Stories of Collective Impact: How to Use the Principles of Asset Based Community Development

and Results Based Accountability to Achieve Greater Results and Impact

August 6, 2013

Asset Based Community Development

H. Daniels Duncan,Faculty MemberABCD Institute

Workshop Premise

To improve lives of the families and their members in today’s world requires neighborhoods and their

residents to be involved as coproduces of their own and their community’s well-being. Everyone has something to contribute and we need their “gifts and assets”. Using the principles of Asset-Based

Community Development funders and agencies can help create powerful community partnerships to

build healthier, safer and stronger neighborhoods and communities.

Collective Impact Today Why Place-Based Strategies and Community

Engagement are Critical Introduction to ABCD – Definitions & Principles Examples of ABCD in action The roles of Residents in Building a Stronger

Community Asset Mapping – Discover-Ask-Connect – From

Mapping to Mobilizing The New Role of Institutions – How Institutions Can

Use All Their Assets to Build a Stronger Community Tools for Agencies - Leading By Stepping Back

Workshop Topics:

Hand, Head and Heart Exercise

Pair up with a person you don’t know very well. Take a few minutes to think about your assets and then take about five minutes each to share these assets with the other person in three realms of knowing.

Hand – Physical skills you possess that you would be willing to teach others. I.E., carpentry, photography, painting, bicycle repair…Head – Knowledge that you have in a particular area like child development, health care, history of the neighborhood…Heart – What are your passions; what stirs you to action; what would you walk across hot coals for?

Collective Impact - Today

Collective Impact - Conditions

John Kania & Mark Krame

Common Agenda

Shared Measurement

Multiple Reinforcing Activities

Continuous Communication

Backbone Support

• Common understanding of the complex problem

• Shared vision for change• Collecting data and measuring results• Focus on learning and performance

management• Shared accountably

• Willingness to adapt individual activities and coordinate

• Focus on what works including no-cost and low cost community engagement

• Consistent and open communication• Focus on building trust

• Separate organization(s) with staff • Resources and skills to convene and

coordinate the work of the partners and the community

Lisbeth Schorr: Lessons on What Works

Suggests five lessons:

Be clear about the purposes of our work, the outcomes we are trying to achieve

Be willing to be held accountable for achieving those purposes

Create and sustain the partnerships to achieve these purposes

Move audaciously into the world beyond programs

Have the capacity to take community-wide responsibility to assure that actions that will lead to improved lives will actually happen

Source: Lisbeth Schorr Keynote Address, Santa Clara County Children’s Summit – January 31, 2008

Assumptions for Creating Community Change – Help Children, Youth and

Families Succeed It takes a wide variety of strategies and activities to

achieve community change – Policy Change, Service Enhancement & Resident Engagement

Accept Vulnerability – speak the truth - Learn from successes as well as failures

To achieve real impact requires the community and its residents to be engaged and involved

Communities have an abundance of resources. The issue is that they have not been identified and engaged

All of our activities should be directed at increasing and not stifling community engagement

Place matters

Many Factors Contribute to Pressing Community Issues

Community Issue

Personal choices

Family characteristics

System relationships

Educational system

practices

Health care system

practices

Media messages

Historical trends

Economic

conditionsPublic

attitudes

Public sector

practicesPrivate sector

practices Neighborhood conditions

Most Direct-service Programs Address Only One or Two Factors

Community Issue

Personal choices

Family characteristics

System relationships

Educational system

practices

Health care system

practices

Media messages

Historical trends

Economic

conditionsPublic

attitudes

Public sector

practicesPrivate sector

practices Neighborhood conditions

Effective Collective Impact: Addresses More of the Factors with New Approaches and Additional

Partners

Community Issue

Personal choices

Family characteristics

System relationships

Educational system

practices

Health care system

practices

Media messages

Historical trends

Economic

conditionsPublic

attitudes

Public sector

practicesPrivate sector

practices Neighborhood conditions

Collective Impact vs. Collaboration

Collaboration In Addition to What You Do

Collective Impact Is What You Do

Collective Impact – Effective Partnerships

Organizations do not work together – People Do Should not be rushed – It takes time to build trust

and relationships Effective partnerships are based on:

A common purpose; Relationships; and Trust

When key people change assume the partnership re-sets to zero – Therefore we must always be focused on building relationships and trust.

