supportive institutions is to enable citizenship and interdependence at the center of
community life. Supportive institutions consider citizens to be the primary inventors of
community wellbeing in a democracy, and see their role as cheering on that inventiveness
and serving while walking backwards.
Initiatives can precipitate collective vision-making and citizen production.
3.Local institutions
1. Resources
They do so by:
1. Organizing their supports the way people organize their lives: small and local;
2. by putting institutional assets at the service of community building efforts and investing in
community alternatives to their traditional ways of working;
3. being clear about what they are not going to do to/for/with communities, because to do so
would be to take power from the people they serve;
4. in the case of government institutions, they create a dome of protection against outside forces
that could harm community life.

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1. Resources
Institutions & Associations. How are they organized?
Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) ,The Bala Vikasa,2020

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1. Resources
The main stage on which the above three human resources are revealed, connected and brought into productive
collective action, is the built and natural environment. Small, local, bounded places, that people relate to as their
shared place: neighborhood, village, town and so on, provide an optimal threshold within which these
resources, can be brought into right relationship with each other to become connected and mobilized.
5. Exchanges
A. Exchange : In the non-monetary world, there are three forms of exchange: 1) the exchange of intangibles, 2)
the exchange of tangibles, and 3) use of alternative currencies. In the commercial world 4) there is a fourth
form of exchange in the shape of money.
B. Exchanging intangibles : Through the long history of human exchange between kin, clan, and neighbors,
exchanges have primarily been about the circulation of gifts.
C. Exchanging tangibles : involves the bartering or swapping of tangible resources, for example a pig for five
chickens, or sharing one lawnmower between six households on a street.
All three types of exchanges occur within and strengthen the commons (shared civic space) in that they increase
gift exchange, they deepen associational life, and encourage hospitality.
4. Local Places

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1. Resources
6. Stories : Local culture, or ‘the community way’ often finds expression within stories of the
people and the ‘ways’ they have learned through time to survive and thrive within their home places.
Stories also act as powerful connection points between older and younger generations within a
community. Local stories therefore, are treasure maps that help us discover the hidden bounty that
weaves our cultural assets together, like a tapestry: our cuisines, spiritual beliefs, ways of raising our
children, local dialects, and arts are the threads that combine to form this community tapestry. Each
tapestry is unique and particular to the place that created it, and to that place alone. And, as strangers
become friends it takes the shape of a mosaic reflecting beauty in diversity.

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2. Methods
There are countless methods by which communities can connect and mobilize their resources. Suffice to
say, Asset-Based Community Development approaches are iterative and emergent. While there are no
methods that we can prescribe, there are a number of practices thatb communities around the world have
found helpful. These include:.
1. Discover : Discovering local resident connectors who naturally weave their community together through
neighbor to neighbor and associational relationship building.
2. Welcome : Actively welcoming neighbors and those who are pushed to the margins, through inclusive
learning conversations and listening campaigns. Learning conversations and listening campaigns surface what
people care about enough act to upon with their neighbors.
3. Portray : As people discover what they care about enough to take collective action, creating dynamic
portraits of the local resources that they can use, is a helpful way of making assets visible to everyone.
4. Share : Intentionally doing things together, from breaking bread to tending a community
garden, brings us into a radical presence with our neighbors.
5. Celebrate : Celebrating neighborliness and community life, through food, fun, songs and dance is one of
the best and most natural ways to honor our past achievements and dream up new community
possibilities.
6. Vision : Creating a collective vision that both sets down the priorities and reveals the possibilities for the
shared future of a community is a powerful community building method, which ensures that the
community own the process and are the primary producers of it and the actions that flow from it.

