Cormac Russell

07/03/2023
Author: David Clark on 07/03/2023
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‘The Connected Community: Discovering the Health, Wealth, and Power of Neighborhoods’ by Cormac Russell and John McKnight

The most common approach to ‘helping’ communities has involved focusing on the community’s needs, deficiencies, and problems. This depersonalising approach disempowers and often causes other forms of harm to community citizens. The alternative path to community development, Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), focuses on a community’s assets, capacities, and abilities. Significant community […]
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19/03/2022
Author: David Clark on 19/03/2022
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ABCD Resources: A New Update

As some of you know, John Stanton and I visited Kojonup in February at the request of Lisa Martello-Hart, who wanted us to meet various Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the community and also discuss the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach. Lisa had been talking with us for […]
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16/03/2022
Author: David Clark on 16/03/2022
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What is distinctive about an ABCD Process – Four Essential Elements

Here, I share the results of John McKnight and Cormac Russell’s deliberation about what is distinctive about an Asset-Based Community Development process. ‘The primary goal of an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) process is to enhance collective citizen visioning and production. This paper discusses each of four essential elements […]
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08/03/2022
Author: David Clark on 08/03/2022
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Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), Part 2

In his recent Kindle book Asset-Based Community Development: An Incomplete Guide, Cormac Russell describes eight touchstones of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). He points out that whilst all eight Touchstones rarely appear together and do not represent a step-by-step guide to community building, they do show up regularly in ABCD […]
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07/03/2022
Author: David Clark on 07/03/2022
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Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), Part 1

The most common approach to ‘helping’ communities has involved focusing on the community’s needs, deficiencies, and problems. This depersonalising approach disempowers and often causes other forms of harm to community citizens. The alternative path to community development, Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), focuses on a community’s assets, capacities, and abilities. Significant community […]
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03/03/2022
Author: David Clark on 03/03/2022
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The ABCD Approach: Some Resources

While John and I were in Kojonup recently, I talked about the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach to creating inclusive, bottom up, community-driven change. The ABCD approach was first developed by John McKnight and John (Jody) Kretzmann, along with their associates in the USA. They set up the Asset-Based Community […]
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12/10/2021
Author: David Clark on 12/10/2021
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Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD): Nurture Development

I believe strongly in Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) as a powerful way forward for communities. I’ve written about this invaluable approach in three blogs on this website: Community Building: ‘Mental health is not a product of pharmacology or a service that can be singularly provided by an institution: […]
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21/01/2020
Author: David Clark on 21/01/2020
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Sustainable Community Development: From What’s Wrong To What’s Strong – Cormac Russell

In a previous blog entitled Community Building, I introduced Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) as a way of facilitating healing in communities. I pointed out that the most common approach to ‘helping’ communities (and individuals) has involved focusing on the community’s needs, deficiencies and problems. This approach leads to […]
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