The Latest

The Heart of Interconnectedness

The ABCD: Healthy Neighbourhoods, Healthy Cities Conference in Edmonton was one of the most profound conferences I’ve been to; a plethora of experts, changemakers, wisdom-imparters, and entertainers – the combination could found in each presenter respectively. There was a palpable energy of support, encouragement, positivity, and kinship in the room, vast as it was, holding the collective community of over 300 people, who were there to learn from the greatest in Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and each other.

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Passing on the Gift

The great thing about Tamarack is that we are a network of learners with some great examples of people, organizations and communities that are putting this basic concept into practice. Consider just a couple of the examples featured in the 2018 Annual Report.

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Waiting at the Intersection of ABCD and Collective Impact

I recently received an email question from a colleague curious about the different approaches identified in the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and collective impact frameworks.  They commented that ABCD seemed to be more grassroots driven while collective impact seemed to be more top down driven.  This question led me to consider our approach at Tamarack to understanding and incorporating different organizing frameworks into our thinking and training. I thought I would share my response with everyone. 

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What Makes Your Neighbourhood Work an Asset-Based Community Development Process?

Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) is not a new concept. About 40 years ago, John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann, took a four-year learning journey, visiting twenty cities and talking to 2,000 people in neighbourhoods which culminated in the book Building Communities From the Inside Out: A Path Towards Finding and Mobilizing a Neighborhood’s Assets. They wanted to discover if people knew who lived on their block and if they do things together. From this journey, 125,000 books have been sold and a movement was created.

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Seeking Teachers: Stories and Questions in Asset-Based Community Development

I wish to acknowledge Paul Born and the entire Vibrant Communities team at the Tamarack Institute, with special thanks to Heather Keam for the invitation to reflect on the masterclass workshop at Asset-Based Community Development for Healthy Neighbourhoods.

In April 2018, I attended Asset-Based Community Development for Healthy Neighbourhoods held in Kitchener, Ontario, as a guest of the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement. My interest in attending was to reconnect with Paul Born, Co-CEO of the Tamarack Institute, after hosting him for an event at Western University in 2014, and to take the opportunity to learn from John McKnight, one of the founders of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD).

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Talking Friendly Streets: A Community Engagement Project

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