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3 Functions: The Seven Community Functions.
The third question to consider is; having used methods to discover, connect and productively mobilize local
resources, “what essential functions are citizens able to collectively perform that create greater community
wellbeing?” The use of the six assets and the methods that reveal, connect and mobilize them enables seven
irreplaceable community functions to be performed, namely:
1. Enable Health
2. Assuring Security
3. Stewarding Ecology
4. Shaping Local Economy
5. Contributing Local Food Production
6. Raising Children
6. Co –Creating Care

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1. ENABLING HEALTH
neighborhoods and other such small hyperlocal places, when transformed into communities are the primary
source of our health.
2. ASSURING SECURITY
safe and secure in our neighborhood is largely within our domain. Two major determinants of our local safety.
A. Knowing each other by name, and the second is how often we are present and associated in public –
outside our houses.
Police activity is a secondary protection compared to these two community actions. Therefore, most informed
police leaders advocate for block watch and community policing.
3. STEWARDING ECOLOGY
the future of our earth – the environment – is a major local responsibility. The "energy problem" will be
solved without creating problems domain the earth.
4. SHAPING LOCAL ECONOMIES
To build a resilient economy – less dependent on the mega-systems of finance and production that have
proven to be so unreliable
5. CONTRIBUTING TO LOCAL FOOD PRODUCTION
Allied with the local food movement, supporting local producers and markets.
6. RAISING OUR CHILDREN
local people who must raise our children.
6. CO-CREATING CARE

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4. Evaluation
The fourth question to consider relates to how we evaluate an ABCD process. The authenticity of
everything we do in such a process is evaluated against the primary goal: enhance collective
citizen visioning and production .
Evaluating an ABCD process therefore requires a move away from traditional top down summative
and formative evaluation processes that are features of traditional ways of evaluating community
initiatives. Instead an ABCD approach moves towards a developmental and emancipatory learning
process.
Here are four ABCD evaluation principles. An effective evaluation:
1. It identifies the maximization of gift exchange.
2. It identifies the maximization and deepening of associational life.
3. It attends to the maximization in the number of participating and co-producing residents
and the increase in their citizen power. It places a particular emphasis on the inclusion of
those who have been marginalized.
4. Sponsors of ABCD processes ensure that associated evaluations actively conform to the
preceding three principles.

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What Makes ABCD Distinctive
ABCD process distinctive then, is the
combination of:
1. Resources 2. Methods 3. Functions 4.
Evaluation
The diagram below illustrates the
relationship between the four essential
elements of an asset-based community
development process, which is neither
hierarchical or sequential.

6. Guiding Principles for ABCD
Most communities address social and economic problems with only a small amount of their total
capacity. Much of the community capacity is not used and is needed! This is the challenge and
opportunity of community engagement.
1. Everyone Has Gifts with rare exception; people can contribute and want to
contribute. Gifts must be discovered.
2. Relationships Build a Community see them, make them, and utilize them. An
intentional effort to build and nourish relationships is the core of ABCD and of all
community building.
3. Citizens at the Center, it is essential to engage the wider community as actors
(citizens) not just as recipients of services (clients).
4. Leaders Involve Others as Active Members of the Community.
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12 Guiding Principles

6.Guiding Principles for ABCD
Most communities address social and economic problems with only a small amount of their total
capacity. Much of the community capacity is not used and is needed! This is the challenge and
opportunity of community engagement.
5. Motivation to Act must be identified. People act on certain themes they feel strongly
about, such as; concerns to address, dreams to realize, and personal talents to contribute. Every
community is filled with invisible “motivation for action”. Listen for it.
6. Listening Conversation – one-on-one dialogue or small group conversations are
ways of discovering motivation and invite participation. Forms, surveys and asset maps can be
useful to guide intentional listening and relationship building.
6.Ask, Ask, Ask – asking and inviting are key community-building actions. “Join us. We
need you.” This is the song of community.
7.Asking Questions Rather Than Giving Answers Invites Stronger Participation. People
in communities are usually asked to follow outside expert’s answers for their community
problems. A more powerful way to engage people is to invite communities to address
‘questions’ and finding their own answer-- with agencies following up to help.
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6. Guiding Principles for ABCD
8.People Care About Something agencies and neighborhood groups often
complain about apathy. Apathy is a sign of bad listening. People in communities are motivated to
act. The challenge is to discover what their motivation is.
10.A Citizen-Centered “Inside-Out” Organization is the Key to Community
Engagement A “citizen-centered” organization is one where local people control the organization
and set the organization’s agenda.
11. Institutions Have Reached Their Limits in Problem-Solving all institutions such as
government, non-profits, and businesses are stretched thin in their ability to solve community
problems. They can not be successful without engaging the rest of the community in solutions.
12. Institutions as Servants people are better than programs in engaging the wider
community. Leaders in institutions have an essential role in community-building as they lead by
“stepping back,” creating opportunities for citizenship, care, and real democracy.
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7.Theoretical Influences on ABCD
1. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach
2. The Social Capital Approach
3. The Community Economic Development Approach
4. The Civil Society Building up Approach
A framework for analysis based on the full range of assets that people draw upon to compose a livelihood
(human, natural, financial, physical, social, cultural assets) and examines these in the context of the larger
economic, political, and institutional environment.
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7. Theoretical Influences on ABCD
• Evolved by Robert Chambers (in the 1870s) and then developed into specific approach by DFDI ( in
1880s) and other pioneers include UNDP, Oxfam UK, etc.
• SLA grew out of a concern that poverty alleviation was being treated too narrowly with the promotion
of income generating activities.
• A framework for analysis based on the full range of assets that people draw upon to compose a
livelihood (human, natural, financial, physical, social, cultural assets)
and examines these in the context of the larger economic, political, and institutional environment.
52