Assumptions for Creating Community Change – Help Children, Youth and

Families Succeed It takes a wide variety of strategies and activities to

achieve community change – Policy Change, Service Enhancement & Resident Engagement

Accept Vulnerability – speak the truth - Learn from successes as well as failures

To achieve real impact requires the community and its residents to be engaged and involved

Communities have an abundance of resources. The issue is that they have not been identified and engaged

All of our activities should be directed at increasing and not stifling community engagement

Place matters

Assumptions for Creating Community Change – Help Children, Youth and

Families Succeed It takes a wide variety of strategies and activities to

achieve community change – Policy Change, Service Enhancement & Resident Engagement

Accept Vulnerability – speak the truth - Learn from successes as well as failures

To achieve real impact requires the community and its residents to be engaged and involved

Communities have an abundance of resources. The issue is that they have not been identified and engaged

All of our activities should be directed at increasing and not stifling community engagement

Place matters

What “Engage the Community” Means

Not based on an opinion poll

Not organizing the community to care about your agenda

Identifying the individuals that already care about the issues and mobilizing their action

Assumptions for Creating Community Change – Help Children, Youth and

Families Succeed It takes a wide variety of strategies and activities to

achieve community change – Policy Change, Service Enhancement & Resident Engagement

Accept Vulnerability – speak the truth - Learn from successes as well as failures

To achieve real impact requires the community and its residents to be engaged and involved

Communities have an abundance of resources. The issue is that they have not been identified and engaged

All of our activities should be directed at increasing and not stifling community engagement

Place matters

Why Place Matters “To solve our social problems in our communities, the solution must be to build stronger communities not just stronger programs and services. We forget that people live in communities and that families, friends, neighbors, and faith communities have always been the front lines of how communities solve problems.” Paul Schmitz

Changes in Neighborhoods -- Examples• Vacant lots are cleaned up and outfitted

with safe and sturdy playground equipment

• Neighborhood-based businesses are flourishing

• Housing is safe and complies with local codes

• Decent-paying jobs are available in the neighborhood

• Residents take action if they see suspicious or illegal activity

Self

FamilyFriends

Neighbors

Associations

Organizations

Government

Circles of Care and Responsibilities

Faith Based

Helping Professionals

Source: “Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed”Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman, Michael Patton

Simple, Complicated and Complex Problems

Understand how complicated the problems are and the lives of those we serve

Introduction to ABCD – Definitions & Principles

Asset Based Community Development

It is the capacities of local people and their associations that build powerful communities.

What can we do with what we already have.

It starts with the simple truth, everyone has gifts

The belief that neighborhoods and communities are built by focusing on the strengths and capacities of the citizens and associations that call the community “home.”

A place-based approach focusing on the assets of an identified geographic area.

The belief that the assets of a community's institutions can be identified and mobilized to build community not just deliver services.

A range of approaches and tools, such as asset mapping, that can put these beliefs into practice.

What is ABCD?

Six Types of Assets Individual talents and skills Local associations Local institutions Land, property, and the

environment Economic strengths Culture and Stories

Effective Communities

Look inside first to solve problemsRelationships are seen as powerHave a good sense of assets and capacities, not just needsLeaders open doorsCitizens are involvedPeople take responsibility

The Three Acts of ABCD

How do you engage people to share their gifts?

Focus on the gifts of their Heart

The Roles of Residents in Building a Stronger

Community

“Unfortunately, many leaders and even some neighbors think that the idea of a strong local

community is sort of “nice,” a good thing if you have the spare time, but not really important, vital or necessary. However, we know strong communities are vital and productive. But, above all they are necessary because of the

inherent limitations of all institutions.”

Why Community Matters: The Limitations of Institutions

John McKnight, July 8, 2009

What Only Individuals Can Do:

Primary source of our health

Safety and security

The future of our earth – the environment

Build a resilient economy

Raise our children

Provide care

Determinants of a Healthy Community Personal Behaviors – what we eat, how much we

drink, whether we smoke, whether we exercise . . . Social Relationships – how much time we spend with

friends, family, community . . .

