The Glass IS Half Full and What is ABCD Anyways?

I've been throwing around the acronym ABCD quite frequently on this blog and I wanted to provide a crash course on ABCD a.k.a. Asset Based Community Development.  Ready?  Let's begin...

What is Asset Based Community Development?

ABCD is the practice of seeking out the strengths and gifts that are within a community for the purpose of building a sustainable and healthy community. The approach focuses on building the assets of local residents, highlights the power that local associations have within a community, and reminds that the role of local institutions is to support the work of community.  

So that's it in a nutshell.  Of course there's a lot to unpack in that definition and let me venture to do so by using the next three blogs to share the top three reasons why I have been compelled to see ABCD multiplied in more neighbourhoods in Canada.  

Reason #1 - The Glass IS Half Full I grew up in an under-resourced neighbourhood.  I spent the majority of my life working or volunteering in under-resourced neighbourhoods/communities.  While working in and living in under-resourced neighbourhoods my perspective and the general perspective of those around me was that these places were high needs area.  Just listen to the terms used for these neighbourhoods, "priority needs," "at-risk," and "high risk."  These communities are defined and perpetually described by deficiencies (affectionately termed a Neighbourhood Needs Map): broken families, welfare recipients, government housing, illiteracy, crime, unemployment, etc.  These labels are then used to create policies and programs that are oriented towards deficiencies and not towards capacity.  

It takes little imagination to see what the outcome is when neighbours of these communities are continually subjected to programs, services and activities that approach them as needs to be addressed and problems to be solved.  Here are just a few results that occur when a neighbourhood is defined by its needs:

• the community becomes inundated and literally surrounded by systems, institutions and even businesses that are built on and supported by their others-defined deficiencies; this is evident by the prevalence of check cashing places, welfare offices, rent-to-own stores and other needs-based businesses and institutions in under-resourced neighbourhoods 
• people begin to understand that in order to survive, in order to receive the services that are available to them, they will always need to be in a position of need
• neighbourhood residents can begin to accept this view of their neighbourhood and begin to view the place and people as, "victims incapable of taking charge of their lives and of their community's future" (Kretzmann & McKnight, 4, 1993)

Essentially the prevailing perspective of certain neighbourhoods being full of needs is very short-sighted and limited.  It fails to account for the fact that the proverbial glass is actually half full and has capacity to be overflowing. ABCD challenges us to look at a community holistically.  What if we looked at these neighbourhoods not based on what their needs were, but based on what their strengths, abilities, gifts, capacities and assets were?  What if we began to speak about the innate gifts, abilities and talents that individuals had and their ability and power to contribute said gifts to the health and growth of their community?  What would result if we began to locate these local people assets, connect these local people assets to other assets of the neighbourhood (namely associations and institutions that have power and resources to support community) and nurture these connections until they developed into power shifting, change and hope producing agents?  When we begin to ask such questions we see another picture of the under-resourced community emerge.  We create a space to dream, hope and build capacity with the reality that every person and neighbourhood is half full.   We also highlight what before was obscure, that there is a power and capacity that is within that is more potent than the one without.  

Note:  For the sake of this blog post I've used the term "under-resourced" neighbourhood.  I'm not sure I love that term, but I will use it until I find a term that more accurately describes the way I perceive these neighbourhoods.

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Citation: 

Kretzmann, John P., and John McKnight. Building Communities from the inside Out: A Path toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets. Evanston, IL: Asset-Based Community Development Institute, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern U, 1993.

Reflections from Racial Equity Training

Let me begin by admitting that I have been stalling about writing this blog.  Sadly, I am just beginning to learn about racism.  I say sadly, because it is a social reality that has affected me all of my life and I will be the first to admit that my ignorance has not served me or others well.  


So I begin this blog by stating a few disclaimers, numero uno: I am not an expert on this reality, but I do have impressions and opinions based on my limited knowledge and experience as a Black woman of Caribbean descent who was born and raised in Canada.  Numero dos: I do not speak for all people of Afro-Caribbean descent, I just speak for myself.  That being said, please feel free to speak and share about the subject matter or content of this post from your perspective in the comment section below.  My request is that you freely assert your opinions and thoughts with the intent to promote dialogue (a shared space for a mutual learning environment) rather than debate (a promotion of an "I'm right and you're wrong" attitude).  Alright, time for me to reflect on an experience that will probably take me a lifetime to unpack!

