Assets - A community development framework:

Unlike the direct service response which responds exclusively to individual and collective needs, A community development approach looks to a persons  or a communities capacities, it’s potential, it’s latent skills and strengths as well as it’s needs. 

Traditional welfare-based approaches to poverty alleviation and marginalization have tended to focus on the deficits of those living in poverty or in the margins, identifying what people are lacking and then “fixing” those gaps . While social and personal assistance and other forms of assistance are indispensable to ensure the stabilization and well-being of people and their families, the systems and structures attached to this approach can promote dependency, isolation, hopelessness and social

withdrawal and  undermine any foundation for self-sufficiency, inter-dependency and active participation in society. As the social safety net weakens, it becomes even more important for organizations with community development strategies to promote the development of sustainable lives and communities.

Assets

Assets are the basic building blocks that support people and communities to make changes in their lives.
These assets are: social, financial, human, personal, and physical.
People need to work on a range of assets in order to achieve their objectives. While in reality all assets are complex and interconnected, they have been identified as  distinct categories so that people’s strengths, challenges and barriers can be better analyzed and understood.

The process and timing of transformative processes can be distinct and complex.  Personal and group journeys depend on the context of the lives of our diverse constituencies. It is in the better understanding and the dialogue within and across programs and other partnerships internally and externally that illuminate our ways forward.

The danger of these times is not having the correct answers, the danger is we no longer ask the right questions because the answers are felt to be illusive, numerous and challenging.

Social Assets

People are social and political by nature, these assets refer to the connections that people can draw upon to achieve their goals. As such, they are highly important in determining people’s ability to transform their context and to influence factors that make them and their families vulnerable. By building a foundation of networks and contacts, people find that they have enhanced their support systems, making it easier for them to develop other assets.

Financial Assets

Financial assets including earnings, money and financial security are probably the most tangible of all assets.  They play a critical role in determining personal security and form an important entry-point for transformation and development. The ability to acquire money and decide how it should be spent provides a powerful means of reversing the downward spiral into poverty and building a wide range of assets.

Human Assets

Human assets represent people’s ability to influence their own connection to labour and wages but also the ability to draw on the skills and labour of the household and the community for support.  This are the skills of interaction with others that facilitate mutual gain.

Personal Assets

Personal assets, such as self-confidence and self-esteem, are less tangible, related to values and self-perceptions, but they exert a strong influence on motivation and courage – the core from which comes personal transformation. People often remind us that they need to be true to their own values and priorities. Yet people may also have to reexamine the way they see themselves and the world, in order to prepare for personal change. The complexity of this task can often be overwhelming and paralyzing, as people may find themselves held back by negative self-images and by fear of success. Personal change needs to happen slowly and incrementally, and the process is not linear.

Physical Assets

Physical assets include the basic equipment, information, services and infrastructure required to build a life. Lack of access to these assets is a core dimension of poverty. It is difficult to begin to work with people who have not first made solid progress in ensuring that their household’s basic human needs (shelter, security and food) are met.

Building assets requires a long-term, holistic approach in order to be most effective. Families must have satisfied some basic needs before the process can begin. For example, participation in an training program is near impossible if you don’t have housing. We know that the process of transformation is not linear. The many setbacks and leaps forward during the transition to self-sufficiency and mutual dependency can make people feel unstable and vulnerable to losing their investments at any time.

Our direct involvement with people to support them in achieving their aspirations is often not enough. We have to examine environments to understand the broader forces at work that both strengthen and undermine their ability to build their lives. Only then can we begin to identify strategies for long-term change. The range of external factors and forces that directly or indirectly, positively or negatively, shapes every-one’s environment.

People’s lives and livelihoods are often fragile as a result of their immersion in the management of their households and care of their families. Low-income and marginalized people have fewer assets to cope with external stresses and may be less able to influence their environment to reduce those stresses.

These factors have been grouped as follows

• Cycles and Patterns are long-established repeating patterns connected to the changing life stages, the choices,  roles and responsibilities in the family, their relationships and seasonality.

• Trends are broader social, economic and political forces and changes that emerge over time. They can have serious impacts on a family’s security.

• Systems are the formal and informal ways that society functions, including the built-in biases and forms of discrimination, that can enhance or reduce opportunities.

• Shocks are sudden or catastrophic occurrences that can destroy assets directly and can also force people to draw on their asset reserves. Shocks can be random events such as a fires or floods, but they can also be the culmination of negative effects in cycles, trends and systems. For example, the shock of divorce is the culmination of negative relationship patterns.