2011 Annual Report
April 12, 2012 Leave a comment
Click here for the CFA 2011 Annual Report.
Powering America
April 11, 2012 Leave a comment
This post was originally published by John McKnight on March 1, 2011 at www.abundantcommunity.com. Click here to see the original post.
John McKnight is emeritus professor of education and social policy and codirector of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University. He is the coauthor of Building Communities from the Inside Out and the author of The Careless Society. He has been a community organizer… read more »
In a neighborhood, people are empowered by the work they do together. Often, they use this power to confront institutions and advocate for the neighborhood’s self-interest. In this kind of action, power is understood as our ability to get someone else to do something for us. This is the consumer power of confrontation.
The other kind of neighborhood power results when we come together to create something for ourselves — from ourselves. This is the power of citizens engaged in community building.
Many of us think of power in terms of the confrontation approach. Power is about advocacy, demands, negotiation and control. On the other hand, community-building is often described as “nice and cooperative,” but not powerful.
In our book, The Abundant Community, we point out that there are at least six community-building characteristics of a neighborhood that empowers its residents: cooperation, hospitality, generosity, kindness, forgiveness and accepting fallibilities.
Each of these qualities is a power and creates powerful results.
Kindness is the power to care. A careless society is a weak society. It finally descends to callous practices and brutal disregard for its members.
Hospitality is the power to welcome. A fearful society is frightened of strangers and weakened by its exclusions of the talents of strangers inside and outside its community.
Generosity is the power to give. Powerlessness is greatest when we are denied the right to contribute and express ourselves. That is why prison is so terrible, even though food, clothing and shelter are provided. There is no stronger punishment than denying a person’s power to give.
Cooperation is the power to join with your neighbors to create a future. Every totalitarian system knows that the greatest threat is people working together in groups, small or large. In those societies, the power to associate is called a conspiracy.
Accepting fallibility creates the power to enjoy each other in spite of our failures, deficiencies and differences. It creates the glue that holds us together in spite of our nature.
Finally, forgiveness is the power to forget. Many communities have been weakened for centuries because of an event that happened in the distant past. Until a community or its members can overcome a pervasive sense of grievance, that community will atrophy in a spirit of retribution.
It is these qualities of community that are the basic source of a nation’s power:
- power to care
- power to give
- power to welcome
- power to join
- power to enjoy
- power to forget.
These powers are abundant and available in every community. When they are manifested, they are more powerful than business or government. That is why America’s recovery as a powerful nation finally depends on what we do on our own block.
~ John ~
John McKnight
ABCD Transforms Street Church Team
April 9, 2012 Leave a comment
Throughout the Spring and Summer of 2011, Street Church sought to develop relationships with the residents of Downtown Hampton, Virginia. Street Church is a community ministry led by Steve Edwards with numerous helpers from several area churches. OneChurch has been working with Steve to develop ABCD strategies for this community over the past year. Our major effort was in the Harbor Square apartments, a low-income housing development in the center of the city. During the Summer of 2011, Street Church provided Sunday evening worship services on the grounds, a Summer Vacation Bible School, several clothing and food drives, and conducted surveys in the community. These efforts resulted in good relationships being built with the members of this community, several city officials, and local helping agencies such as H.E.L.P. – a ministry to the homeless of the area, and area churches.
In the Fall of 2011 this effort ended as the weather changed and the city purchased the apartment complex and moved the residents out of the area. Street Church and OneChurch have been meeting to discern our Lords plans for us during this time. As a result, we recently formed a leadership team committed to applying ABCD methods of community development in a strategic manner in this neighborhood. 
This team came together as we sought to develop deeper relationships with those who participated in our Street Church events in 2011. We shared the book, “When Helping Hurts,” with key leaders (about 50 people) which has ignited an interest in our efforts. This team has committed to be trained in ABCD methods, to study “When Helping Hurts” in a small group setting, and to begin implementation of a consensus plan that will emerge through a Technology of Participation (ToP) consensus workshop in April. This group of loosely connected but caring people willing to get involved in some “to/for” ministry efforts in a needy community has transitioned into a team committed to learning and applying ABCD “with” methods in a specific downtown Hampton neighborhood for the foreseeable future.