53Source: MOBILIZING ASSETS FOR COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT, Alison Mathie Gord Cunningham,2007, Coady International Institute St. Francis Xavier University

The sustainable livelihoods approach has four essential features.
Firstly, its starting point is that vulnerability to shocks and trends prevent
people from having the security of a sustainable livelihood.
Secondly, as a framework for analysis, it draws attention to the full range
of assets that people draw upon to compose a livelihood (namely human,
natural, financial, physical, and social and/or cultural assets) and examines
these in the context of the larger economic, political, and institutional
environment.
Thirdly, as an instrument for policy and program design, it emphasizes an
integrated approach to development in which an adequate asset mix can be
created, sustained and transferred from one generation to the next.
Finally, it puts people in the community at the centre as the principle
agents of development acting through community based organizations and
collaborating with various other agents such as local government, NGOs,
and the private sector. 54
Identifying the Actual
Problem
Identify the Assets
Designing the
program to attain
Assets and Problem
Creating Collaboration
with others

2. Social Capital Approach (SC)
It consists of active connections among the people:
• Trust, mutual understanding
• Shared values and behaviors that bind people together
• Bonding –bridging- going beyond local communities
• These connections help for collective achievement of the targets
55
Up against low income, poor education, few material assets, no insurance, and usurious credit, social
networks may be the most important resource of the poor. (Woolcock and Sweetser, 2002)

3. Community Economic Development Approach
56
The evolution of CED theory represents a confluence of three different development paradigms:
a) developing or improving economic systems and infrastructure;
b) developing the economic capacities of individuals; and
c) developing the economic capacities of groups to undertake community economic development.
In the figure on the next page, we show the focus of the development process for each
paradigm.
Outside experts and the types of
initiatives employed tend to involve
technological improvements and
infrastructure development largely
in the hopes of attracting
investment and industry.
Inside expert ; collective action of
all internal individuals who lack
the resources to independently
improve their well-being to
mutually achieve this end.
Participants
Exogenous. Endogenous

3. Community Economic Development Approach
Focus is on reforming
economic system
Focus is on the economic
capacities of individuals
Focus is on the economic
capacities of groups
Resource privatization Extension services Community-based
Resource
management
Financial system reform Micro finance institutions Community-based
Resource management
Village banks, credit
unions, savings and
credit coops
Industry attraction Entrepreneurship
development
Coops, community
enterprise
57

A central theme of ABCD is returning power to communities, power that has otherwise been held by external
agencies such as government and non government organizations.
Originally, “participatory” development arose as a reaction against mainstream approaches to development
that marginalized the poor and powerless, or imposed programmes on them.
The idea behind participatory development is that well-being is closely linked to capacity to act.
The goal of SC approach is to strengthen the civic and political participation of
people/groups in charting the future of their societies.
• Promotion of accountable governance at all levels
• Stimulating participatory decision making of the deprived for development
• Creating institutional mechanisms for their voice to be heard
4.Civil Society Building up Approach (SC)
58

59
Participation in local governance
Participatory approaches to development have typically focused on how people can be involved in
decisions about the development that takes place in their community. This includes decisions made in the
private sector, in NGOs, and at different levels of government.
With respect to participation in local governance, there are two questions to bear in mind as we explore
community development further:
1. How can relationships between government and citizens be changed so that citizens participate more
effectively and government engages with the people in a responsive and accountable manner?
2. When we think about mobilising assets for community development, what are the responsibilities of
community members, and what assets should people be entitled to by virtue of citizenship? What can
be done to advocate for those rights, while simultaneously moving forward with the assets already in
hand?