Physical Environment – where we live, the quality of the housing, streets, and parks, what’s in the air . . .

Economic Environment – availability of jobs, level of income of residents, commercial and retail opportunities . . .

Access to medical care – can we get help when we need it . . .

17

County Health Rankings

What Only Individuals Can Do: Primary source of our health

Safety and security

The future of our earth – the environment

Build a resilient economy

Raise our children

Provide care

Healthy communities Require both Care and Service

Place-based strategies unlock the power of care

The Path of Residents

People as recipients of

service

Rural Area in Upstate New York - Example

Population 5,041, scattered across three small towns and a large rural area

“Our Town Rocks” has helped our community move from a sense of “down on our luck” to a sense of hopefulness.” D. Anderson

“Grass roots, ground-breaking public health at its best.” H. Hoffman

Asset Mapping – Discover-Ask-Connect – From Mapping to

Mobilizing

Asset MappingExercise

1. Get Paper and Markers2. Pick a Neighborhood or Area3. Draw the area (key streets)4. Plot the Assets

Asset Mapping

Not just another list of resources It is:

A strategy to identify assets that are available from within the community

A process for connecting and engaging the community and using the talents of people to help solve problems and build a better community

Through asset mapping, community residents move from:

Needs Map: Community

Unemployment Housing Projects

Poverty

Uninsured

Illiteracy

Child Abuse

Truancy

Crime

Teen Mothers Gang Members

Mentally IllSchool

DropoutsHomeless

Delinquency

Addiction

Consequences of the Power of the Needs Map

Internalizations of the “deficiencies” identified by local residents

Destruction of social capital Reinforcement of narrow categorical

funding flows Direction of funds toward professional

helpers, not residents Focus on “leaders” who magnify

deficiencies Rewards failure, produces dependency Creates hopelessness

The Asset Map: Community

Gifts of Individuals

Citizens’ Associations

Local Institutions

Skills Youth

Artists Labeled People

Seniors

Churches Block Clubs

Cul

tura

l Gro

ups

Businesses Schools

Parks

LibrariesH

ospi

tals

Ath

letic

Gro

up

s

Consequences of Asset Mapping Shift in Power!!!

Inclusiveness – all people have gifts and talents

Relationship building

People, not programs build power in a community

Welcoming the stranger

Learning community atmosphere

Place based

Cooperative orientation

Asset Mapping Steps

Create a Resident Leadership Team Select the geographic area for action Draw first Asset Map Identify individual residents’ gifts and

passions Draw second Asset Map Connect people with the same passions

to act collectively Celebrate

Step 1: Create a Resident Leadership Team

Widen the circle Create leadership Look for people that have a passion for

their community Look for connectors Use associations to identify leaders Look for people with a passion for

meetings

Step 2: Select the geographic area for action

An Area the Resident Leadership Team calls home – they all live there

An Area they are willing to be responsible for

An Area large enough for critical mass…small enough to facilitate resident engagement

ChurchChurch

ChurchChurch

ChurchChurch

SchoolSchool

SchoolSchool

AgencyAgency

AgencyAgency

AgencyAgency

AgencyAgency

StoreStore

StoreStore

SNAP OfficeSNAP Office

Step 3: Draw first Neighborhood Asset Map

Where are assets of the

residents?

Where are assets of the

residents?

Step 4: Identify individual resident’s gifts and passions

Create Questionnaire Develop strategy to

interview residents Never interview someone

you do not know Do not just hand the

questionnaires out or use the internet

Conduct Porch Time - Learning Conversations

NEIGHBORS THAT CARE

Name:________________________________________________ Phone:________________________________________________ Address:______________________________________________ Email:________________________________________________ Occupation:____________________________________________

What are your gifts, skills, or abilities that you are willing to share? (Examples: child care, reading, computers, gardening, singing, listening, praying, cooking, teaching, caring for the sick, sewing, auto/home repair, construction, etc.)