On September 19th and 20th, 2014, I attended Racial Equity Phase 1 (REI) training in Durham, North Carolina.  The training was put on by the Racial Equity Institute (www.rei.racialequityinstitute.org). I must admit I did not know what to expect walking in to the training session.  To be honest, I think I thought that I'd be launched into some type of Race Class as conducted by Ms. Jane Elliott.  You can check out what that is via the link here: (http://youtu.be/TZKWkhnSb5k).  I highly recommend that you watch the video.  So as I was saying, I was bracing myself for a highly emotional and intense experience.  Well REI was not Race Class in delivery, but it definitely offered periods of emotional intensity.   

Things I realized, based on my experience at Racial Equity Phase 1...

• The presenters offered up a definition of racism, which included terms such as, social and institutional power, prejudice, system, and oppression.  I have refrained from using their definition so as not to encourage a debate on the particular definition used.  To debate this would be to detract from the realities that they helped to reveal.  So none of those terms nor the definition itself was particularly alarming to me.  However, what was illuminated to me was that racism is a social construct.  I had never considered it that way, but I must admit that it provided me with some sense of comfort to have it named as such.  I feel very uncomfortable with reducing racism to an us versus them phenomena.  I feel that doing so ignores the elephant in the room.  I will speak of the elephant in the room later.  The reality that racism is a social construct was brought home when I began to understand that it is a system that not only oppresses People of Colour, but also people within the own group that it is designed to protect and promote.  The fact that there are some White people (particularly women and children when you look at racism's contribution to poverty) who also experience oppression as a result of racism brought an odd ray of hope to the discussion for me.  The odd ray of hope came in the form of this, when seen as a social construct racism becomes a reality that really any of us could have been privy to building had we been a part of the "right" group.  What I mean is, understanding racism as a social construct means that I can understand it as a problem of humanity, rather than a problem of White people versus Black people or People of Color.  If it is a fact that White people have benefited from political, social, and economic institutions and systems that were built on racist ideals.   And if it is also a fact that there are sub-groups within the White race who also suffer from those same race biased institutions and systems...then in my estimation the enemy of People of Color has never been and never will be White people.  The enemy is something else.  The enemy has been masking as a White vs Black issue, but it is actually something else.  This was my odd ray of hope.  I believe that it is a necessity to identify and label how racism has been operating in systems and institutions.  It has been operating as race prejudice over those who are non-White.  Period.  However, I also feel like it is imperative to our discussion about race to add that the players in this thing could change given the right amount of time and the right amount of resources.  And it's quite possible that the players could have been different given there was sufficient opportunity.  I think it is important to remember that racism is a social construct and that there is an insidious yeast that has been dumped into the bowl, which ignored can create more damage than racism itself.

• It appears that the average White person lives life with an unconsciousness of their race.  What I mean is that there are people who are White who walk around daily and never or rarely give thought to the fact that they live in a body that is clothed in White skin.  This reality was most clearly demonstrated by an exercise that allowed workshop attendees the chance to share about what they liked about belonging to their specific race.  For example, "Three things I enjoy about being White is..."  [Note: For the purpose of the activity, everyone had to identify themselves as being a part of a dominant race group.  As there were only two race groups in the room, either you were Black or White.  The sense of forced selection of racial identity represented a reality that the presenters had aptly revealed.  In America, like many other nations, you have to choose.  Historically people have been categorized and this categorization has helped to create definition about who has been in receipt of power and resources.  There is more to say on that reality, including that the definition of whose White has changed and evolved in the course of American history in order to serve and protect political and economic agendas.  However, I have sufficiently digressed and there's no way I can include all that I've learnt in this one little ole blog :)]  So back to the exercise from REI...  So the question was posed and those people who were White in the room shared that they enjoyed several things, namely the privilege, anonymity, invisibility, and freedom that comes from being White.  As I listened to the responses, I sat in my chair truly stunned.  Could it be that there are people who walk around daily without an awareness of the skin they live in and how that skin color impacts others?  This concept was surprising to me.  I have always been aware of my race.  I don't know if there's ever really a time where there has not been some consciousness of my race.  I hadn't realized that not every one walked around with this same awareness.  This epiphany, that White people did not have to be race conscious, caused me to be grieved.  (I warn you that I will use this word several times to describe my response to the days' events.  However, that word is the one that most accurately relays the heaviness that I felt).  I was grieved because the social construct of racism has allowed for people from the same species to become so divided about matters in which they have no control over.  How else can you explain it but division, when one racial group has experienced anonymity, while others walk around ever conscious about how their race affects their outcomes and impacts the outcomes of others?  The social construct of racism has caused us as humans to bear burdens surrounding our race, which is ludicrous considering that no one not one had the opportunity to choose their race before birth.  I say that humanity has borne this burden, because I've met White people who have expressed a gamut of emotions from pain to shame about the realization that their race has granted them a privilege that they themselves had no control over.  I say that humanity has borne this burden, because I've met Black people who have expressed a gamut of emotions from pain to shame about the reality that their race has granted them a gross disadvantage concerning outcomes that in a lot of instances were key to their survival and ability to thrive.  The fact that we all bear some sense of burden for that which we are unable to control should not be ignored.  It is an indication and a reminder of our humanity and our call to each other to redistribute the burden until it is equally held and not experienced any more or less by another.  I am certain that this statement sounds very "Pollyanna," but I reject the idea that one burden should be esteemed over another.  Yes it is true that Black people and those members of other racial "minority" groups have been given the fecal covered end of the stick because of their race, especially when you look at how racism as a social construct has impacted them economically, socially, politically, and the list goes on.  Period full stop.  In the same breath, White people have experienced a burden that has impacted them in all the same areas just differently.  The fact that there are some people who have been desensitized or There is a burden for those who have been oppressed and a burden to those who have oppressed.  I hesitate to exalt one over the other, simply because I believe in the call to "share one another's burdens," even if your burden has come as a result of your oppression to me.  I have seen in history what happens when burdens are shifted and borne by each other.  I will label this phenomena as, "loving your neighbour as yourself." When I love my neighbour who has persecuted and oppressed me, I demonstrate an understanding that I too have the potential to be an oppressor and so I offer grace to one who may be too blind to acknowledge that they are in need of it. 