60
A typology of participation:
How people participate in development programs and projects
Passive participation
They receive benefits (they are "beneficiaries"). They participate only as long as benefits are
available. Project management does not consult them. Information sharing only takes place
among development professionals.
Participation
as contributors
People participate by contributing information, resources, or their labour to the
project. The people have little role, if any, in designing the project.
Participation
as consultants
People are consulted about problems and opportunities in the area, and about the project
design. Development professionals make the decisions about the design.
Participation in
implementation
People participate by forming groups to carry out the activities of the project or program.
They are not involved in overall decision-making. The groups tend to be dependent
on development professionals to initiate them or facilitate them; they are not self-sustaining
in the long term.
Participation in
decision-making
People are actively participating in analysis and planning along with development
professionals. They are involved in local decision-making New institutions are
formed, or existing ones are strengthened.
Self-mobilization
People participate by undertaking initiatives independent of external institutions. They may
enlist the assistance of development professionals, but they remain in control of the
process.
Source: Adapted from Amit, E. (1886) Course Manual, Coady International Institute and Pretty, J. (1884). Alternate systems of inquiry for sustainable agriculture. IDS Bulletin, 25(2), 36-48.

61
A Short History of Participatory Approaches
When What Basic idea Tools and Methods
1860s PAR Participatory
Action Research
Education for critical
consciousness: Understanding
oppression
Action Research to promote
understanding of one’s situation as
the basis for action
Late 1860s Agro-Ecosystem
Analysis,
Farming Systems
Research
Farmers as researchers
working in collaboration with
agricultural research
institutions
Research tools designed for non
literate farmer researchers: maps,
diagrams, charts etc.
Early 1870s RRA Rapid Rural
Appraisal
Multidisciplinary research
teams carrying out rapid local
assessments with local
communities.
A repertoire of rapid assessment
tools was developed to measure
local economy, land availability,
productivity etc., then expanded to
include ways of measuring access
to water, nutritional status, income
and expenditure patterns etc.
1875 International Conference on Rapid Rural Appraisal held at Khon Khaen, Thailand

62
When What Basic idea Tools and Methods
1875 PRA Participatory Rural
Appraisal
Seen as a subset of RRA but with
a focus on local community
doing research and analysis and
owning the knowledge. Some
NGOs packaged a set of tools for
problem identification, analysis
and prioritization, but this is not
intrinsic to PRA.
More tools added to the
repertoire: Mapping, ranking,
scoring, and modeling. The
guiding principle is that non
literates can use and learn from
the tools, analyse situation and
plan strategies to solve
problems. Tools also applied to
M and E.
1880s PRA, PLA To avoid rural bias, PRA becomes Participatory Learning and Action. The idea of PRA/PLA
takes off in India, SE Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa. By 1886, PRA is used in 100 countries. RRA
and PRA are seen as a continuum with outsider control of the process at one extreme
and local control at the other. In the middle is a collaboration between local and outside
agents.
Late
1880s
Critique of
PRA
PRA promises empowerment but in practice PRA is often “done to” communities rather
than done by them, reinforcing the position of the outside organisation that extracts
information for its own planning purposes.

63
When What Basic idea Tools and Methods When
Late 1880s,
2000s
AI Appreciative Inquiry Originates as an
organizational development
strategy but soon seen as a
way to energise and
motivate communities
Interviewing and discussion
techniques to focus on
strengths and past “peak “
experiences as a motivator
for people to take action
Late 1880s,
2000s
ABCD Asset-Based Community
Development
A focus on strengths and
assets, rather than problems
and needs (the “glass half
full”). Designed to stimulate
community organizing,
linking with and leveraging
assistance from external
institutions
Methods, behaviours,
attitudes, and tools identify
assets, strengths, and
opportunities: “Not
mapping but organizing”.
Less a research focus, more
an action focus.
Source: MOBILIZING ASSETS FOR COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT, Alison Mathie Gord Cunningham,2007