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What do you care about? (Examples: children issues, family, environment, teenagers, seniors, teenage pregnancy rates, domestic violence issues, personal safety, education, widows/widowers)

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What associations do you belong to? (Example: church, organizations, support groups, women and men’s groups, etc.)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Who else do you know in the Neighborhood? Would you be willing to interview them? __________________________________________________________

Step 5: Map Resident Gifts and Passions

Get a map that will enable actual address mapping

Map individuals on the map – actual addresses

Map by passions, not gifts Group by passions

Group and Map by Passions

Colored Sticky Dots = Children and Youth

= Seniors

= Hunger

= Crime and Safety

ChurchChurch

ChurchChurch

ChurchChurch

SchoolSchool

SchoolSchool

AgencyAgency

AgencyAgency

AgencyAgency

AgencyAgency

StoreStore

StoreStore

SNAP OfficeSNAP Office

Asset Mapping – a Neighborhood The Action Map

ChurchChurch

ChurchChurch

ChurchChurch

SchoolSchool

SchoolSchool

AgencyAgency

AgencyAgency

AgencyAgency

AgencyAgency

StoreStore

StoreStore

SNAP OfficeSNAP Office

Step 6: Connect people with the same passions to act collectively

Step 7: Celebrate

Make it fun and take time to celebrate small successes.

THE NEW ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS – HOW INSTITUTIONS CAN USE ALL THEIR ASSETS TO BUILD STRONGER COMMUNITIES AND FAMILIES

Businesses

Government

Agencies

Building healthy communities requires agencies to. .

Change their thinking from Siloed Thinking to Holistic Approaches

From Starting with Needs

To Starting with Strengths

From Top-Down

To Community-Driven

INSTITUTIONS SHOULD LEAD BY STEPPING BACK TO CREATE SPACE FOR

CITIZEN AND COMMUNITY ACTION

The role of agencies and programs should not be to just provide services to meet client needs

The most effective role we can play is to work to remove barriers so that people have the opportunity to share their gifts and be a producer of their own and their community’s well-being

Today’s Human Service Role

Institutional Assets

More than an Institution’s Products or Services

“A neighborhood may not need an agency’s hours of counseling, what they need is the

agency’s copy machine or meeting room or their staff’s computer experience.”

“Ask the neighborhood what they need…do not just tell them what services you offer.”

“Never do anything that nobody wants”

Tools for Agencies - Leading By Stepping Back

Five Strategic Questions:1. What functions could community people perform by

themselves?

2. What functions can people achieve with some additional help from institutions?

3. What functions must institutions perform on their own?

4. What can we stop doing to create space for resident action?

5. What can we offer to the community beyond the services we deliver to support resident action?

The answers become the basis for community engagement strategy

development

What Can We Stop Doing

Exercise Think about the services your agency offers and make a list of the activities that you could stop doing…because people can do them themselves.

What can residents do by themselves for themselves? -- Examples

• Parents and other caregivers use everyday moments to encourage early learning

• Breastfeeding support group is started in the neighborhood

• Men in the neighborhood come together to tell their friends “Real Men do not hit their wives/girlfriends”

• Neighbors routinely clear snow and ice from steps and walks of elderly residents

• Friends don’t let friends drive drunk

What functions can people achieve with some additional help from institutions? -- Examples

• Businesses make time and space available for financial literacy seminars

• Service providers have staff and materials appropriate to clients’ language and culture

• Faith groups provide vans to transport low-income citizens to prenatal and immunization services

• Pizza parlors serve as drop-off sites for ongoing books-for-children program

• Civic groups work with 2-1-1 to develop year-long volunteer projects related to a pressing community issue

• Domestic violence agency provides training on safety planning to the local women’s quilting group

What do residents need done that they can’t do? -- Examples• The human services system engages all service

providers in connecting low-income families with services and supports to grow family assets

• Public, private, and nonprofit sectors join to develop a coordinated community crisis response system

• The juvenile court system helps prevent drop-outs by treating truancy as a serious offense

• The school board and dental association collaborate to operate dental clinics in schools

• Low-cost health clinics offer prenatal services to expectant mothers

• Domestic violence shelter provides a safe location for women fleeing an unsafe home.

Build Community Capacity: Offer leadership training Assist with outreach tools like translation Work with associations of all types Provide forums for networking Offer non-meeting options for engagement Share stories of successful communities Highlight community strengths Move beyond citizen participation to community

empowerment

First, Do No Harm:

Don’t distract the community from its own priorities.

