S-L Activity

PHIL3000- Oct 4

Goals

• Learn more about a concept that is core to getting the most out of your S-L experience and a guiding principle of S-L at Northeastern.
• Develop new skills and strategies that will help you throughout your S-L experience.
• Challenge current ways of thinking and reflect on your previously held assumptions.

Group Work

• 20-25 minutes
• Read through description of a community and make recommendations for how to best support it
• Your task:
• You are a team of community members that have been asked to make recommendations to local funders that want to support your work. Use the facts given in your community summaries. What would make a difference in your community? Where and what should funders invest in to improve family and community life in your community? Please discuss. As a team, identify your top three recommendations and be specific in your recommendations.

Community A

This is a community that was forcibly removed from its land to make room for the growing industries of the nearby city. Despite being located only 3km from the city, the community has been largely ignored. On top of losing their ancestral land, this neglect has left deep psychological scars. There are no large employers (95% unemployment) so the population is in decline as more and more people have moved away to find work. This has left few formally educated people residing in the community and full economic dependency on the government. Fiscally, there is a large deficit and a limited operating budget, which is at a near-crisis point. There is no school, library, youth recreation program or community centre in the area and illiteracy rates are high. Health problems are also rampant and adequate housing is not being provided.

Community B

This is a community that is considered poor because unemployment rates are high. There are employment opportunities in farming and fisheries, but most families are economically dependent on the government. However, although a number of people who were educated in the adjacent city universities have left the community to find work elsewhere (law, financial institutions, construction etc.), they still consider this community their home and come back often. Indigenous forms of knowledge, inclusive governance, and principles of consensus, fairness and sustainability are widespread and very much promoted by the local Chief. There are many people in the community who are trying to maintain and revive their culture. They have started drumming and basket-weaving associations and engaged in activities to preserve the traditional language. The chief is viewed as a credible and visionary leader from both those within the community and those who have left. The proximity of the nearby city means that this community is becoming a popular tourist attraction and meeting place, and has a potential market for business enterprise.

Discussion

Asset Based Community Development

• Focuses on a community’s strengths, instead of its problems and needs
• Building capacity within a community in order to strengthen its assets
• Examples of community assets:
• Can be a person, such as the chief mentioned in Community B description or the group of people that started the drumming and basket weaving groups.
• Also could be a physical structure or place, such as a community center, school, hospital, library, etc.
• Our community partners are great examples of assets in the Mattapan and greater Boston areas

Reflection Questions

• Is the concept of ABCD new to you?
• What surprises you about this approach or challenges what you may have thought in the past?
• How would an asset based approach benefit you while working with your community partner?
• How could you apply an intersectional approach to ABCD and capacity building within a community?