7 .Theoretical Influences on ABCD
Decision Making Process of ABCD Method
64

1 .It requires commitment to “step back” and allow the community to lead.
2. It requires commitment to act as a facilitator rather than the “driver”
of the community development process.
ABCD approach requires a change in the mindset in which the following are
essential.
65

66
1.ABCD As Approach
2.ABCD As Methodology
3.ABCD As Strategy

8 Application of ABCD: Methodology, Strategy and Approach
67
8 .A . Application of ABCD: Whole Process

68
8.A.1. ABCD: an Approach
1. ABCD approach is being experimented and developed globally in the field of community
development at a time when sustainability is the ultimate objective of the community
development. Asset Based Approach promises to make sustainable development
possible.
2. Based on the principle: “The recognition of strengths, gifts, talents and assets of
individuals and communities is more likely to inspire positive action for change than an
exclusive focus on needs and problems.”
3. The glass is half-full or half-empty to see the complete “truth” of the people and the communities:
Communities/People have
• Deficiencies and needs.
• Communities/People have
• Capacities and gifts (Assets).

69
8.A.2 ABCD: As Strategy
• The corner stone of Community Development: Capacity Building with emphasis
on Change of mindset.
• Development of new leaders.
• From Individuals to Citizen Associations to Local Institutions.

70
8.A. 3. ABCD: As A Methodology
“ABCD is used to inspire a community to mobilize around a common vision or plan. It
proposes a number of steps to facilitate the process.”
ABCD: As A Methodology
1. Getting to know the community
2. Motivating community members
3. Identifying assets and opportunities
4. Identifying economic opportunities
5. Linking and mobilizing Assets
6. Sustaining the process
ABCD: As A Methodology (3)
1. Participatory approaches
2. Appreciative Inquiry (AI)
3. Neuro-Linguistic Programming

“Asset Based Community Development” (ABCD) approach is supported by 4 sets of tools based on "positive
thinking" which are used at the grassroots, to bring out change of attitude and empowerment at the Community
Level: At organizational Level
“Appreciative Inquiry” (AI)
At the Management Level
Results Based Management (RBM)
At the Individual Level
Neuro-linguistic
Programming (NLP)
At Community Level
Participatory Rural Appraisal
(PRA) tools are used to enhance
real participation of all the
members of the community.
71
8.A.4. ABCD As A Methodology : At Different levels

8.B. Asset-Based Community Development: Tools and Methods
72
To Build relationships with community members and conduct basic background research.
Appreciative interviewing techniques can then be used to set the tone for an asset-based approach. Through
story-telling, appreciative interviewing highlights past successes in the community that people can build on.
Usually, a group of interested people is motivated by this process to explore an asset-based approach further.
1. Tools and Methods :
Purposeful Recognizances
Motivating community members
Identifying assets and opportunities
Identifying Economic Opportunities
5. Tools and Methods:
Linking and Mobilizing Assets
Sustaining the process

8. B. Asset-Based Community Development: Tools and Methods
73
Purposeful Recognizances
 Identifying a community(ies) interested in applying an ABCD approach
 Starting to build relationships with community members
 Completing background research

8. C. Asset-Based Community Development: Tools and Methods
74
 Appreciative interviewing to recognize existing strengths and assets
 Analyzing success
To know the stories about past community successes where communities have taken the initiative without
outside assistance. An effective strategy for learning about this kind of success includes interview techniques
used in appreciative inquiry.
To d so Creating an organizing committee is mandatory
How?
Who?
leaders will emerge who are interested in taking part in understanding more
about the community and then taking part in community-building activities.
A wide variety of leaders should be invited to participate based on who are
the “movers and shakers” in different associational groups.
Motivating community members

8. B.Asset-Based Community Development: Tools and Methods
75
Asset maps, Skills inventories, Venn diagrams, Transects:
– Associations (social capital)
– Individual skills (human capital)
– Institutions (physical capital, social capital, opportunities in the policy
environment)
– Natural resources (natural capital and land use/ownership policy environment)
Identifying assets and opportunities