2011: A Look Back
March 30, 2012 Leave a comment
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
2011 was quite a remarkable year for CFA. CFA is an association, and CFA members are all lodged in regional intermediary organizations. Most of their host organizations do a mix of poverty alleviating programs and church mobilizing for poverty alleviation. The common factor that draws members to CFA is their focus on neighborhood transformation using Asset Based Community Development approaches. CFA members in 2011 have developed into a substantial professional network with an impressive, working tool kit of skills and resources. We can confidently say as an association, that we know how to work within neighborhoods in a way that leads neighbors to directing their own neighborhood progress, and that more churches are engaging in the work in respectful, appropriate, supportive ways .
From a big picture perspective the major challenges for CFA in 2011 were these:
- AmeriCorps funding: After running a very successful grant program teaching neighborhoods how to implement community listening, asset mapping, and neighbor organizing for 6 years, our grant application in 2011 was denied as a result of changing guidelines. The new grant guidelines were a deal breaker, because they would force neighborhoods to work on programs determined by the government. CFA believes the neighborhoods must identify what they want to work on. In 2012, CFA will be looking for other ways to do this work.
- It feels like we have transitioned from a launch phase to a significant growth phase. In 2011, we added more CFA members than any prior year. We ended the year with 22 regional trainer/coaches who are coaching leaders in over 400 neighborhoods nationwide. The challenge is that with only two staff devoting time to new member vetting and coaching, we are beyond our capacity to adequately attend to regional growth. We really need an additional staff person.
- Focusing on adding value: CFA will lose members if we do not add value at all times in sufficient quantity and quality to retain a member’s interest.
- Fundraising continues to be a challenge. While we ended the year in the black, we did not adequately diversify our revenue streams. We are discovering that CFA’s financial future and CFA Partner organizations financial strength are integrally linked. We will be working really hard to figure out how to do joint fundraising in 2012.
- Collaboration – for results. CFA is always scanning the horizon to see what other national associations and organizations we can partner with to the end that more neighborhoods are transformed. CFA has an agreement with Leadership Foundations (they focus on city transformation) and Think Tank-Circles a national community building program focusing on helping people get off welfare in large measure by helping them break out of their personal and communal isolation.
Looking at 2011 in the rear view mirror causes us to praise God for how He has used CFA in raising leadership for transforming a growing number of neighborhoods. May He be pleased and direct our path in 2012.
Jay Van Groningen, Executive Director
Click here for the full annual report.
Jobs Equal Justice
March 28, 2012 Leave a comment
This post was written by Wendy McCaig, the founder and executive director of Embrace Richmond (a CFA partnering organization). You can find the original post here.
Robert Lupton’s book, “Toxic Charity”, issues us all with a strong challenge – to move away from “an entrenched giveaway mentality” that destroys human dignity and damages communities in the long run. For this mentality to shift we have to “restructure our established one-way charity systems” and create opportunities for people to work.
There are three basic approaches to poverty; relief, individual betterment and community development.
Relief programs are focused on “giving a fish.” Lupton warns us of the down side saying,
“Loading an area down with poverty programs and human services can virtually ruin its chances of economic rebirth.”
Individual betterment programs (tutoring, mentoring, training) are focused on “teaching people to fish.” Lupton writes,
“Betterment programs do make a difference. Yet, as important as these services may be (essential, some would say), serving people is distinctly different from developing people.”
Community development is focused on improving the “condition of the pond.” Many of our urban communities have become so toxic that no amount of relief or betterment programming is effective because everyone is swimming in polluted waters, often made worse by undisciplined giving.
A healthy pond requires “ownership by the community of their community.” For a community to assume ownership of its own future, residents have to care enough to get involved. The goal of the community developer is discovering the unrealized hopes and dreams of the neighbors. For the past three years, that is what we have been listening for in the Hillside Community where Embrace Richmond has been engaged. We have found these words from Lupton to be true,
“The dreamers are seldom connected to the resources that provide nutrients to give those dreams life—that is, until by chance or by providence, someone in the village meets a connected person with a heart, a person who has time to listen, a person with both imagination and resources.