• There is a depth to systemic injustice that I had not previously comprehended and still do not completely comprehend.  This depth goes beyond the racial profiling that we consistently hear about today.  It is insidious because it is namelessly woven into the fabrics of everyday society and the majority of those who benefit from it are unaware and those who are oppressed by it are often unaware too.  Racism as a social construct fuels this raging fire of injustice.  The fire of injustice is stoked by power and greed.  Racism as a social construct has long defined who can and cannot access power and resources in not just the Western world, but in all the world.  The reality of this is deeply grievous to my spirit.  So what does all that mean?  Let me provide an illustration, I used to be perplexed and feel that I belonged to a people that were broken and lacked a strong sense of family.  I refer to my Caribbean heritage.  I was always perplexed as to why families who immigrated from other parts of the world came with their families intact and why it was that my people's story was so different.  Why was it that my people left children "back home" for years and even decades while they found a "better life" in Canada (a.k.a. foreign)?  It wasn't until my early twenties that I obtained the answer.  There were only a limited number of ways to enter into the country as a immigrant from the Caribbean.  Racially biased immigration laws like the West Indian Domestic Scheme forced women to claim they were single with no dependents so that they could obtain "status" and eventually "send" for the rest of their family members.  My grandmother recollected for me that the fear was real of being deported, and that she recounts friends that she studied with being deported once it was found out that they had children.  She also recounted a woman who refused to "send" for her children at all, choosing to create a new life instead.  If you didn't know than you must, that racism such as that accounted in the illustration above, continues to affect and dictate the quality of life and the quality of relationships that People of Colour have presently.  I have chosen to no longer be ignorant, because when you're ignorant you are more likely to support and promote the injustices that you say you abhor.  There are countless other examples both in Canada and America of how institutions have used racism as a social construct to oppress others and deny them equality.  So it was one thing to hear how racism as a social construct determined the systemic injustices of the past such as the government home ownership programs post-WWII in America, but it was completely another shocking thing to see how those same injustices although "gone" created a ripple effect to create continued injustices and lack of equality for People of Colour today.  This is most noted in the wealth disparity that currently exists between races today in Western countries.  This is yet another matter that I could go on about, but I will hold my peace. 

The truth is there were many things that were shocking and grieving to me from my 2 days at REI.  I discovered things that made me cry and sigh and wonder why?  Why?  Why?  The only thing that I could conclude was this...when we forget our humanity and focus on our individuality then what arises is greed, selfishness, pride, and pain.  This is the elephant in the room.  This is the yeast.  Greed, selfishness, and pride are all evil in my books and erodes us as individuals and as a collective.  My favorite book the Bible puts it this way: "16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." (James 3:16, NIV).  I fear that if we don't call out the roots of racism than we will be in danger of continuing to perpetuate it.  I don't believe that reparations alone will be the solution to racism.  It will help with reconciliation, but it will not be the solution.  This is why...there is a danger that racism as a social construct will raise its ugly in head and perhaps take on a different type of 'ism in the hearts of those who are oppressed.  Perhaps these ones will find yet another sub-group within their group or even another group to oppress for the sake of a securing of their own interests.  I am certain that it has happened already.  It seems that the fear of scarcity and the hunger for more power has prompted many on both sides of this equation to forget that we are all bearers of God's image and worthy of dignity and love.  There is truly not one greater than another.  Not one.  There is truly not one incapable of corruption, greed and evil.  Not one.  To think that we are exempt from these truths is self-deception if you ask me.

