Goodness gracious me oh my, do we have a few episodes in store for you! Today, we are releasing the first episode of a three-episode series in which hosts Adam and Matt sit down with, quite literally, the founder of asset-based community development, John McKnight.
Goodness gracious me oh my, do we have a few episodes in store for you! Today, we are releasing the first episode of a three-episode series in which hosts Adam and Matt sit down with, quite literally, the founder of asset-based community development, John McKnight.
John began community organizing when he was in his early twenties, and since then, he has done everything from training Barack Obama in community organizing to developing an entirely new model of community development. This model that he developed is of course asset-based community development, or ABCD, and we, the Neighboring Movement, consider ourselves asset-based community developers. That being said, John has always been a hero of ours, and over the years, we have followed his work closely and been deeply inspired and influenced by his practices. He is incredibly kind, absolutely brilliant, and a gifted teacher who always tells the perfect story in order to illustrate a point. We are so very honored that John was willing to sit down on the front porch with us, and we are so excited to share these next three episodes with you all!
In this first episode, John introduces what ABCD is, talks about what asset-based community developers seek to do, and explains how ABCD differs from needs-based approaches. He then details the first two of the five categories of assets that all communities possess. We hope you enjoy this episode, and don't forget to tune in next Tuesday for Part 2!
If you would like to learn more about John and his work, please check out the following resources: