Start with the Positive
If we want to make our communities stronger, why do we too often start out by listing all of the problems? Why not take a positive approach to planning and managing community development?
These approaches and models, known by a variety of names such as Appreciative Inquiry, Assest-Based Development, or Development Assets, endeavor to avoid the negative aspects of the problem-centered approach by focusing instead on the positive. When the community members take time to identify the positive assets of their communities, they plan and build on the solid foundation of what is already working in those communities.
Links
Appreciative Inquiry at www.appreciative-inquiry.orgLinks
Asset-Based Community Development Institute (ABCD) at www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd.html, applying the Kretzmann and MacKnight ModelLinks
Search Institute at www.search-institute.org