This is a new string following up the second point in Sara Prichett's note under "A CBSM approach to flytipping" regarding needing a community development models to merge with FSB in low-income areas. I've attended two workshops in the last six months that have totally changed the way I think about sustainable development, community organizing, environmental advocacy, etc., which I have been doing for over 35 years as a professional or volunteer. One was Doug's workshop on Fostering Sustainable Behavior; and the other was a workshop by John McKnight on Asset Based Community Development. He and John Kretzmann developed this methodology and the ABCD Institute affiliated with Northwestern University in Evanston, IL USA. They studied over 3,000 stories of effective community initiatives and summarized what made the projects effective and then defined what made communities vibrant and successful. They have a wealth of information on their web site, www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd.html and a wonderful workbook called "Building Communities from the Inside Out -- A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets." Past models of development focused on identifying the problems, deficiencies, and needs of communities and bringing in outside experts and resources to solve them. The ABCD model focuses on identifying the assets and capabilities of communities and using them to "develop communities from the inside out." It's a very powerful shift from citizens being passive victims of their own circumstances to citizens taking charge of their own destinies, defining what they want that to be, and then taking steps to create the future they envision.
I'm really interested in combining ABCD and FSB principles/tools to help my region become as self-reliant and sustainable as possible to deal with the changes coming when we're not going to be able to bring in things from all over the world to meet our needs because of increasing costs and shortages of petroleum. ABCD and FSB principles/tools will be incredibly important to the whole concept of relocalization of our economies to deal with the coming realities. I totally agree with Sara that we need to merge FSB with community development models and think ABCD is a good one to go with. I'd really encourage Doug and those of you who are more familiar with FSB to consider this. We don't want to just change people's behavior, we want to build/create sustainable societies. These things are so intertwined. Since I'm just learning about FSB, I apologize in advance if I've I'm wrong in my thinking that FSB and sustainable community development are very different things.
Asset Based Community Development - A Community Development Model That Could Be Merged with FSB to Create Sustainable Communities
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Folks,
I'm only sporadically able to read this wonderful list but must say hello now based on the discussion of asset-based community development. It is a very good complement to CBSM and is in use that way in a number of situations I'm aware of. Global Community Initiatives and the Natural Capitalism Group have put together an economic development manual called LASER which can be viewed on the GCI website, www.global-community.org. This is an outgrowth of a very powerful initiative in Burlington, Vermont called the Legacy Project, which is being emulated in places as diverse as Calgary, Canada and Newburgh, New York and in informal settlements in South Africa. It is not only asset-based but very systems-oriented, working with industry clustering, import replacement & other economic systems strategies, as well as with a very spirited approach to engaging stakeholders in community economic planning...
The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (www.livingeconomies.org) helps small, locally owned business groups engage their communities in greener practices, living wage initiatives, "local first" campaigns and other initiatives to promote sustainable communities, with implicit and sometimes explicit use of CBSM. The Bellingham, Washington node in this network, Sustainable Connections, is very advanced in using CBSM - they have a 10 minute DVD available showcasing their work.
I would love to know who out there is playing with this and how to be directly in touch.
Warm regards,
Melissa Everett
Executive Director
Sustainable Hudson Valley
And adjunct associate professor,
Rensselaer PO Box 4112
Kingston, NY 12401
845-331-2670
www.sustainhv.org
Hi Colleagues.
Greetings from Australia...can anyone point me in the direction of a simple but effective set of protocols for community consultations.
Cheers
Bob Crawshaw
Maine Street Marketing
0401 063 387
www.mainestreet.com.au
Member of: Australian Marketing Institute
International Association of Business Communicators
Public Relations Institute of Australia
Public Relations Society of America
Hi Bob
The National Protocol for Community Consultation on Scheduled Waste was developed in the mid-1990s to establish a set of guiding principles for conducting a public consultation process during the development of management plans for Australia's scheduled wastes (PCBs, industrial hexachlorobenzene waste, and organochlorine pesticides). The public involvement programs conducted as part of the process for developing each management plan were effective in gaining broad acceptance of these plans and the support of key stakeholder groups. The protocol is on the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage's website at http://www.deh.gov.au/settlements/publications/chemicals/scheduled-waste /community-consultation.html#appendixa
There it is appended to a booklet prepared by those who conducted the public involvement programs, documenting their processes and experiences. The booklet itself is at http://www.deh.gov.au/settlements/publications/chemicals/scheduled-waste /community-consultation.html.
Cheers
Andrew Chalklen
Department of the Environment and Heritage
Nancy, Sara and all,
In the context of asset-based community development (ABCD) and sustainability, you might want to check out the Noisette Community Master Plan for the Noisette area of North Charleston, South Carolina, USA. The web address is _www.noisettesc.com_ (http://www.noisettesc.com/) . The master plan has gotten international attention, won an excellence award from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2005 and invokes the themes that you cite.
Best,
Leanne Tobias
Principal
Malachite LLC
301. 229-1558 (direct)
202. 257-7254 (mobile)
[email protected]_
(http://[email protected]/)
[email protected]_
(http://[email protected]/)
_www.malachitellc.com_
(http://www.malachitellc.com/)