Asset-Based Community Development for All

How can ABCD be implemented across different fields to catalyse sustainable change and progress?

Assembly: A gathering for like-minded individuals and those interested in ABCD

Skillseed’s very first virtual ABCD Assembly provided a platform for current and aspiring practitioners to connect over and learn more about Asset-based Community Development. The assembly was also a space to showcase current ABCD-inspired initiatives and development in Singapore and the region.

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

ABCD PROLOGUE

The Assembly kicked off with an ABCD Prologue by Jason Ng, from our ABCD Community of Practice during which he shared what ABCD is, its origins, and its role & roots in community development. Jason also gave a twist to ABCD and reframed it as Developing Community as our Best Asset (DCBA)!

PREFACE

Huijia Phua, Founder & Director of Skillseed shared a Preface on ABCD emphasising on how Skillseed has implemented and practised the asset-based lens in designing, developing and delivering our experiential learning experiences with selected case studies and projects.

PANEL DISCUSSION

The panel consisted of 4 speakers who shared their views on how to leverage assets in their respective sectors of ground up initiatives, technology, business and the environment.

PANELLISTS

Abhishek Bajaj, 6th Sense

Adrian Tan, SG Assist

Lim Wei Jie, Foreword Coffee Roasters

Putu Wiraguna, Five Pillar Foundation

Jason Ng, SUSS as moderator

HUMAN LIBRARY SESSIONS

Participants had a close-up session with the panellists who gave further background to their work and anecdotes of how they have leveraged assets and where they envision to further apply an asset-based approach in their field of work. The session also included a Q&A segment where participants directed specific questions to the panellist in their human library session.

PROJECT SHOWCASE

Elaine Tan, Future Leader from GlaxoSmithKline TalNet Community Pilot Programme presented her team’s journey in designing, developing, and implementing their local community service project in collaboration with Skillseed.

HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

We had a blast during our Head - Heart - Hands Workshop identifying individuals’ gifts using the 3H framework and (re)discovered the treasures within ourselves and within others!

RESPONSES TO SELECTED UNANSWERED QUESTIONS DURING THE ASSEMBLY

JASON ANSWERS:

HUIJIA ANSWERS:

Do you think there are any unmet needs in society that can/should be addressed with ABCD in the long term?

I strongly believe that we can approach any and all unmet needs in the society with the philosophy/lens that at least part of the solution can be found within the community itself. Perhaps our role as external volunteers/help could be to help uncover the existing strengths, connections, relationships, knowledge etc. within the community and amplify these with targeted and complementary assistance. 

For example, I came across a story about a resident in a rental community who started cooking and providing food for some of her neighbours because they could not consume the food items that were donated for various reasons. As a neighbour, she knew their preferences best, and as a homemaker she could deliver the food freshly cooked at their preferred timings, instead of leaving food outside to rot, which sometimes happens with donated food delivered at fixed timings. 

To target the issue of food scarcity in these communities, how can we further amplify this admirable lady’s efforts instead of, for example, overriding it by donating unsuitable rations leading to more food wastage? Could we find more of such community assets and connectors who can provide for more members in the community, and perhaps complement this partnership with financial capital from donors so that the community chefs get paid for their service and are able to sustain a livelihood at the same time? These are questions I think we should ask ourselves when we approach solutioning to such needs in a community.

Is the ABCD method suitable for resolving everything? Tangible issues like having no education opportunities are somewhat "easier", but what about intangible issues? intangible issues such as mental health problems or essentially health related issues

Good question. At its core, I personally believe that ABCD is an approach and a lens to view solutioning. It is a belief that the person or community itself has strengths and gifts to address their own issues. This does not mean that they will not need external help at all - this depends on the specific context and depth of the issue. But it does mean that when we approach e.g. a person suffering from mental health related issues, we do not approach the person seeing him/her as deficient, and that this person is absolutely unable to help him or herself, and needs to rely completely on external intervention. Of course, this may not apply to extreme cases, of which I am no expert of. 

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer” - Albert Camus. Perhaps for some of us that summer is just a tiny spark - a simple activity that makes us smile. A relationship with a loved one that brings us joy even in the darkest days. We must first recognize that there could be a spark that we can fan and amplify. I myself could not have survived some of my low points in life if not for the relationships around me that buoyed me up, and the ability to feel in control even of the smallest things in my daily life, like what I want to eat for lunch. In other words, if there’s any opportunity that we can give a sufferer any autonomy or ownership over his/her care (without compromising his/her safety and health, of course), I strongly believe we should explore that option.  

Do you still make use of needs-based community development in your organisations?

At Skillseed yes. To uncover gaps or needs in any particular community, we still rely on needs assessments and design thinking principles. But - in solutioning, that’s where we apply ABCD so that we can co-create potential solutions with the community and have, as much as possible, the community own the solutions instead of relying purely on external assistance.

When you run social enterprises, how do you balance helping the communities with lesser means vs the need to be pragmatic and have ROI on your business?

It’s tough. We’re still finding the balance after so many years, and there is definitely constant tension. But I do believe that if you want to continue to help and make an impact, your organisation has to survive. So it might be a necessity that the ‘enterprise’ part of the social enterprise takes precedence in the early years. After all, we should not forget about our own staff - at Skillseed we want to be able to provide a decent and respectable wage, and a future for team members within the organisation. 