76
Leaky Bucket, is a useful tool for demystifying
community economics for peopleTh. e bucket analogy
represents a number of key concepts (Shaffer, 1874):
1. Connection of Community with inflow and outflow
of income, goods and services, raw materials, jobs,
expenditures, investments, profits, ideas etc.;
2. Using resources by community is connected with
local area to collect or sell.
3. The size of the bucket is determined by the inflow of
outside income, the leakage of income and the
volume of resources used to produce the
community’s output;
4. The level of fluid in the bucket represents the overall
level of economic activity.
How Money coming in:
How Money going out:
How Money circulating within:
How Mapping Local Economic Flows
Identifying Economic Opportunities

77
 Convening as broadly representative group as possible for the purposes of
building a community vision and plan
 Action-planning with interested community members
Action Planning
Convening as broadly representative a group as possible for the purposes of building a community vision and
plan
Action Planning can range from a simple exercise to plan a one day event (“What do we need to do to
repair the Church roof?”) to a more detailed activity (“What do we have to do to restore forest cover over
the hillside in ten years’ time?”). In both cases, decisions have to be made about What? Why? Who?
How? Where? and When?

78
ACTION PLANNING STEPS
Source: Author Adopted from MOBILIZING ASSETS FOR COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT, Alison Mathie Gord Cunningham,2007, Coady International Institute St. Francis
Xavier University Antigonish, Nova Scotia
8. B.Asset-Based Community Development: Tools and Methods
Assessing assets and opportunities
Developing a future vision
Identifying community assets to achieve the vision
Identifying partnerships:
Matching community actions with opportunities
Examining institutional consequences
Assessment of potential changes in assets of all
community members
Building relationships among local assets for
harnessing opportunities within the community

79
1. Assessing assets and opportunities
The results of the inventory and mapping exercises are displayed so that everyone can assess the
assets.
Social Assets: List of associations, collective experience
Individual skills and talents: List of skills and talents and who is willing to share them
Institutional assets: Lists of government, NGO and private sector institutions and their services
Physical assets: Community map
Natural assets: Community map, transect
Community Economic Analysis/Economic opportunities: Leaky bucket diagram

80
2.Developing a future vision:
This is when the community develops a vision of what they would like to see in their communities in 5 or
10 years’ time. A brainstorming session can be used to generate ideas, and this is often made easier by
the fact that people have already started to think about their assets and may have thought about what
the possibilities are.
Different groups (such as women, elders, youth) to discuss their different visions.

81
3. Identifying community assets to achieve the vision
Identifying community assets to achieve the vision: At this point, the community members can begin to
identify what specific assets they can use to achieve their vision. It may be helpful at this point to review the
leaky bucket analysis as any economic opportunities identified may be helpful to the visioning process.
Future change Steps required Local assets that can
contribute
Outside assistance
required
Reforestation of hill
slope
1
2
3
Relevant local assets Seedlings for tree
nursery
Sustainable intensive
agriculture
1
2
3
Clear explanation of
certification system

8. C. Asset-Based Community Development: Tools and Methods
82
4. Identifying partnerships:
At this stage, people make suggestions about who will take part in the action. Sometimes people will volunteer
themselves. Sometimes, based on the skills identified in Step 1, they will be invited to contribute because their
particular skill or talent is valued and needed. If there is a need for an outside partner, the community will
identify who that could be.
Future Change Actions
required
Local assets Who will be
asked to give?
(mention
associations or
individuals)
Outside
assistance
Who will be
asked?
Reforestation
Sustainable
agriculture

83
5. Matching community actions with opportunities
Events happening elsewhere may be seen as opportunities to bring positive change to the community. For
example, a major highway may be built that is some distance from the community, but which helps the
community by providing easier access to urban markets.
Elements of
vision
Community
actions required
Matching
community
assets
Matching
services and
opportunities
available
How to address gaps
Reforestation
Intensive agric.

84
Step 6
Examining institutional consequences: Meeting with local service providers and community members
(the organizing committee).
Step 6
Assessment of potential changes in assets of all community members
Community members check that the process and expected benefits are inclusive of all members of the
community. Community members should expect to see their “asset portfolio” expand and diversify.
Step 7
Building relationships among local assets for harnessing opportunities within the community
Connection with all groups by local associations

85
 Demonstrating success as leverage for further investment
 Mobilizing additional resources through partnerships with outside agencies
 Help groups to work together – but let the most appropriate structures emerge gradually
– Association of associations?
– Community Foundations?
6.Tools and Methods
Sustaining the process

9. Asset-Based Community Development: The Role of Local
Government, the Business Sector, and NGOs
86
The changing roles of different agents of development
Central and local governments, non government
organizations, and businesses are all involved in
development as agents of The State, The Market, or Civil
Society respectively.
People who work in institutions but sympathize or act as
citizens with a community initiative may be called
“gappers” because they are an important link, filling
the gap between communities and institutions.

