Introduction
Communities play a crucial role in our jobs as social workers, through them we see who a client is and the type of support that entails their life. The authors of this article discussed two main points the difference between needs based communities vs. an asset based community. The article also gives social workers an idea for a better asset-based community development plan. One of the main takeaway points from the article to me is that community development first begins inside the community by its own members. Communities create people and people change the world one good deed at a time so as social workers we need to know how to efficiently help the community help themselves.
Asset Based Community
In an Asset Based Community, we focus on the strengths and resources that within that community. “The key to neighborhood regeneration, then, is to locate all of the available local assets, to begin connecting them with one another in ways that multiply their power and effectiveness, and begin harnessing those local institutions that are not yet available for local development purposes” (Kretzmann J., McKnight J., 1996). When we use the resources that the community already has in order to make it even greater we create a sense of empowerment. …show more content…
It can be seen as a negative approach because it does not look at what the community may potentially have but strictly what it needs. “They are images of needy and problematic and deficient neighborhoods populated by needy and problematic and deficient people” (Kretzmann J., McKnight J., 1996). In these neighborhoods, there is no empowerment because all of the good comes from somewhere else and not from within like in an asset-based community. I personally think this solution needs to be reevaluated more and community members should be more empowered and asset
Communities play a crucial role in our jobs as social workers, through them we see who a client is and the type of support that entails their life. The authors of this article discussed two main points the difference between needs based communities vs. an asset based community. The article also gives social workers an idea for a better asset-based community development plan. One of the main takeaway points from the article to me is that community development first begins inside the community by its own members. Communities create people and people change the world one good deed at a time so as social workers we need to know how to efficiently help the community help themselves.
Asset Based Community
In an Asset Based Community, we focus on the strengths and resources that within that community. “The key to neighborhood regeneration, then, is to locate all of the available local assets, to begin connecting them with one another in ways that multiply their power and effectiveness, and begin harnessing those local institutions that are not yet available for local development purposes” (Kretzmann J., McKnight J., 1996). When we use the resources that the community already has in order to make it even greater we create a sense of empowerment. …show more content…
It can be seen as a negative approach because it does not look at what the community may potentially have but strictly what it needs. “They are images of needy and problematic and deficient neighborhoods populated by needy and problematic and deficient people” (Kretzmann J., McKnight J., 1996). In these neighborhoods, there is no empowerment because all of the good comes from somewhere else and not from within like in an asset-based community. I personally think this solution needs to be reevaluated more and community members should be more empowered and asset