Increasingly commentators are becoming aware that the very basis of many regeneration schemes- an emphasis on all the things that an area and its residents LACK - has a negative impact on the morale of intended beneficiaries. Carnegie UK Trust believes that positive approaches to regeneration are very much the way forward - building on what you've got! In this respect we have much to learn from other countries, where asset building approaches are common. Carnegie UK Trust has asked International Association For Community Development to seek out inspiring case studies from around the world. As Carnegie UK Trust embarks upon the next exciting stage of its Rural Programme, we will be joining forces with many of the international organisations featured here to exchange ideas and 'fast-track' our own understanding of these approaches to regeneration.
The International Association for Community Development (IACD) has been working with the Carnegie UK Trust, initially as a grantee and later as a partner on the Rural Action Research Project. Our role has been as an international link to people with experience in the field of ABCD and related approaches.
Our work involves the gathering of international experience of positive approaches to community development such as ‘capability’, ‘livelihood’, ‘asset–based and strengths-based community development’. We share these findings with RARP partners and networks in the rural UK and Irish context and are happy that they are now available to download here.
We identified these case studies through an extensive literature and web search as well as through the global networks we are fortunate to access as an organisation. We short-listed examples to take into consideration a range of subject areas, geographical regions as well as covering large and small scale work. The cases predominately cover rural areas but we included some urban ones because many of the skills and approaches needed in this work are relevant in both urban and rural areas.
Many of the project workers we spoke to told us that they believe that these approaches are at the heart of energised and effective community development and although some people operate under a clear banner others were not necessarily wedded to a particular ‘asset’ label.
We have also included here a number of tools and resources that our international colleagues have developed but which may be adapted for use in the UK and Ireland. More may be found in the literature review which can be downloaded here.
Finally we are still in conversation with many inspiring people and projects so we will add to this resource over the coming year. Feel free to contact us if you know of an inspiring project with a positive approach to community development that you would like to see included here: Tara O'Leary, Development Officer info@iacdglobal.org