Over the years, I have heard too many stories of good folks being severely underpaid (or not even paid, despite promises) in other organisations and yet are expected to do so much for the community. As a social enterprise leader, I feel that we should be very clear about the difference between a volunteer and an employee, and while there is definitely a lot of resource constraint in the early years, we must do our best to keep improving staff prospects and benefits as we grow. I personally believe that caring for the community starts from within and it starts with your own community in the organisation. I personally find it difficult to expect an employee to extend his/her all if he/she is worried and struggling with supporting his/her family. Words of affirmation, praises and phrases like “But you are helping so many people” don’t put food on their tables for their families - and their future. That said, I am a very pragmatic person and this is my personal view in my quest to ensure Skillseed is a professional organisation that is able to support not just short-term stints, but careers and families. 

ABHISHEK ANSWERS:

• How might widespread ABCD practice influence our political climate? 

• In ABCD work in the Singapore context, how much space is there to advocate for policy changes? How challenging is it?

• Is the ABCD method suitable for resolving everything? Tangible issues like having no education opportunities are somewhat "easier", but what about intangible issues? intangible issues such as mental health problems or essentially health related issues

My belief is that ABCD builds a resilient and robust response in crisis situations. During crises when resources are squeezed and a time sensitive situation is introduced, there are lots of moral dilemmas with contrasting opinions which causes partisan approaches. This causes problems in crisis situations when dynamic policy iterations are needed through policy learnings. At the end of the day policies are only as acceptable as they are implementable and this depends largely on its acceptance and uptake by the community, and the ABCD community is able to rally to the street-level bureaucrats on what are the changes needed for better implementation.

ABCD essentially takes a proactive approach in bringing a community together and gets everyone to work together by setting goals/objectives towards a community vision. It builds practice as part of the culture which otherwise would not exist. There are usually no economic rewards achieved by working together as a community, and ABCD is hence, a useful opportunity to come together. The hope is that this practice essentially allows people to become seasoned working with each other and plan ahead on what the community needs. It works by collectively articulating and rallying behind these identified opportunities. ABCD doesn't mean that egoes and scarcity mindsets don't come into play, but passive resistance, believing in greater good and not forcing anyone (but rather relying on the idea of invoking inner motivations of a person towards change) become the leading values of response. 

When an ABCD community is in a crisis situation and put to the test, the community legacy of working together comes in useful as the communities are cognisant and are able to put themselves into action quicker. They further find themselves less constrained in terms of resources as they are robust and have planned their needs ahead. The ABCD community is the buffer through a crisis. 

ADRIAN ANSWERS:

How can you encourage people to keep their active participation alive through ABCD even past, say, a project when you are no longer involved?

We encourage constant role swapping within our community builders, and always bringing in new members to be part of the team, this would ensure that the team will remain sustainable and retain the knowledge, as people come and go due to different stages of their lives (career, marriage etc.)

From your experience, what drives people in wanting to step out and step up to be part of a ground-up initiative?

When they form a bond with the people around them, empathising their situations, or the situation is relatable to their own experience, that is when people step out and step up to do something for others. This is also the reason why SG Assist was founded by a group of caregivers in the first place.

WEI JIE ANSWERS

What concerns/limitations have been raised from a practitioner's perspective, and how have they been addressed?

In Foreword, I am guiding my team to recognize their own strengths, and for my middle-managers to identify strengths in their teams. My main concern was how to change the way my team perceives disabilities as strengths to be uncovered. In the past 3 years in the company, we have two employee engagement exercises in a year through surveys and one-to-one feedback sessions.  I would ask each staff to list their strengths. Overtime, they began to see their own strengths without further prompting from me. The shift in perspective takes time and we need to keep a habit of acknowledging strengths in ourselves and our people.

What were the major challenges/obstacles that you've faced in your route to get to where you are today? Was ABCD always a main concept behind your works?

ABCD has been a guiding principle in what we do at Foreword. Look at abilities and strengths, not disabilities. This is applied at individual level as well as at the team and organisational levels. The team can help to cover up the individual weaknesses. The organisation can build stronger teams with capability development programmes. At the societal level, we advocate for the social cause we believe in and be consistent in our messaging and what we practise everyday at work.

Be it a social enterprise or not, a startup has a higher chance of failing as we have limited resources and limitless things to do. We are thankful that we have the right people in the company to help grow our business and manage our people. We have people who put in their best and are committed to their work, and we have people who support our business and keep us going (financially). Foreword is still a young and growing company and we hope that we will continue to ground ourselves in our values as we emerge stronger in the years ahead.

WIRA ANSWERS:

How can we empower communities to continue building on their assets and skills independently, especially in the long run when support is not provided anymore? 

It’s important to start from our family to build a good community culture. This helps the community to be independent and to be able to self-sustain.  For example in Bali, we have the "Ngayah" culture (one of our social assets) which means to voluntarily help our community within our own means and events. In turn, athe community will help us in return. This creates a cycle and a culture.

How do we shift narratives and support people in the community to start believing that they have assets in the first place? 

Start from finding the right people to talk to and work with. As we become aware of the community’s assets, tap on them through our programmes and events, the community will then have a self-realisation that they have had these assets all along. 

How would you use social media today for your initiative? 

It’s really all about sharing the good news and work that we do and focusing on sharing the solutions. 

Join our ABCD Community of Practice!

If you are inspired and excited to continue your journey in ABCD after the Assembly, we invite you to join our ABCD Community of Practice! ABCD CoP is a monthly (virtual for now) gathering of like-minded individuals to explore how we can practise ABCD in our own communities and how we might spread the ABCD methodology within and beyond the social sector.

Simply drop us an email at raineong@skillseed.sg if you’re keen!

Follow us on our ABCD in SG Facebook page to keep up with our happenings in relation to ABCD!