Hope, smothered dim under years of survival pressures, begins to flicker once again. In time, after the trustworthiness of the connecting person can be tested, after the opportunity is subjected to ample reality testing, hope can have free rein. It is a dangerous, fragile, exhilarating moment when the poor cast off their restraints and begin to believe. And this transformative moment, more than any other moment, is what the community developer lives for and what the community thirsts for.”
I have been blessed to have witnessed this beautiful reclaiming of hope and faith many times, but in each case it took years of listening, dreaming, encouraging, and investing. We now have a handful of individuals that we call our “street saints.” These individuals have come from difficult circumstances and they want to help others in their neighborhood thrive.
- Charles’s dream is to expand access to affordable housing and employment for those with barriers
- Patrice’s dream is to strengthen families by strengthening the sense of community
- Rudy’s dream is to reach older youth and help them avoid the dangers of the streets
- Denise has a gift for hospitality and cooking and dreams of breaking down the walls of isolation
- John’s passion is making sure no one goes hungry in his neighborhood especially the elderly
- Joseph’s hope is to help residents increase their economic opportunities
- Johnny would like to see people living healthier lifestyles through gardening and exercise
All of these individuals have dreams that they cared enough about to invest in. They are committed to doing what they can with what they have and are inviting others from their neighborhood to join them in making these dreams for their community a reality.
However, simply engaging people in shaping the future of their community is not enough. Lupton asks this question,
“Will the proposed activity be wealth-generating or at least self-sustaining for the community?”
This is the question that I have been asking myself a lot lately. In six months, Embrace Richmond will let go of our AmeriCorps funding which currently provides 75% of the funds that support our community development efforts. The majority of these funds have been used to provide stipends for the dreamers named above. I have watched each one of these individuals find new hope, meaning and purpose through the work they have done in the Hillside Community. Our goal now is to figure out how to help them turn these hopes and dreams into “wealth-generating” or at-least “self-sustaining” initiatives. As difficult as it was to build this amazing team, I suspect this next step is going to be even more challenging.
However, I strongly agree with Robert Lupton that creating sustainable employment opportunities is one of the most important elements in caring for the spirit and soul of people. Lupton writes,
“One of the surest ways to destroy self-worth is subsidizing the idleness of able-bodied people. Made in the image of God, we are created with intrinsic worth. And anything that erodes a rightful sense of pride and self-respect diminishes that image. Life offers no fulfillment without work. Work is a gift, a calling, a human responsibility. And the creation of productive, meaningful employment fulfills one of the Creator’s highest designs. Because of that, it should be a central goal to our service. LITTLE AFFIRMS HUMAN DIGNITY more than honest work.”
Lupton tells a story in an earlier book titled, “Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life”, about a church that started a clothing closet where everything was free and over time that clothing closet became a thrift store that ultimately created jobs. He also tells the story of a church that took its benevolence fund to start a jobs bank and how a food pantry became a food coop. It is this kind of “social enterprise” thinking that we all need to engage in more. Making money is not an evil thing. Creating jobs for our friends is far more compassionate than expecting them to stand in lines with their hands out for the rest of their lives.
To go beyond charity and really get to the core issue underlying poverty, we have to create economic opportunities in low-income neighborhoods. There is no other way to create a sustainable healthy neighborhood. How many jobs could be created by churches if they used the funds that are supporting “relief” ministries to create social enterprise opportunities?
I know first-hand that it is far harder to develop neighborhood leaders, create sustainable employment and change a community than it is to simply give handouts. I pray more Christians will awaken to the fact that one-way giving approaches are harmful but also recognize that they can be restructured in a way that could be life giving to the community if they were turned into community owned social enterprise opportunities.
What relief programs is your church involved in?
How open is your church to restructuring its one-way giving activities?
How could your current relief program become a social enterprise in a struggling neighborhood?
Friday Food For Thought: What Do You Know About Your Neighbors?