Don’t force the community into the bureaucracy’s silos.

Don’t take people’s time without showing results.

Don’t make the community dependent. Never do for people what they can do for

themselves.

Assessing Your Organization What is your organization’s relationship to community residents?

How accountable is your organization to the people and community it serves?

How does your work foster communication and relationship-building among the people you serve and residents in your community?

How does your service define and engage constituents? What power do they have? Are they seen as resources and co-producers?

How does your service strengthen community relationships and social capital?

How are you identifying other assets/resources your organization has to offer to the community and the people you serve?

Resources for Organizations

Discovering Community Power: A Guide to Mobilizing Local Assets and Your Organization's Capacity

http://www.abcdinstitute.org/docs/kelloggabcd.pdf

Sample: Agency Assets Profile

Agency Assets Profile

A tool to illustrate partnerships that your organization already has with institutions or associations in your community and to think about new partnerships which mightbe useful to your organization.

10 LESSONS from Broadway United Methodist Church – Indianapolis, IN

1. Begin with what’s already there--and use it.

2. Involve yourself in what others are doing (not the other way around)

3. Stop doing what’s not working.

4. Act human.5. Go to the people seen as

broken and ask for their help.

10 LESSONS from Broadway United Methodist Church – (cont.)

6. Know that change is slow.7. There will be drama.

There is also forgiveness.8. Recognize that everyone

has the capacity to discover gifts and build community.

9. Celebrate constantly.10. INVITE, INVITE, INVITE!

Twelve Guiding Principles for Successful Place–Based Community Collective Impact

People, Places and Results Matter Everyone has gifts, something to contribute Relationships build a community A citizen centered organization is the key to community

engagement Leaders involve others as active members of the community Everyone cares about something What they care about is their motivation to act Listening conversations to Discover, Ask and Connect Asking questions rather than giving answers invites stronger

participation We need both care and service Institutions have reached their limits in problem-solving Institutions as servants

Lessons Learned from a Collective Impact Perspective

It can not be overstated that the long term success and sustainability of our work is dependent on strong active citizen involvement. The work of agencies and other institutions is to build strong communities through citizen involvement. It is the community’s work to solve problems.

We must develop and support effective citizen engagement and empowerment, helping all residents identify and share their “gifts”.

It is not just about money. It is not about funding, grants and allocations it is about strategically leveraging individual, neighborhood and community resources.

No one institution or group can solve today’s problems alone, we must all work together.

Bill Moyers Journal America Bracho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEqdNOo9SDY

ABCD Tools A  Community Building Principles and Action Steps Chart – A quick guide to the principles of ABCD community building and how to put the principles into action for greater impact.

B  The New Paradigm – A chart that explains the differences between a Needs Based approach and an Asset Based approach to solving problems.

C  Creating Space for Resident Action – A planning tool to help an organization begin to create space for increased resident engagement and action.

D  Three Questions for Effective Strategy Development – A tool to help guide your organization´s strategic planning to increase resident engagement.

E  Asset Mapping Eight Steps to Increase Resident Engagement — Tips on how to support ABCD based neighborhood organizing.

F  Porch Time – Learning Conversations, tips on how to connect and talk with neighborhood residents to identify their gifts and passions.

G  Tips for Working with Neighborhoods – A chart on the difference between how we work with institutions and how to work with neighborhoods.

H  Gifts Discovery Activity (short version) – The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate the wide variety of resources we have available to address an issue, beyond the services agencies offer.

I  Gifts Discovery Activity (long version) – This exercise is a powerful way to start a meeting and demonstrate the power of resources (gifts) in the room that are available to address the issue or issues identified for action.

www.hdanielsduncanconsulting.org

ABCD Toolkithttp://hdanielsduncanconsulting.org/

Resources - ABCDABCD Institute – Order Publicationshttp://www.abcdinstitute.org/

Online ABCD Communityhttp://abcdinaction.ning.com/

http://www.abundantcommunity.com/

H. Daniels DuncanFaculty Member

Asset Based Community Development Institute512.788.8646

dan@hddabcd.org

Asset Based Community Development

Thank You!