Neighborhood-community-communitarian programs and policies are designed down to the smallest human detail. The only glitch to the whole plan is it's a DATA DRIVEN SYSTEM. The most common complaint made by LA21 planning groups in the late 90's was the NEED FOR MORE DATA. It is impossible to plan who does what in a communitarian collective if you don't know who knows how to do it.
ABCD is always presented the same way all communitarian programs are. ABCD promoters assure us it's just a more moral, enlightened solution to global neighborhood problems. In this wiki article the description starts out reading like an ABCD Institute press release, but then in the final paragraphs we get an alternative viewpoint of ABCD, a view which is shared by people like me who were identified as problems when we attempted to contribute in local LA21 planning meetings. I'm reprinting this here because I plan to reproduce it in the book under the chapter about ABCD, and I want to use this exact version and save it in hard copy and online ... forever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset-based_community_developmentAsset-based community development
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or section reads like a news release, or is otherwise written in an overly promotional tone. Please help by either rewrite this article from a neutral point of view or by moving to Wikinews. When appropriate, blatant advertising may be marked for speedy deletion with {{db-spam}}. (May 2010) Asset-based community development (ABCD) is a methodology that seeks to uncover and utilize the strengths within communities as a means for sustainable development. The basic tenet is that a capacities-focused approach is more likely to empower the community and therefore mobilize citizens to create positive and meaningful change from within. Instead of focusing on a community's needs, deficiencies and problems, the ABCD approach helps them become stronger and more self-reliant by discovering, mapping and mobilizing all their local assets. Few people realize how many assets any community has, for example:
- Skills of its citizens, from youth to people with disabilities, from thriving professionals to starving artists
- Dedication of its citizens associations — churches, culture groups, clubs, neighborhood associations
- Resources of its formal institutions — businesses, schools, libraries, community colleges, hospitals, parks, social service agencies
By the late 1990s, communities around the country were mapping and using these resources in imaginative ways, bringing them out of the closet and into creative synergy with each other, with dramatic results. Asset-based community development has provided leaders and institutions in all sectors with an approach that is relatively cheap, effective and empowering, that avoids paternalism and dependence — an approach that can be supported by all parts of the political spectrum and initiated at any level of civic life.
The first step in the process of community development is to assess the resources of a community through a capacity inventory [1] or through another process of talking to the residents to determine what types of skills and experience are available to a community organization. The next step is to consult with the community and find out what improvements the residents would like to make. The final, and most challenging step, is to determine how the residents' skills can be leveraged into achieving those goals.[1] {my emphasis and link}
Using this model, the communities who hire ABCD speakers to influence their citizens are looking for an opportunity to create artificial community consensus. By creating farmed neighborhood associations they sideline actual community participants who often do not agree with the city policies. These artificial groups use the Delphi technique to block participation by real community members who raise points that are avoided by city-sponsored neighborhood groups. Under the guise of creating 'sustainable communities' neighborhood associations will be developed that are run by hand-picked city insiders who will rubberstamp city programs like redeveloping neighborhoods and redesigning streets. This visioning is supposedly community based but is not. They shut down any dissenting voices and marginalize, ridicule, attack, silence, and ignore those who do not agree.
'Mapping community assets' is a way of controlling and managing a group of people and directing them to use their skills in a pre-determined way to 'benefit' the community. Who decides what benefits the community? The hand-picked 'leaders'. By mapping a community are these groups determining who has something to offer the collective and who does not? What happens to those who do not contribute to the collective? How are they 'leveraged' into contributing? The Asset-Based Community Development Institute[2] is located at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Its founders, John Kretzmann and John L. McKnight, are the major proponents of this community development philosophy.
Contents
[hide][edit] See also
- Allotment gardens
- Community development
- Community-based participatory research (CBPR)
- Participatory rural appraisal (PRA)
- Searsolin
- Praxis intervention
- Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action (PCHP)
- Democrats Against UN Agenda 21
[edit] References
- ^ a b McKnight, John; Kretzmann, John. "Mapping Community Capacity". Northwestern University. http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/publications/papers/mcc.pdf.
- ^ Asset-Based Community Development Institute
[edit] Further reading
- John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight, Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets (Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, 1993)
- From Clients to Citizens: Asset-Based Community Development as a Strategy for Community-Driven Development
- What is Asset Mapping? by John Emerson, 2004.
- PCHP Website
- Author Guidelines
- A Vision for Progress in Community Health Partnerships
- Inagural Issue Sample Reader
- Guidelines for Writing Manuscripts About Community-based Participatory Research in Peer- Reviewed Journals
- Beyond the Manuscript Podcasts
- Community Policy Briefs
- Editorial Board
- Access PCHP at Project MUSE
- Asset Based Community Development in a local community
[edit] External links
- Asset-Based Community Development Institute
- ABCD Asia Pacific Network
- Inspiring Communities ABCD in Australia and New Zealand
- Family Action Centre Australia
- Social Leadership Development Course, SEARSOLIN
- Nurture Development ABCD approach in Ireland
- KaBOOM! is the ABCD approach used to build playgrounds in the U.S.
