Session Description at the Results for Health Conference:

There is a growing body of research that indicates that social capital can have a significant impact on health outcomes. For example, the Social Determinates of Health, includes the Social and Community Context and Neighborhood and the Built Environment as two key determinates and a recent study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill identified that maintaining strong social bonds, starting from a young age, increases life expectancy by reducing health risks throughout a person’s life.

This workshop is for individuals interested in discovering the power of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) as a tool to help increase social capital by engaging clients, customers and communities as co-producers of their own and their community’s well-being.

ABCD is a place-based framework pioneered by John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann co-founders of the ABCD Institute at DePaul University (formerly at Northwestern University). ABCD starts with a few simple truths: 1) everyone has gifts (skills and abilities); 2) everyone has something to contribute, and; 3) everyone cares about something and their passion is their motivation to act. Healthy neighborhoods and communities are built on the strengths and capacities of their residents and associations that call the community home. To unlock the power of community engagement, nonprofits and governmental entities must “lead by stepping back”, creating space for clients, family members and neighbors to be involved as co-producers of their own and their community’s well-being, rather than just recipients of service. At the same time institutions should approach this work from a social justice/racial equity perspective and work to remove barriers so that everyone has a fair chance to contribute and prosper. 

Workshop Objectives;

Participants will learn:

• Why place-based strategies, community engagement, and social capital are critical to building healthy communities
• The framework and principles of Asset-Based Community Development
• How organizations can “lead by stepping back” using a social justice perspective to create space for effective community engagement
• How to employ the asset mapping tool to identify and mobilize all a community’s assets for greater health outcomes.
• How ABCD and RBA can be applied together for greater results.

For more information and to register: https://clearimpact.com/results-for-health-conference/