YOI 2005

What is meant by ABCD Model?

Asset Based Community Development means that every community and all its members have their special gifts (assets). These gifts can be divided into "gifts of the head" (for instance previous experience, certain skills, knowledge)," gifts of the heart" (enthusiasm, passion, certain talents like singing..) and gifts of the "hands" (painting, decorating, repairing..). It means that every member can contribute the community. Our task as community leaders is to communicate with them (not about them), to find out how to invite them in and to discover their gifts so that everybody feels as a constructive part of the community.

What are the main questions about designing a project?

First we have to know who or what are our assets. Then we have to identify their motivation to act. It can be personal gain or community gain.

Next step is to determine a good organizing issue.
Here are some characteristics of a good organized project:
-organization structure should be flexible,
-project has a coordinator, not a director,
-teamwork important, delegation and division of work, right people on right places,
-established goals that need to be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time based)
-project should be time framed
-it should have a financial/ budget plan
-process of the project must be monitored and evaluated whole the time

There are several different roles in the project organization: members, leader, organizer and supporters.
Members do the day-today work (mostly volunteers). Supporters do not do the work; they are partners, allies, sponsors (officials, enterprises…). Leaders are the ones who have followers, listen to them, motivate and know others motivation, share knowledge, analyse, evaluate, deals with conflicts, negotiates with related parties and other. Organizers, on the other hand, deal more with technical matters. They find out about the members, they have the big picture and give feedback to the leader, worry about the “health” of the organization and monitor the members’ interaction and they also create space for action.

What is the difference between clients and citizens?

Citizens
-define the problems themselves
-solve and prevent problems themselves (given “the net”)
-need other community members- interrelationship and interdependency
-homogenous group
-have real needs
-no vertical hierarchy
-continuous cooperation

Clients
-often do not realize the problem –expect definitions (given “ the fish”)
-dependant on our solutions
-isolated - different clients not interconnected
-needs often fictional (market conditions: supply/demand)
-control and vertical hierarchy
-no cooperation after the job is done
-the role of professionals and institutions comes after the organization’s role

Who are strangers and how can we attract them in the organization?

Strangers are the people left out of the organization (not the same as volunteers since they do participate). In order to avoid having strangers in our community we should give sustained welcome, engage new members, find them a place where they could be active. The best way to do that is to communicate on different levels. Metaphorically speaking we do not have to try to make one big table for everybody to join, but have many different tables. These tables can be various public spheres that have different interests, tools, strategies and approaches but can form an alliance in order to achieve mutual goal (for instance fight against radical right wing). Anybody can join the table that suits them and communicate with the others. Once an agreement is reached it is further communicated with the other tables in order to reach a higher agreement. In this way no one is left out and not given a chance to speak out, give contribution and feel useful.