March 23, 2012 1 Comment
On Thursday, CFA Member Judy Van Dyke led a “Community Conversations” group prompted by the recent Peter Block event in West Michigan. Those gathered around the table shared stories, food, and thoughts on their desire to see their neighborhoods transformed. Judy quoted one Community Connector, “Our neighborhoods are not under-resourced, they are under-relational.” So, those gathered around the table began building relationships with each other by learning about each other’s gifts.
Headings of Head, Hands, and Heart prompted attendees to look at their own gifts. There was a buzz in the room as connections were made…one person who knows about plants connected with someone whose new home needs landscaping. Others found common interests in cooking and art. Real conversations were sparked, and people’s gifts were affirmed.
This conversation caused me to ask myself, “What do I know about my neighbors?” I may know how many kids they have, the car that they drive, or where they are from originally. But do I know anything about their gifts? How about you?
Community Events Come In All Shapes, Sizes, and Species
March 19, 2012 Leave a comment
Story submitted by Laura Brenner, LINC New Orleans
February was an extremely eventful month with carnival season, but St. Paul kept the good times rolling by hosting the first annual “Mutts in the Marigny” community event. The event was extremely successful due to the collaborative efforts of many. The event was even promoted on the noon news at Fox8 and AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) assisted the some of the church members in canvassing entire Marigny rectangle and half of the Bywater neighborhood!
Adorable clip art of puppies along the iron fence greeted community members as they walked up to the church with their pooch. Six service providers and three adoption agencies were on site to speak with neighbors. A memorial wall was also set up for those who had recently lost a pet. There were lots of fun dog activities such as a costume contest, an Owner/Pet look-alike contest, a “Pooch Smooch” booth, and a pet blessing. 
It was a great day had by all as neighbors gathered around their common interest in their four-legged friends. There is already talk of how we can make it even better for next time. Looking forward to the next community event!
Friday Food for Thought: Gifts or Deficiencies?
March 16, 2012 Leave a comment
Peter Block, author of Community: The Structure of Belonging and co-author of The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods, spoke on March 12, 2012 in Grand Haven, MI. Here is an excerpt:
“Community is based on a gift mindedness which means that the deficiency that you might call me is not who I am. It bothers me when people get introduced, ‘Peter I’d like you to meet my friend John, he’s homeless.’ I say that’s not who John is. I don’t show up and say, ‘I’m Peter and I’m housed.’”
“You don’t identify yourself by what you’re not. The whole deficiency mindset is what shifts when you start caring about a citizen based society instead of a consumer based society.”
ABCD Resources: Jay’s Picks
March 12, 2012 Leave a comment
Someone recently asked me, “If you were going to recommend three books on Community Development in the US context what would you recommend?”
Here is my preferred beginner’s list:
1. The team that I work with wrote a book called Communities First - it needs a re-write, but it still introduces the themes I work with today. You can order it here. I recommend the main text without the workbooks as a starter. The workbooks go a little further into application.
2. Toxic Charity by Bob Lupton is a book along the lines of When Helping Hurts. It is a good read and goes beyond naming the problems to proposing solution directions.
3. Peter Block and John McKnight have an excellent book titled The Abundant Community.
A few more resources (because I can’t resist):
- A website I recommend for Asset Based Community Development and training is www.mike-green.org. Mike has been a mentor for us. Another is www.abcdinstitute.org. Both sites list excellent resources.
- Peter Block also wrote a great book called Community: The Structure of Belonging.
- CCDA’s beginner’s primer by Mary Nelson called Empowerment. You can find it here.
Building Community: Unity. Ownership. Action
March 8, 2012 10 Comments
Time spent building community results in unity, ownership, and action. Watch this video to see how neighbors can work together to make their community better for all.
Building Community: Unity. Ownership. Action. from CFA Videos on Vimeo.
Asset-Mapping: “What I’m Doing…Is Crazy and Wonderful and Maddening”
March 7, 2012 1 Comment
The following post was originally published on March 2, 2012 by Sherry Johnson over at A Thread Of Connection. Sherry grew up with working-class roots and encountered poverty and racism. Passionate about equity and community, she recently attended a CFA training in Minneapolis, and lives and works in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood putting Asset Based Community Development principles into action.
