Written by Heather Keam, Consulting Director for ABCD, Tamarack Institute and Tina Lowery, ABCD Community of Practice Member
why this tool
Designed by and for people in organizations and government, this readiness tool helps you explore what it really takes to build authentic, ABCD aligned community connections. Through reflection questions, readiness prompts, and guiding principles, it helps you consider whether your organization is ready to support natural community connectors without making it a program.
why this matters
Have you ever thought about whose role it is to build a community or to address the issues that arise? Is it the government, or maybe social service programs? Is it groups and associations?
Often, we are looking for a “superhero” who will come in and fix community problems. However, it’s the people in the community who best know and understand the solutions to the problem. Each person, association, and organization has gifts, skills, and knowledge, and it’s when these are brought together and organized that big changes can happen.
When an organization 'creates a program' to find connectors, it often:
- Turns something organic into a deliverable
- Builds dependency on staff or funding
- Misses the subtle gifts of natural connectors
- Starts with a focus on the needs of the community
- Prioritizes outcomes over relationships
why asset-based community development
Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) is about recognizing that people have important work to do: they have a purpose and function within their community. These functions can only happen when we uncover the assets that are discovered and activated by “natural connectors”.
These natural connectors create a catalog of potential actions that contribute and support people’s functions and ultimately improve their health and well-being. Connectors don’t have to, and don’t necessarily, know it all, but they do ‘know the people who know the people’ (and the services) to reach a desired solution.
This tool helps organizations and institutions understand, identify, and support natural connectors without formalizing or professionalizing their work, keeping the heart of ABCD at the centre.
Organizations can support without programming by:
- Observing before acting: Taking time to notice who is already connecting others
- Building relationships: Growing trust through genuine connection, not structured roles
- Creating space, not structure: Letting community leadership emerge naturally
- Resourcing lightly: Championing small supports can have big impacts
- Amplifying, not directing: Lifting up what is already working
