What is Asset Based Community Development?
Ever heard of Asset Based Community Development? It's a movement started by John McNight in the early '90s that has spread to most major cities in America, and is spreading throughout rural communities too. If the name John McKnight sounds familiar to you, that's because he is the Northwestern University professor who wrote the only letter of recommendation to Harvard on Barack Obama's behalf. ABCD literature, typical of progressive propaganda, is often circuitous and vague. From the ABCD Institute website:
We are currently involved in four broad types of community building work:
- Building community capacity is at the heart of ABCD’s work. ABCD engages directly with community groups to support their asset-based community development efforts. The Institute and its affiliated faculty also participate in an array of local, regional, and international conferences and workshops as keynote speakers, workshop and training facilitators, technical support providers, and learning participants.
- Using a community-based participatory research approach, ABCD partners with community residents and other local entities to conduct research that helps prepare them to achieve their own community building objectives. ABCD also works with community groups, non-profits, and an array of other institutions to evaluate asset-based community development projects.
- Working directly with students, Northwestern faculty, and other organizations, ABCD contributes to the development of the next generation of engaged civic leaders and community builders.
- Producing community building publications and other resources for practitioners and scholars in the community development field, ABCD contributes to a growing body of knowledge about the effectiveness of the asset-based approach to strengthening communities.
ABCD trains communities to accept top-down social engineering from elected officials. I know this because I served on an ABCD derived board called the Riverside Neighborhood Partnership, about which I promise more postings in the future.
Why is this important? Because municipalities are the petri dishes from which future state and federal politicians are grown.
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Jan '11
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Gus Marvinson:
ABCD trains communities to accept top-down social engineering from elected officials.
Thanks for the translation. The website statement reads as if it came from a Dilbert-powered sentence generator.
Tell us more?
Mar '11
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Margaret Ball
Gus Marvinson:
ABCD trains communities to accept top-down social engineering from elected officials.
Thanks for the translation. The website statement reads as if it came from a Dilbert-powered sentence generator.
Tell us more? · Mar 20 at 10:47am
Many of these ABCD branches define success as receiving community development block grants. (See the Denver Foundation as an example given on the ABCD site.) CDBGs are given to communities in which more than 50% of the residents are low to low-middle income families. Wouldn't a better measure of success be to make sure that communities prosper to the point that they no longer qualify for CBGB? Instead, they are building dependency.
Here in Riverside the ABCD inspired Riverside Neighborhood Partnership promotes progressive "action plans" like the current, and blatantly progressive "Seizing Our Destiny" program.
That's a lot of info, I know, but it's important. Google ABCD and the city you live in.
Oct '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
This is harmless localism. It sounds more neoliberal then progressive, to be honest. The neoliberals have gone a bit left in recent years (except for our own MIckey Klaus) but they aren't really in the same league as progressives (think Mitt Romney versus Nanci Pelosi).
We should get Mr. Klaus to comment, see what he thinks. Maybe I'm misreading this.
Localism is not really a partisan thing--you can have conservative neighborhood associations and community development boards just as easily as progressive ones. Community investment doesn't always take care of itself (think Detroit) because of post-WWII flaws in our financial system, nor do economic adjustments always go smoothly. In such circumstances, you should expect the citizens to work together to solve economic problems.
Edited on Mar 20, 2011 at 3:02pmOct '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Gus Marvinson
Many of these ABCD branches define success as receiving community development block grants. (See the Denver Foundation as an example given on the ABCD site.) CDBGs are given to communities in which more than 50% of the residents are low to low-middle income families. Wouldn't a better measure of success be to make sure that communities prosper to the point that they no longer qualify for CBGB? Instead, they are building dependency.
It depends on the community. In general, low-income communities suffer from "balance of payments" problems (essentially, their consumption isn't funded by their own income, it's funded either by tax transfers or debt buildup). Block grants will simply exacerbate the imbalance, and feed the dependency you speak of (this also happens with foreign aid).
On the other hand, if lower-middle-income communities use the money for infrastructure improvements, they can help attract new business investment, leading to a net economic gain.