What I’m Doing…Is Crazy and Wonderful and Maddening
I’m in an incredibly blessed place.
For about the last three years, I’ve been delving deeper into the subject of community: what it is, how it’s formed, how to sustain it, and why it’s so rare in this culture. I tried to form community through charity and nonprofit formation at my old church, which largely failed. I joined with a small but intrepid group of de-churched Jesus-lovers to make a community here on the Bluff. That’s still growing. I studied neighborhood leadership at the Wilder Center for Communities, and its history at Minnesota History Center. I read loads of books on the psychology of community. And I fell in love with asset-mapping at an Asset-Based Community Development Institute retreat in Chicago.
So what the heck is asset mapping? It’s what I’ve been doing on my own for over a year now. I’ve been systematically listing all the assets–all the good things–our neighborhood has. Its places. Its associations. Its institutions. Its churches. And most daunting but important, the gifts of its people.
And lo, in the middle of my scattered slips of paper and to-do lists and Google maps, I was offered a job. Do your dream in 12 hours a week with the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council. Recruit a staff of researchers from underrepresented populations in the neighborhood. Train them. Listen to the community you love.
I keep gratefully asking myself, “Who gets to create their own dream job?”
I also keep following up with the question, “What if you fail at your dream job?”
How on earth does one break through decades of institutional racism and cultural isolation and Eastside melancholy to build hope again? Everyone around me says they “love the diversity” of this community, but then why is most everyone around me Caucasian, despite my efforts to broaden my network of friends and acquaintances?
So I keep contacting nonprofits and churches and friends and clubs, asking for references: Whom do you know in the community that loves this community and wants to see it grow? I get silence and gracious referrals and suggestions of where else to look. And I go deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.
Ask, Listen…ACT!
March 5, 2012 Leave a comment
Jay Van Groningen
Talk is action…it’s not cheap. How do you see your role in the story of your neighborhood? What would you improve about your street? If resources were unlimited, what is the first area you would address? What about your neighborhood keeps you up at night? How would you describe a good neighbor? A great neighbor?
Start with questions not answers, one of the many principles of Asset Based Community Development discussed on February 24th and 25th at a recent CFA training in Minneapolis, MN. Facilitators Jay Van Groningen and George Montoya spent two days with 18 participants presenting practical and powerful methods of ABCD as an approach to effective community development work. Participants included neighbors, nonprofit workers, church leaders, professors, agency leaders, and others seeking to develop more connected and engaged local communities. Topics covered included:
Twin Cities Training at Calvary Church in inner city Minneapolis.
- Methods to discover individuals’ gifts and their voluntary associations, including churches.
- How to build more community engagement and involvement.
- Approaches to sustain community organizations and leaders.
- Ideas for building successful agency-resident partnerships.
- Finding and mobilizing organizational and community assets.
- Practical ways to expand social networks and local connections.
In addition to covering the fundamental principles of taking ABCD and community building and organizing into action, the trainers and participants spent time dreaming and believing together. See CFA events page for upcoming training opportunities.
ABCD training activity
Asset Based Community Development: Vision Begins With Listening
March 2, 2012 Leave a comment
ABCD asks “What can this community do itself to achieve its own goals and dreams?”
ABCD is a practice of engaging citizens in the things that can affect them! It involves finding out, through listening and asking, “What do you really care about? ABCD engages “learning conversations” to discover what neighbors care enough to act upon.
ABCD adds community development to individual development in order to effect sustainable, long-lasting change. Community mobilization uses learning conversations, the discovery of “motivation to act” and a connector/leader to bring all of the resources together.
Neighborhood Transformation: Whose Vision Is It?
February 29, 2012 Leave a comment
“Community ministry involves more than just starting another program or running another event. Effective community ministry requires working with a community to capture pictures of what could be different and better. Community vision that is effective grows out of long-term, sustainable, and relational interactions with community residents.”
Excerpt taken from page 28 of Communities First. Click here for more information on this resource.
Asset Based Community Development: A Story of Sharing
February 27, 2012 Leave a comment
Kimi Zimmerman–Community enCompass
What is ABCD?
