CR #6 Building From the Inside Out

What?

Asset-based community development (ABCD) is a strategy used to help people further develop within their own communities. In doing so they turn to resources or assets that already exist. The strategy focuses heavily on people’s interpersonal connections and relationships which often opens the door to even more opportunities. ABCD helps build community relationships and other life skills from the inside out. Mathie and Cunningham write that while some communities thrive off of technological advancements, others still continue to struggle. As opposed to ABCD, CED or community economic development puts more emphasis on theoretical contributions and less on the actual community. CED is another strategy that strives to develop economic activities and programs that help low income communities. Some examples of this are affordable housing or small businesses (Clay & Jones, 2009). The two strategies differ from each other in the way they go about helping the community. Resources that CED uses are helpful but do not motivate the community in the same way to be self starters and help each other grow.

So what?

Thinking about social capital and how its more about who than what you know, the mothers at Young Moms Marin really benefit from having their coordinator to talk to and help them. She also has connections through her husband to the school system and is able to reach more people to be able to help. Aside from that, the coordinator also has a job that she does during the day which seems like it has some sort of a public health background. Also seeing that the moms come from all different areas of Marin, they might know different people or resources that have helped them through their rough patches in motherhood. Marin is also very progressive in its resources and they have things like food pantries and clinics that are easily accessible. The food bank in the canal not only has food, but health screenings and nutrition education as well. This could be a great resource for struggling young mothers. Marin city is also a close knit community that pulls together to help each other out. Sometimes they have community events that open the door to other resources in the community.

Now What?

One of the first things I learned is that if you want to help people you have to know for sure where and what they need help with and assuming that you know what’s wrong can do more damage than good. So in order to find out what people are struggling with, I would actually want to go into those communities and talk to them. I would want to ask them what they struggle with the most in their daily life and if they feel that others share the same struggles. I would also ask them what, in relation to that struggle, it would look like to have one day free of worry. The first place I think to turn to for help in the community is health and human services because I know they have many different moving parts that do different things for the community and they are eager to help.