I dislike this as much as anyone else. Unfortunately, our monetary system can't work without it (e.g. the Eurozone), not unless we return to the flexible structure of the 19th century (I don't mean the gold standard).
Oct '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
I ran out of space there. Anyway, banks used to be much more efficient in the 1800s--loans were limited by trade and capital flows, not accounting, so the savings of each community were always invested (regardless of whether the residents could afford bank accounts or simply hoarded cash).
This system did a better job of smoothing out economic imbalances. Nowadays, imbalances are leveled by tax transfers--the Eurozone is falling apart from not having them--which works in developed nations but not in developing ones (or some poor regions in developed countries).
(I'm not talking about the gold standard here, that's a separate issue).
Mar '11
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Joeseph Eager: "Localism is not really a partisan thing--you can have conservative neighborhood associations and community development boards just as easily as progressive ones."
Joeseph, I would love to see an example of a conservative community development board that sprang out of the ABCD movement. Besides, "localism," as you put it, is a very partisan thing. Anyone who rolls their eyes at local politics, deeming it unimportant or inconsequential, is fooling themselves.
Are local politics as sexy to the masses as state and national food fights? No. But that's no excuse for dismissal. If conservative ideas work for the nation and the states, there is no reason to dismiss them for counties and municipalities. Promoting conservative values locally should be non-negotiable to the conservative thinker.
Let me rephrase this for you. ABCD is "community organizing." It is where our current president came from. There will be more like him.
Jun '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
"The Institute and its affiliated faculty also participate in an array of local, regional, and international conferences and workshops as keynote speakers, workshop and training facilitators, technical support providers, and learning participants".
Any group that touts itself as participating in workshops "as keynote speakers, workshop and training facilitators, technical support providers, and learning participants" should be avoided at all costs. This is the definition of a liberal echo chamber (in other words, a propaganda machine).
Note that they provide both the teachers and students. The "workshop and training facilitators and technical support providers" are the goons who make sure no one has an original thought or raises a serious objection.
Sounds boring doesn't it. But remember, Trotsky (the charismatic one) lost out to Stalin because Stalin captured the bureaucracy. Isn't that what ABCD is trying to do?
Edited on Mar 21, 2011 at 2:00pmJun '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
The challenge (I'm staying away from the word problem) is scalability. Not only do you have to scale your finding from local to state/province (Canada) and then to federal, but the issues don't lend themselves to scaling because the responsibilities of the various governments change. For example local governments provide sewer and water state and federal governments do not. As you go up the governmental food chain the politician/administrator becomes more isolated from the constituent pounding his fist on the counter. In effect you move from real to more ideological issues. This fact alone is enough to destroy not only the perception but the fact of scalability.
Edited on Mar 21, 2011 at 2:00pmJul '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Nothing new here. Just more leftist academics agitating the po' folks in order to shake the Federal money tree. Tom Wolfe wrote all about it in Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers.
Edited on Mar 21, 2011 at 2:58pmRe: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Interesting post. The words "Asset Based Community Development" were cetainly in my head, but I admit that I never knew anything about it.
Give me a quick study - what's the "asset" in Asset Based Community Development?
Edited on Mar 21, 2011 at 2:40pmDec '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
One disturbing trend that has come out of these types of boards, is the offloading of infrastructure development cost onto property owners.
Before the big crash forced me to once again become self employed, I worked in commercial construction management and civil engineering.
You would not believe the big ticket items foisted upon the property owners in the name of the public good.
In one small town (run by retired managers of a big city elsewhere), we got to build almost two miles of city street and county road for the privilege of building a shopping center in their town. The only reason those streets were "necessary" was because the mayor and the city engineer wanted them built but didn't want to pay for them.
Most all of these development boards quickly devolve into city sanctioned extortion rackets.
They (and HOA's and the like) are the reason that I currently (and hope to always) live out here in BFE.
If I want to build a barn or a house or whatever, I don't need to ask anyone for permission to do anything on my own ground.
Try that in a city with an ABCD board some time.
Dec '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Isn't it funny that these days when I hear the word "community" it only brings to mind a bunch of non-taxpaying freeloaders that are looking for more suckers to pay their way.