It’s simple really. At its best, Asset Based Community Development comes out in life stories.
Take Linda for example. I honestly don’t know much about her. She’s a retired nurse and new to the McLaughlin neighborhood. Judging by her kind disposition, I’d venture to say she was the kind of nurse that people remembered and wanted to thank because she made an unpleasant doctor or hospital visit more bearable.
I met Linda one day at Sacred Suds. She wasn’t doing laundry or showering. Instead, she was taking blood pressure for neighbors that were using the facility. She wasn’t doing it for money or in any official capacity. She was doing it because she cares about her community. She was doing it because she has a passion for people and for nursing. It’s in her DNA. She has a God-given gift and she can’t help but use it.
This is ABCD - neighbors using their gifts and talents to enrich, change, help, care for, and love the community they are a part of. Neighbors like Linda. But the story doesn’t end there. Linda used her own blood pressure equipment, but found she didn’t have the right size cuff for some of the neighbors. Another neighbor heard about it and contacted a local agency to see how they could go about getting a larger cuff. When the agency heard about the volunteer work Linda was doing at Sacred, they couldn’t help but support the cause and donate the equipment. ABCD is contagious!
This is a simple story about one person doing good by sharing her gifts with her neighbors.
What is ABCD? It’s neighbors sharing the best parts of themselves to help build a stronger community.
Crisis and Community: Neighbor Gives Back
February 23, 2012 Leave a comment
Judy Van Dyke–Good Samaritan Ministries
Antonio has lived in Holland, MI for seven years and lives in the Westcore Neighborhood with his 11 year-old son, Marvin.
This fall, Antonio was wrongfully evicted from his apartment when the house in which he was a tenant went into foreclosure. This caused a great deal of turmoil in Antonio’s life as he had to scramble to pack up his and his son’s possessions and find a new place to live, while keeping the rest of his life in balance. When the foreclosing bank was notified that Antonio had been wrongfully evicted, they offered financial compensation to Antonio with the condition that he remove all the personal property on the premises in less than 5 days! He had neither the time nor the means to do this huge task but was willing to do whatever it took to get those funds into the neighborhood. So with his cooperation, and help from a local pastor and realtor, a group of neighbors and friends, 2 trips to the dump were made with all the debris. Within a few days Antonio had a check from the bank. ALL OF THIS WAS DONE BY THE COMMUNITY IN A WEEK, WORKING TOGETHER!
What did he do with the money? He gave most of it ($1,200) to Nuestra Casa!!!
Why would he do this!?! Antonio recalled a very difficult time of his life. He had recently been divorced, and was going through an emotional roller coaster ride. He was brought to his knees. When he looked up, Antonio realized that God had waited until he was crying out in anguish before showing up in his life.
Since that moment, Antonio has grown in his love of God, his neighbors and many friends. This unexpected windfall to him was one way he could give back to the community, and he is happy to do it.
(Excerpts taken from the Nuestra Casa blog)
Good Samaritan Ministries works with the Westcore Neighborhood group to do community transformation in the center city of Holland. We had the privilege of hearing Antonio’s story when he came to GSM with a neighbor and their Community Connector to give us his donation. Nuestra Casa is a vacant house that the neighbors are renovating into a community center. Antonio’s compassion and generosity is a great example of how neighbors in the Westcore area value their community and care for each other.
Neighborhood Leading with LaDeitra
February 20, 2012 Leave a comment
Rebecca Lujan Loveless–POLIS Institute
The Community Center at The Palms Trailer Park bustled with life on a recent cool Saturday morning. This was unusual because up until that week the trailer that housed the Community Center was only open Monday through Friday. This Saturday, the neighborhood residents came in and out, using the computers, sitting to chat with a neighbor over a cup of coffee and I felt a deep sense of gratitude for the spirit of “togetherness” that was in this overlooked but much under-rated community.