- Asset-Based Community Development -- An Overview By Gord Cunningham and Alison Mathie, Coady International Institute
- Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action- The mission of the Journal is to facilitate dissemination of programs that use community partnerships to improve public health, to promote progress in the methods of research and education involving community health partnerships, and to stimulate action that will improve the health of people in communities. Communities, as defined by the Journal, may be based on geography, shared interests, or social networks. The Journal is dedicated to supporting the work of community health partnerships that involve ongoing collaboration between community representatives and academic or governmental partners. This area of research and evaluation may be referred to as community-based participatory research (CBPR). The W. K. Kellogg Foundation defines CBPR as a collaborative approach to research that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community and has the aim of combining knowledge with action and achieving social change to improve health outcomes and eliminate health disparities.
- NORC Blueprint -- a guide to community action for the development of effective NORC programs
Categories: Community | Community building | Community development | Community organizing | Urban studies and planning | Development | Rural community development | Social sciences
4 comments:
Hi Niki
Vicky Davis is superb at explaining how systems are manipulated to create this NWO:
http://channelingreality.com/
Merry Xmas to you all.
John
PS How are Nord and Tomas?
Niki,
This is the front page 12/17/2010 article from my home town Napa Valley Register:
"New ‘green’ coordinator brings flair, enthusiasm
Andrea Fox, the new coordinator for the city’s blossoming sustainability program, is fired up about making Napa a greener place to live.
Driving her self proclaimed “CleanGreenNapa” program is about $700,000 in federal stimulus funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. About $250,000 of that will pay for Fox’ salary and benefits for two years, while also covering program administrative costs in the same time frame.
Fox’s role is twofold: managing grant money and projects while helping the city become more sustainable and energy-efficient overall.
Fox, 30, said she gave the program its new name — CleanGreenNapa — to get away from a title riddled with city jargon. The idea, she said, is keeping things catchy so locals recognize the program as the city gets ideas from residents.
“My interest in sustainability comes from growing up with the understanding that it is very important,” she said. “I think where my big passion lies is in finding the easy ways to be green and more sustainable.”
Hailing from Omaha, Neb., Fox’s work history put her in one of the nation’s more conservative — and perhaps less ecologically-friendly — regions. That experience honed her skills when it comes to finding practical ways to save fuel, energy and other resources to benefit the environment, she said.
“Having come from Nebraska really exposed me to learning to be really practical when talking about sustainability issues,” she said.
Aug. 30 was Fox’s first day on the job in Napa. She most recently specialized in sustainability issues as a legislative aid to Nebraska state Senator Heath Mello from fall 2009 to summer 2010. Before that, she worked as an assistant to Omaha’s mayor from 2005 to 2009, with a range of duties including managing a sustainability program for the city.
Among other projects, Fox’s CleanGreenNapa program will include a two-part sustainability plan, but details and budgets have yet to be ironed out, she said.
Overall, the city plan will guide each department in becoming more sustainable, and includes plans to convert city streetlamps to more energy-efficient LED lighting. Brainstorming ideas with city department managers about making city operations more environmentally friendly is also on the horizon, she said.
When it comes to ideas from residents, Fox said the city will rely on feedback from public meetings in coming months. The idea, she said, is tapping Napa’s collective ideas about new ways people or the city can go green.
“I really want the community to own that plan,” she said. “It’s really important to me that the community is heard.”
Fox said the city will be finding ways over the next few months to get ideas from residents.
Fox is also launching a greenhouse gas inventory for city buildings, with plans to complete it within the same time frame.
Finally, Fox will also be ferreting out future grant opportunities for the city during her two-year tenure as program coordinator.
Fox comes aboard with the city as the Napa County Transportation and Planning Agency moves forward with plans for an expanded transit center on Burnell Street near Napa Valley Exposition. The agency wants more riders and reduce Napa’s carbon footprint.
Napans and other Californians are “leading the way on a lot of fronts” when it comes to sustainability, Fox said Thursday. The city is hiring a firm to work with Fox and other city employees on green projects, she said.
“As someone who has cared about these issues for so long, it’s great to be around people who are like-minded,” she said."
Merry Christmas
Kevin & Robbi
wow, this is sure telling. Just like Seattle in '99, it's all tied to transit/rail and pedestrian corridors, only change I see is the latest sustainable jargon about how riding public transportation reduces carbon footprints. In '99 carbon footprints was as obscure as the word sustainable.
hope you're having a nice holiday, we managed to after the baby finally came!!!
and thanks John! I'll read it asap. nord and Tomas and Fred are all doing so well I can go home!!!!! :)
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