Forum Activity for @leo-romero

Great Case Studies or Statistics to support ABCD?

Data, Evaluation, and Research

I second April's request. We too have started a neighborhoods project (in West Oakland CA), and it would be nice to show hard evidence that building on the skills of local residents, the power of local associations, and the supportive functions of local institutions really does have a measurable impact (e.g on education, crime, health). We're moving along without the numbers, of course, but it will be good to have them.

Survey of Interests, Skills, and Needs - Suggestions Please

Asset Mapping & Gift Inventories

Thanks for the suggestion, April; we'll work it in. That left & right thing was my principal contribution to the work of so many others (noted in the credits). In the process of sharing the survey with others, I stumbled upon Bruce Schuman, an irrepressible do-gooder who also has crazy web/database skills. He rendered the survey onto an online format, here: http://neighborhoodcommunities.netIt's not yet ready for publication, but you can test it to see how it works. Briefly: you click your interests, needs, and skills; click Connect and you'll see people who share your interests, have skills to match your needs, and needs to match your skills. Click on their names to see their profiles. You'll also be able to send them email to let them know you want to connect.I'd appreciate your feedback.

Survey of Interests, Skills, and Needs - Suggestions Please

Asset Mapping & Gift Inventories

[This is a cross-post of an article that originally appeared on Our Blocks. We're using this form for a community-building project we started in West Oakland, and hope to get your suggestions. - Thanks; Leo]

Here's a tool you might be able to use to get a better appreciation of the interests, skills, and needs of your constituents, and to help them connect with one another, and with other local resources. You can download the pdf by clicking on the image below. You can also edit and download the form, in spreadsheet format, here (some formatting was lost in the file translation).

The form was designed for residents of multi-family subsidized housing communities. We didn't use some of items from the original Capacity Inventory (Kretzmann & McKnight 1993), but kept them in a separate tab (Skills, column J), so you can just copy & paste as needed.

Most respondents completed the form in under eight minutes, with some, who answered the open-ended questions at the end of the survey, taking up to 15 minutes.

Matt Singh (a fellow founder of the Idealist Silicon Valley group) and I developed the form, which we derived (with thanks) from several sources:

• Mapping Tools and Capacity Inventories from the Asset-Based Community Development Institute
  
• 150 Things You Can Do to Build Social Capital, The Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement In America, an initiative of Professor Robert D. Putnam at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
• 366 Community Service Ideas, compiled by Janet Fox, 4-H Extension Specialist
• Organizers Workbook, from the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center
• An Idealist survey on obstacles to action

We'd appreciate your feedback.

updated by @leo-romero: 10/24/16 05:35:56AM

ABCD Workbooks?

Shared Resources and Materials

Oh good, cause as it turns out, there are no bears for sale on e-bay. And thanks for the link; glad you liked our Resources page.A thought just occurred to me (always a dangerous thing): I'd like to feature you and ABCD In Action on Our Blocks. Specifically, we've been collecting Recommended Resources, with a focus, more recently, on workbooks. With your permission, I'd like to write about you and your recommendations, including the ones you made above. See samples below.If other members want to recommend resources, we can feature them as well.Thanks; Leohttp://ourblocks.net/neighborhood-based-community-building-handbooks-recommended-by-jim-diershttp://ourblocks.net/reemberto-rodriguezs-list-of-listshttp://ourblocks.net/neighborhood-resources-from-bill-berkowitzhttp://ourblocks.net/built-environmental-justice

ABCD Workbooks?

Shared Resources and Materials

Thanks Ron. We have Mike Green listed in our Resources page, but I don't see Henry Moore there. I'll look for him and the other resources you noted over the weekend. If you have time to link to them from here, I'll buy you a beer (or a bear, if you don't drink).

ABCD Workbooks?

Shared Resources and Materials

I've found that it's so much easier to get things going when people don't have to first invent the wheel. So I like workbooks. The best I've found (so far, please don't hit me if you've written one) is INRC's Organizer's Workbook, which I blogged about here. I'll be updating that post to pass along something that Anne-Marie Taylor, e.d. of INRC (nuff initials for ya?), told me a few days ago: "We are actually just beginning to track how people are using the Workbook, and presenting about that at a conference in late May (Neighborhoods USA, NUSA, in Little Rock Arkansas)."

If you've used that workbook, or some other workbook, could you please tell us about it below, and here? You can also @reply or RT this tweet, with your comments (which will automatically appear at the Comments section of the blog post. - Thanks; Leo

updated by @leo-romero: 10/26/16 03:23:46PM

What are you reading?

Open Discussions

The three books in my bag right now:Neighbor power: building community the Seattle way, by Jim DiersThe troublemaker's teaparty : a manual for effective citizen action, by Charles Dobson (no, not that tea party)The happiness hypothesis : finding modern truth in ancient wisdom, by Jonathan Haidt

Twitter - is it anti-community?

Tips, Tools, Strategies, and Technology

Hi Ron - I felt your pain, and it took me over a year I think before I finally used my Twitter account. Since then, I've made lots of connections with fellow neighborhoodies and communitists there. I use it a lot now, as you can see from this: http://twitter.com/LeoRomero But I also respect people's time, and keep my tweets focused on one thing: building community in neighborhoods. - Thanks; Leo