87
1. How will you monitor and evaluate an asset-based approach to community
development?
What changes do you expect to see when you use an asset-based approach rather
than another approach? How will you know that this approach has been successful?
2. How will you help community members monitor and evaluate the changes that take
place in their community as a result of their efforts?
10.Asset-Based Community Development: Planning, Monitoring and
Evaluation with an Asset-based approach to community development

88
An overview of planning, monitoring and evaluation and its application to community-driven
development
Learning and decision-making
Capacity-building
Monitoring and evaluation of unpredicted
outcomes and unplanned change
Planning, monitoring, and evaluation for different
stakeholders in a multi-stakeholder development
process
Dealing with complexity and uncertainty
Applying the Most Significant Change
technique to evaluating change
SUSTAINABLE ABCD METHOD

89
Planning, monitoring and evaluation for planned change
In order to plan, and to monitor planned change, the first step is develop a “theory of change”. In other
words, if the community goal is “for every child to go to school”, what has to happen in order to achieve this
goal? What can the community control? What can be influenced by the community? What is beyond the
community’s control? How will these be measured to see if improvements are being made?
If a tree nursery is established (Action) a plentiful supply of seedlings can be produced (Output). With a
plentiful supply of seedlings, vulnerable areas can be planted with tree cover (Result or Outcome),
preventing soil erosion and protecting soil quality (Impact).
Action) Output ImpactResult or Outcome
An overview of planning, monitoring and evaluation and its application to community-driven
development

90
Successful Communities?
Connect neighborhoods & use many gifts
Created at the core an association of associations – Associations are the Lords
Citizens have the final responsibility of outcome & work – Institutions become
the Servants with assets
Group of local citizens join together to create a vision with common goals
Discover what they have
Discover what they want to do
Decide how they want to do it
Take action and DO IT
Implement vision, want support for contributions & production not for deficits
Needs of Community should be the last question

91
Taking ABCD AT Home
Define community goal
Find allies
Define additional players
Decide how to bring them on board
Identify assets to contribute from your institution, association,
and/or individually
Utilize these resources to map and mobilize community
Come back to ABCD Intensive to share stories, successes and
challenges

9393
Reference:
1. Asset Based Community Development. Turning your community’s lemons into assets .www.slideshare.net
2. NLP (NEURO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING), A. RAJ SHRAVANTHI.
3. What is Asset,Based Community!Development,(ABCD), Collaborative for NeighborhoodTransformation.
http://www.neighborhoodtransformation.net/
4. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP): A Motivational and Empowering Tool for Community Development,Bala Vikasa, Sharing Series,8
5. http://www.sopar-balavikasa.org/
6. MOBILIZING ASSETS FOR COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT, Alison Mathie Gord Cunningham,2007, Coady International Institute St. Francis
Xavier University Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
7. www.cswe.org/CSWE/media/Diversity-Center/2-Module-2_Asset-Based-Community-Development_2.pdf
8. ASSET BASED APPROACHES TO RURAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT. www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk.
9. A glass half-full: how an asset approach can improve community health and well-being. www.local.gov.uk/asset-approach-community-
wellbeing-glass-half-full.
10. The Four Essential Elements of an Asset-Based Community Development Process. Prof. John L. McKnight & Cormac Russell (2017) .Asset-Based
Community Development Institute at DePaul University
11. Asset-based Community DevelopmentDr. Susan Jakes and Jacqueline Murphy Miller. www.communitydevelopment.ces.ncsu.edu
12. Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). CDD training, The Bala Vikasa,2020

94
Thank you
Salma Akter Surma
Lecturer, Architecture Department, premier University, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
Email : surma.arch@gmail.com
surma.arch@puc.ac.bd.
Linkedin: Salma Akter
www.slideshare.net/SalmaAkter4
https://surmasustainlehumansettelemnt.blogspot.com/

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