Asset-Based Strategies for Faith Communities

by Susan Rans and Hilary Altman (published by The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, 2002)

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Summary:

Successful community development is asset based, internally focused, and relationship driven.  These principles are the driving force behind Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). In this workbook, Susan Rans and Hilary Altman seek to encourage congregations in their community-development efforts by giving examples of faith-based organizations that have successfully utilized ABCD principles to revitalize their local communities.

The first part of the workbook is divided into five sections: Discovering the Gifts of Individuals; Expanding Assets; Changing Institutions; and Institutional Change Supports Community Change. Each section shows how a different group successfully identified and mobilized its assets to strengthen its local community.

In the second part of the workbook, Rans and Altman draw the connection between the stories told and the five elements of a healthy functioning community: the skills and talents of local people; the web of local voluntary associations; the strengths of local institutions-public, private and nonprofit; the available land and physical property; and the local economy.

Why  does FASTEN recommend this resource?

The seminal ABCD book, Building Communities from the Inside Out, revolutionized the field of community development. This workbook is helpful because it takes the principles of asset-based community development and applies them specifically to communities of faith.