Racism as a social construct, is just that a social construct.  It is something that can be dismantled just as it was assembled, if WE commit to seeking for equality and justice not just in our speech, but more importantly in our actions.  This will require a careful analysis of how we ourselves contribute to and promote the multi-layered systemic injustices that currently exist due to the presence of racism as a social construct.  It will also require a humility and a willingness to desire the same good for others that we desire for ourselves and ours.  Is this impossible?  I am hopeful not.  It is my understanding that an inhibitor of yeast is salt.  I believe that with more people acting as salt than we can see racial injustices righted.


So where do I go from here?  I keep learning.  I keep hoping.  I keep listening.  I keep speaking about it and calling it out.  I keep challenging myself to find ways to reject systemic injustices supported by racism and other 'isms.  I keep grieving.  I keep forgiving.  I keep loving.  Everyone.  And I encourage you to do the same things too.

My Video Story - Bernadette Arthur

What on Earth Am I Up to Now?

I am excited and a bit apprehensive about finally beginning this blog.  I am excited to be able to share with you this time of learning and adventure in my life. However, I'm a little apprehensive because there's something very vulnerable about putting your thoughts and experiences out there for others to read and comment on.  One of the greatest lessons that I've come to learn is that courage is not the absence of fear, but doing something in the presence of fear.  So let's do this blog thing!  

Why am I blogging?
Firstly, to share the amazing things I've been learning during this 6 week hands-on community development learning journey that I've embarked on.  Secondly, to highlight some of the amazing people that I've met and the awesome community development work that I've witnessed or heard about during my travels.  Lastly, to share a bit about myself.  My hopes, my dreams, my feelings, my thoughts, my musings, hey and even some of my failings.  I am a firm believer in keeping it real so this will be a space for me to share my realities.  My hope is that if you're reading this you'll feel free to share you own hopes, dreams, musings, failings so that we can build a community of mutual learning and sharing.  

Sooooo let me tell you briefly about what I've been doing over the last three weeks...

What I've been doing?
I traveled to North Carolina for 10 days to obtain Race Equity and Racial Righteousness training.  I also attended two national conference/gatherings for community developers.  The first was organized by CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) and the second was a gathering for CFA (Communities First Associations) members.  You will hear more about those gatherings in later posts.  Now for the last 12 days I've been in Southern California.  Where it's been crazy hot!  Sorry my Canadian friends :).  In California I have had the invaluable opportunity to shadow a woman by the name of Terri Larson.  She is the Director of Catalytic Leader Development for an organization called City Net (www.citynet.org).  Terri has been doing the work of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) for over 25 years and she has graciously allowed me to walk alongside her as she coaches, trains, leads strategic planning, facilitates spiritual formation (soul care) and builds capacity for leaders and their organizations in various neighbourhoods.  I will be in So Cal, as they call it here, until the first week of November.  I figured this would give me enough time to shadow Terri and visit community based and development focused agencies that are doing the work of ABCD.  I'll give a brief overview of this ABCD that I keep referring to in another post.   

Why am I doing this?
Simply put, I am passionate about facilitating and supporting positive change in the lives of individuals and communities.  Over the last 2.5 years I have been on a journey that has lead me to drastically reorganize and reorient my life and priorities. I have spent the time equipping myself with various tools and intentionally exposing myself to various learning experiences so that I can be an active catalyst of transformation. Terri and I are both members of CFA and she was willing to have me come out and do some experiential learning with her...so here I am!  The timing has been especially important because Terri is in the midst of launching a city-wide training for neighbours in the 26 neighbourhoods of Riverside, California!  So I get to be a witness and even assist with all of that awesome goodness!

How am I doing this?   
I set some money aside for this learning opportunity, but it is through the generosity of friends, family and other supporters that this dream has been made a reality.  If you are interested in supporting this learning journey, please feel free to donate via my GoFundMe account (http://www.gofundme.com/ebxgxs).  If you can't donate, that's okay, your prayers, well wishes and messages of support are just as appreciated too!

My gift to you... :)
In the spirit of ABCD, I am eager to offer a gift back to you.  I invite you to follow my journey via this blog and through my Facebook and GoFundMe posts.  This will probably be the hardest part of my journey, committing to blogging regularly :).  However, I am committed to sharing the stories of life, love and laughter with you, so that you too can be a part of the journey!