“For the last 40 or 50 years, we have been looking
at communities in terms of their needs,” says
Professor John McKnight, co-director of the Asset
-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute.
“We have run into a brick wall with that approach.”
John McKnight and John Kretzmann pioneered
the ABCD approach to urban problems that begins by looking at the assets that exist in a community
rather than simply doing a stocktake of what is wrong -the traditional ‘needs analysis’.
To quote Cormac Rusell from Nurture Development. It is time to focus on what is “Strong not what is wrong”
We have created a service-consumer based world in which we look to ‘professionals’ and services (Like the council) to sort out or take care of, most aspects of our lives and have forgotten the extent to which our own personal and community capacities stretch.
As the financial resources of these institutions get stretch further, it is time to re-evaluate. Are you just going to sit back and complain when what you desire doesn’t occur? or are you prepared to stand up, get involved and utilise your own assets and power?
Let’s start by having a chat around these questions.
• What do care about enough to do something about?
• What would you like to contribute to the community?
• Who else do you know who might be willing to join in?
![](https://abcd-in-luton.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Helpers-Crossroads.jpg)
What is it that residents in communities are placed to do together? By Space
What is it that residents can do with some outside help? With Space
What is it that communities need outside agencies to do for them? For Space
We have included the Clean-up section on this website as a living example of our passion and where we are looking to make a difference, but that is our example,
what is yours?