The Palms Trailer Park is located between two highways on Orange Blossom Trail – “OBT” as it is affectionately referred to. OBT is notorious for the business of buying and selling women. So whenever I tell people where my office is located – in a trailer park on OBT- I am generally met with some kind of a joke about “working the Trail.” And while my work involves befriending women who do, in fact, “work the Trail,” it involves listening to the hopes and concerns of other people too: the former inmate who is unemployable because of his past, the older woman who has never worked a day in her life because of her crippling disabilities, and the young single mom who is passionate about her children having a chance to succeed in ways she never was given.
Recently, I have become friends with a young, single mom who has taught me so much about determination and a quiet patience. LaDeitra is curious and funny. She is hopeful yet cautious. She leads people with ease and yet is hesitant about being called a “leader.” She cares about her neighborhood and wants to be a part of creating a place where her kids can play safely, where she knows her neighbors well enough to understand their needs.
When I first met her at the Community Center she was shy and quiet. She would come in to use the computers and then leave as quietly as she came in. But over time she began to pick up on some of the conversations that were happening around her. As people would come in to the Community Center we would talk about their ideas about how to improve the neighborhood. She began to be curious. Eventually LaDeitra started contributing to these informal conversations. Finally, after several months of listening and observing she asked if she could come to the weekly meeting for our volunteer Hosts of the Community Center. Once LaDeitra was trained as a Community Center Host there was no stopping her. She began talking to her neighbors and listening to them dream about “what could be” in the neighborhood. She convenes people for Neighborhood Meetings and it was her organization and determination that allowed the center to start opening on Saturdays. 
The work of Asset Based Community Development can be very lonely. Am I the only one that thinks this neighborhood is great? Does everyone [including the residents that live here] think this place is a joke? These are admittedly my dismal thoughts on days when I feel heavy-laden with the reality of generational poverty. But LaDeitra reminds me, “Things take time.” She reminds me that there are others that care about this forgotten part of our city. She confirms my deep suspicion that when the talents of the poor are properly engaged, well-being improves. She engages my talents of leadership and organization and in turn allows me, even invites me, to engage her talents to influence her neighbors towards change.
Each Saturday, if you stop by The Palms Trailer Park, you will see LaDeitra with her notebook open, listening to the dreams of her neighbors. She writes them down, showing that what her neighbors have to say is important. She talks to others about these ideas and invites people to find ways to empower them. LaDeitra is hesitant to be called a “leader” and yet, each week she leads me to believe that change –even in the most unlikely place- is possible.
Success Empowers Neighbors
February 17, 2012 Leave a comment
Eric Smith–Think Tank, Inc. and Springfield Promise Neighborhood
The neighborhood work in the Lincoln area began with the planning for the launch of the Springfield Promise Neighborhood (SPN) initiative. It was decided that there should be an event held on the grounds of the partner school, Lincoln Elementary, that would get children, youth, and families out and being “community” together while connecting with the local school. The planning for the event was done in partnership with neighborhood residents. The event was successful, drawing 300 people for a festive day of food, games, and family activities. Later, the event would come to be called PromiseFest.
The group of residents, feeling empowered by the success of their first venture working together, continued to meet and plan other community events, such as a Christmas Banquet, a Spaghetti Dinner, and a Spring Fling Cookout. In the course of their journey together, the group decided to take steps toward becoming an official Neighborhood Association.
Once school was back in session, the Neighborhood Association began to plan for a second annual PromiseFest. The second annual PromiseFest proved to be an even greater success than the first, and drew out 13 community organizations to provide educational and support services to the families that attended the event.
Importantly, holding a second annual event proved to the residents that they had the staying power necessary to inspire change over the long haul. It was also a significant event because it was held in front of the school garden, which was another program of the residents in the community that had been developed in the preceding year.
The “Dignity” Store
February 16, 2012 Leave a comment
Clark Blakeman– Second Stories
Five kids ranging from 8 to 3 years old came rolling out of the metal door on a small building across the parking lot from the neighborhood church, a mother chasing behind. Rapidly fired words mixed with giggles, package shaking, and directionless walking made the mom’s work of corralling the kids difficult. But she was in a great mood and full of smiles. She gathered up all the gifts she had just bought and wrapped with new friends from the church while her kids played games and made gifts for mom out of construction paper and glue. In her limited English she expressed her thanks and hugs were given to everyone as the family made their way to the bus stop. She seemed to especially cherish a framed family portrait that she received as a gift from a photographer from the church who had set up inside the Dignity Christmas Store.
