Comment by Sadie Rosenthal on July 7, 2010 at 5:17pm

Hi Aaron - I have some sense that this is out there, but not much in a concrete way - would you give a concrete example or two (real or just for example) of how it could be working really well in a community? Thanks, Sadie

Comment by Aaron Spiegel on July 7, 2010 at 5:32pm

Sadie - did you watch the video? This church sent out their roving listener to find out what assets existed in their community. It turns out that quite a few folks in the neighborhood loved gardening but none knew one another. The church was able to connect them into a cooperative that now runs a community garden.

This doesn't have to be in a physical neighborhood. A synagogue could pool the assets of its members to create something like a social service based on the talents of the members. The trick is asking the members what they're interested in and what they're passionate about. It's working from existing assets to fill a need rather than trying to find a need to fill!

Aaron

Comment by Sadie Rosenthal on July 7, 2010 at 10:16pm

That's really helpful - and I definitely agree it's essential to ask the targeted community's members what it is that they want and need; thinking in terms of finding and engaging unengaged 20s/30s... It seems like some of the engagement projects have been pursuing that more actively... Just thinking about what it might look like for our specific target audience.

Comment by Aaron Spiegel on July 8, 2010 at 9:45am

The big dfference between ABCD and ccommunity organizing is finding out first what talents and passions exist in the community, then channeling those for social welfare. So often I see community organizing falter because there's no real interest or ability around the project passed the initial excitement of helping out.

Comment by Jessica Zimmerman on July 8, 2010 at 6:20pm

thanks for posting this, aaron! wow-- it's about relationships and seeing one another. in a way, it reminds me of the Appreciative Inquiry model, where communities can appreciate their resources and find common ground through what's working well. here, it's about relationship building through common interest. by getting to KNOW each other, people invest in community.

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