Asset-Based Community Development
Asset-based community development (ABCD) approaches address social determinants of health (SDOH) by drawing on the existing strengths of the people and resources instead of focusing on community deficits. ABCD highlights how relationships and associations between people make it possible to achieve goals to improve community well-being.
Identifying Rural Assets
ABCD acknowledges that every community has 5 important types of assets:
- Individuals who live in the community and their unique skills and contributions
- Associations or groups of people who come together around a common purpose
- Institutions, including businesses, schools, and other private or government entities
- Physical assets, including land, natural resources, and built environment
- Connections or relationships formed between individuals
Other rural-specific assets and strengths that can help address SDOH include:
- Civic and community engagement
- Rural culture and history, including a strong sense of resilience and pride
- The value of faith-based and educational institutions, especially land-grant institutions
- Entrepreneurism and local businesses
- Strength of social networks and relationships
- Natural resources
Programs that use ABCD approaches often undertake a process known as asset mapping to identify key strengths and organize them concretely onto a map. Asset maps can be a starting place for building asset-based programs that address opportunities for growth.
ABCD Approaches
One promising asset-based approach to bring about improvements to well-being and quality of life is known as appreciative inquiry. Appreciative inquiry focuses on identifying assets, strengths, and successes in people and organizations to bring about positive change while simultaneously identifying community needs. Appreciative inquiry involves 5 key steps:
- Define the issue and topic of focus
- Discover the strengths and assets in the community through discussions
- Dream about what the future could hold by thinking about past successes
- Design what the change should look like in the community
- Deliver the change so that it becomes an integral part of the community
In some rural communities, residents are leveraging assets such as local arts, history, and traditions to make changes to the social and economic environment. One innovative economic development approach is known as creative placemaking, which is the process of making social, physical, and economic changes in a community through arts and culture.
For more information about place-based economic development approaches, see the Economic Development section. For more information about strategies to identify rural community assets to improve the social and community context, see Identify Community Needs and Assets in the Rural Community Health Toolkit.
Examples of Rural Programs That Use Asset-Based Community Approaches
- Seneca Towns Engaging People for Solutions (STEPS) is a grassroots, neighborhood health status improvement program that used an ABCD approach to address 3 areas of focus in southern Seneca County in New York. The program focuses on improving the county's physical environment, increasing economic and educational opportunities for residents, and improving personal health and wellness. STEPS used asset mapping and community building strategies to identify community strengths that could be leveraged to address SDOH. Accomplishments of Seneca County residents that came out of STEPS included developing a community garden, hosting cooking classes to encourage healthy eating, free books for youth, and connecting residents to local volunteer opportunities.
- S.O.A.R (Strengthening Our Area Residents) is a project run by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Wayne County, New York, with funding from the Greater Rochester Health Foundation, that uses an ABCD approach. The project brings together residents, organizations, and local businesses to improve community health and well-being. The project involves community collaborations that identify and build upon the strengths and assets in the participating towns. Residents are building up the local economy by improving local attractions to drive up rates of tourism. In addition, the initiative is working to build walking trails, improve the food system and availability of healthy foods at farmers markets, and improve literacy by giving families free books for their children.
- Impact Lufkin is a community-driven organization in Lufkin, Texas that used appreciative inquiry strategies and participatory action research methods to engage the community in identifying strengths to address community challenges that impact SDOH. The appreciative inquiry strategy included community residents as key drivers of the research process, since these residents were most impacted by the findings. The goals of the project are sustainable community improvements driven by the community itself. The project began addressing some of the identified community needs and continued to empower residents to create a process of ongoing change and revitalization. Residents have built stronger relationships and connections, attended trainings and workshops on healthy eating, connected students with internships, and more.
- The Thrive Regional Partnership's Thriving Communities project guides community leaders in the greater Chattanooga region of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama through a program to identify community assets and enhance community development. The program uses creative placemaking and asset-based community approaches to develop ideas to drive change. The program also helps communities apply for foundation funding to support implementation of desired community changes.
- The Letcher County Culture Hub in Whitesburg, Kentucky received funding from the Kresge Foundation to broaden the influence of their community-based programs and network building to improve the economic vitality of the county. Letcher County Culture Hub is a network of partners working together to strengthen and build upon local assets to improve community capacity and wealth, using an emerging model referred to as community cultural and economic development (CCED). CCED focuses on using arts and culture to improve the community and to help residents identify community assets that can be used to build community wealth.
Implementation Considerations
The people who reside in rural areas are among the most important assets in rural communities; therefore, implementing asset-based community strategies should involve community members in every step of the process. Rural programs may need to ensure participation from community leaders who can encourage positive change, help identify assets, and commit to helping community members navigate the process over the long term. Representation from anchor institutions, organizations like colleges or hospitals that are deeply rooted in the community, may also be critical to help lead this process. In addition, asset mapping can be time- and resource-intensive. Those involved should be made aware of the time and commitment required to support these approaches.