Jul '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Tommy De Seno: ...what's the "asset" in Asset Based Community Development? · Mar 21 at 2:39pm
Edited on Mar 21 at 02:40 pm
Your wallet.
Aug '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
After reading some of those comments and rushing towards the comments box I was fortunately stopped by the two word answer. I thought I smelled my wallet. CBDG is going to stand for something else next week, perhaps Cee Big Dollars Gone !
Dec '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
I have worked on CDBG programs and, I am not a fan. They describe them as a goal.
Localism is important; I try to be as involved as I can, but the hard reality is that the people that have the most time to spend on school boards and in local government, tend to be of the liberal bent. There simply isn't enough time for people with an entrepreneurial bent to spend on local government issues. Their (our) minds are otherwise occupied. I tend to have a knee-jerk repulsion to anything that is couched in the language that the ABCD uses. People like that are dreamy-eyed and avaricious.
Here's just one example of a Localism issue I must vet, even though I am sympathetic to the folks that wrote this. I would have to put many hours into strippping away biases and getting down to the crux of the issue. In this context, I don't care even a tiny bit about anything written or spoken by the people from ABCD. They are not serious people and should have any access to our "assets" cut off, until we manage to get the bigger issues under control.
Oct '10
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Gus Marvinson: Joeseph Eager: "Localism is not really a partisan thing--you can have conservative neighborhood associations and community development boards just as easily as progressive ones."
Joeseph, I would love to see an example of a conservative community development board that sprang out of the ABCD movement. Besides, "localism," as you put it, is a very partisan thing. Anyone who rolls their eyes at local politics, deeming it unimportant or inconsequential, is fooling themselves.
Are local politics as sexy to the masses as state and national food fights? No. But that's no excuse for dismissal. If conservative ideas work for the nation and the states, there is no reason to dismiss them for counties and municipalities. Promoting conservative values locally should be non-negotiable to the conservative thinker.
Let me rephrase this for you. ABCD is "community organizing." It is where our current president came from. There will be more like him. · Mar 21 at 12:16pm
I didn't mean to imply conservative localism emanates from ABCD. They are, however, similar institutions (just like Republican and Democrat controlled state legislatures are similar institutions, I suppose).
Mar '11
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Kenneth: Nothing new here. Just more leftist academics agitating the po' folks in order to shake the Federal money tree. Tom Wolfe wrote all about it in Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers. · Mar 21 at 2:35pm
Edited on Mar 21 at 02:58 pm
Indeed Kenneth, "There is nothing new under the sun." The left are a persistent bunch.
Mar '11
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
CoolHand
One disturbing trend that has come out of these types of boards, is the offloading of infrastructure development cost onto property owners.
The Riverside Neighborhood Partnership is used by the city to promote its Redevelopment Agency projects. (Redevelopment agencies--there's another infuriating topic.) The RNP is a de facto public relations arm for the redevelopment agency.
Edited on Mar 21, 2011 at 5:27pmMar '11
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Tommy De Seno: Interesting post. The words "Asset Based Community Development" were cetainly in my head, but I admit that I never knew anything about it.
Give me a quick study - what's the "asset" in Asset Based Community Development? · Mar 21 at 2:39pm
Edited on Mar 21 at 02:40 pm
The "asset" is ostensibly the untapped/ill-used abilities and property of the individual. McKnight's original writings on the subject suggested that troubled communities could be more or less self-sufficient by "trading" their talents and property (assets) without resorting to competitive, free market trading.
Re: What is Asset Based Community Development?
Gus Marvinson
Tommy De Seno: Interesting post. The words "Asset Based Community Development" were cetainly in my head, but I admit that I never knew anything about it.
Give me a quick study - what's the "asset" in Asset Based Community Development? · Mar 21 at 2:39pm
Edited on Mar 21 at 02:40 pm
The "asset" is ostensibly the untapped/ill-used abilities and property of the individual. McKnight's original writings on the subject suggested that troubled communities could be more or less self-sufficient by "trading" their talents and property (assets) without resorting to competitive, free market trading. · Mar 21 at 5:41pm
If the bartering is voluntary and not compelled, how is that partisan and why would I be against it?