H. daniels duncan consulting abcd and community partnerships 08 06 2013

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 Member
ABCD 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 - 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
conditions
Public
attitudes
Public sector
practices
Private 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
conditions
Public
attitudes
Public sector
practices
Private sector
practices
Neighborhood
conditions

Effective Collective Impact: Addresses More of the
Factors with New Approaches and Additional Partner
Community
Issue
Personal
choices
Family
characteristics
System
relationships
Educational
system practices
Health care
system practices
Media
messages
Historical
trends
Economic
conditions
Public
attitudes
Public sector
practices
Private 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.

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

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
Family
Friends
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

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 problems
Relationships are seen as power
Have a good sense of assets and capacities,
not just needs
Leaders open doors
Citizens are involved
People take responsibility

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

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 Mapping
Exercise
1. Get Paper and Markers
2. Pick a Neighborhood or Area
3. 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 Ill
School
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
CulturalGroups
Businesses Schools
Parks
LibrariesHospitals
AthleticGroups

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
Office
SNAP
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
Office
SNAP
Office
Asset Mapping – a Neighborhood The
Action Map

ChurchChurch
ChurchChurch
ChurchChurch
SchoolSchool
SchoolSchool
AgencyAgency
AgencyAgency
AgencyAgency
AgencyAgency
StoreStore
StoreStore
SNAP
Office
SNAP
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

A tool to illustrate
partnerships that your
organization already has
with institutions or
associations in your
community and to think
about new partnerships
which might
be 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 Toolkit
http://hdanielsduncanconsulting.org/
Resources - ABCD
ABCD Institute – Order Publications
http://www.abcdinstitute.org/
Online ABCD Community
http://abcdinaction.ning.com/
http://www.abundantcommunity.com/

H. Daniels Duncan
Faculty Member
Asset Based Community Development Institute
512.788.8646
dan@hddabcd.org
Thank You!

H. daniels duncan consulting abcd and community partnerships 08 06 2013

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