During the month of December a low-income apartment complex and a local church worked together, facilitated by Second Stories, to create the Dignity Christmas Store. This effort is an expression of a growing understanding of Asset Based Community Development and the relationship developing between the congregation and the residents of the apartments.
The idea had three objectives. One was to support apartment residents who could not afford to purchase Christmas gifts and preserve their dignity in the process. To do this they developed a Christmas tree lot fundraiser that would enable gifts to be purchased and offered at a 90 percent discount from retail. Attending to the lot was shared by many. In this way the low-income residents would experience the dignity of purchasing gifts themselves rather than being demoralized by an “adopt a poor family for the holidays” approach.
Another goal was to further develop relationships between church members and apartment residents. They achieved this by sequencing each family’s shopping opportunity and pacing it so there was plenty of time for just hanging out. They wrapped gifts together, and sat for conversation over hot chocolate, coffee and snacks. Kids played foosball, made gifts or colored. Families were each offered the opportunity to get a family portrait, which was developed and framed while the parents shopped.
The third aim, and perhaps most important, was to listen for the gifts, abilities and passions of each other so as to discern what additional ways these two groups can work together for the common good of their neighborhood. Informal questions were developed and asked, designed to reveal motivations and assets to be given. Ideas were generated and new possibilities for working together have begun to emerge. Ideas were gleaned, like working to have sidewalks installed along the apartment complex that butts up against the neighborhoods’ busiest street, offering credit for use at the Dignity Store for anyone who volunteers at the tree lot, increasing the quality of snacks at the Dignity Store by utilizing the multi-ethnic foods represented at the apartments, and doing a jointly hosted international dinner at the local park.
This coalition of “workers for the common good” is young and still somewhat tentative. But already the quality of life for both church members and apartment residents is at a higher level due to the environment of dignity and inclusion being fostered. This is about healthy relationships on the small and larger neighborhood scale. And as the mother of 5 can attest, that’s exactly what’s being experienced in SE Portland.
ABCD: Neighbors Influence the Next Generation
February 15, 2012 1 Comment
Eric Smith–Think Tank, Inc. and Springfield Promise Neighborhood
I met George Young at the Springfield Promise Neighborhood Kickoff and Community Celebration, the first community event planned alongside residents, nearly one year ago. It turns out that George is a long-time resident of the Lincoln Neighborhood. As part of the listening process, I met with George for a one-on-one learning conversation.
It quickly became evident that George was interested in seeing the ethic of responsible fatherhood integrated into the fabric of his neighborhood. He also had a clear passion for developing the character of the youth of his community. However, George did not have an opportunity to exercise his gifts and passions.
I therefore invited George to attend a leadership training series on the principles of Asset-Based Community Development. Through the training, George’s vision crystalized. Another of the attendees, as it turned out, had a similar interest. So following the training, George invited a select group of his neighbors, also long-time residents of the neighborhood, as well as his colleague from the training, to a meeting.
The neighbors quickly decided that they could accomplish the corporate desire that they all had to impact others if they formed into an organized group. The initial meeting has led to the birth of the Lincoln Neighborhood POPS Club. The Club has been connected to Urban Light Ministries, the responsible fatherhood initiative in Springfield, to provide stability as needed.
As their first project, the Club leaders have worked to establish a safety patrol program at Lincoln Elementary. Though very much needed, Lincoln Elementary has not had a safety patrol program for many years.
What is inspiring and transformational about this story is the fact that now a core group of neighbors is more alive because they are able to give of their gifts and experience to influence the next generation. Even as they are becoming more alive and aware, they are instilling pride in the 16 youth that are part of the safety patrol. The patrol is quickly becoming an opportunity to nurture good character, self-regulation, and aspirational thinking in the lives of a select group of youth.
What was lacking before was merely the vision to see the gifts and dreams that connected the neighbors to each other and the Club to the youth. Imagine now what other opportunities exist just around the corner in a neighborhood of over 4,500 neighbors and youth!
