Text from Steans Center

Most communities address social and economic problems with only a small amount of their total capacity. Much of the community capacity is not used and is needed! This is the challenge and opportunity of community engagement. Everyone in a community has something to offer. There is no one we don’t need.

• Everyone Has Gifts with rare exception; people can contribute and want to contribute. Gifts must be discovered.
• Relationships Build a Community see them, make them, and utilize them. An intentional effort to build and nourish relationships is the core of ABCD and of all community building.
• Citizens at the Center: It is essential to engage the wider community as actors (citizens) not just as recipients of services (clients).
• Leaders Involve Others as Active Members of the Community: Leaders from the wider community of voluntary associations, congregations, neighborhoods, and local business, can engage others from their sector. This “following” is based on trust, influence, and relationship.
• People Care About Something: Agencies and neighborhood groups often complain about apathy. Apathy is a sign of bad listening. People in communities are motivated to act. The challenge is to discover what their motivation is.
• Motivation to Act must be identified. People act on certain themes they feel strongly about, such as; concerns to address, dreams to realize, and personal talents to contribute. Every community is filled with invisible “motivation for action”. Listen for it.
• Listening Conversation: One-on-one dialogue or small group conversations are ways of discovering motivation and invite participation. Forms, surveys and asset maps can be useful to guide intentional listening and relationship building.
• Ask, Ask, Ask: Asking and inviting are key community-building actions. “Join us. We need you.” This is the song of community.
• Asking Questions Rather Than Giving Answers Invites Stronger Participation: People in communities are usually asked to follow outside expert’s answers for their community problems. A more powerful way to engage people is to invite communities to address
  ‘questions’ and finding their own answer– with agencies following up to help.
• A Citizen-Centered “Inside-Out” Organization is the Key to Community Engagement: A “citizen-centered” organization is one where local people control the organization and set the organization’s agenda.
• Institutions Have Reached Their Limits in Problem-Solving: All institutions such as government, non-profits, and businesses are stretched thin in their ability to solve community problems. They cannot be successful without engaging the rest of the community in solutions.
• Institutions as Servants: People are better than programs in engaging the wider community. Leaders in institutions have an essential role in community-building as they lead by “stepping back,” creating opportunities for citizenship, care, and real democracy.

Group Discussion Questions:

• In VIA, we say that our community partners are our co-educators. When have you learned from and/or been served by somebody you set out to serve?
• One of the five Vincentian virtues is humility. How do you see this at work when we enter into our service communities
• Looking at the Asset-Based Community Development principles, which guideline resonates with you and why? Do any of them challenge you?
• How will you prepare your VIA participants to enter into communities?