- a weekly column published in the Pioneer Press

One of the goals of the Siskiyou Community Services Council (CSC.) is to support “Asset Based Community Development” (ABCD) or a bottom-up approach to making changes in a community.  

This approach uses basic common sense. People support what they helped to create. Identification of community problems and agreement on solutions or changes should be “owned” at the grassroots level. ABCD places emphasis on using local leaders and  existing community assets to drive change, rather than relying entirely upon top-down government service programs to address problems.

An example of the ABCD approach is the Happy Camp Community Action Plan (HCCAP), which has been recently updated. At an open community meeting, interested folks gathered to come up with specific changes that they would like to see in their community in the future. They looked at a variety of categories ranging from economic development to infrastructure and education. They brainstormed on specific projects such as funding the volunteer fire department, developing facilities at the park or providing distance learning opportunities. Then they ranked projects by popularity. The final result of the process is their Community Action Plan.

Projects that are immediate, specific and realizable are key to whether a Community Action Plan is just a document on a shelf or a plan for real on-the-ground changes that shape the future of a community. People become involved because they want to make sure the changes will benefit them and because their involvement makes a difference in whether the project is completed. Both the planning process and actual projects require participants to volunteer their time and talents to “make it so.” Participants can become involved according to their own interests, assets and limits of availability.

Joan Loustalet of the Tulelake Community Partnership calls this process “making stone soup.” A Russian tale tells of a wandering soldier who set up a kettle of water in a poor village. In it he placed a magic stone that would create the most wonderful soup. Passing villagers would ask about his soup kettle and he would tell them of the stone, always encouraging their contributions of bits of meat and vegetables to make it just a bit better. And, of course, the final soup was great.

In the stone soup process, the stone is the need for community action to change something. Each person or organization involved brings something to the table, whether it is time, skills, experience, material, passion or money. The key is connecting these assets and engaging them.

Recognizing assets that already exist in a community that might be drawn upon for the project soup pot can be a major challenge. Last year, The Scott Valley Partnership built on work done by Scott Valley FOCUS to inventory some of the existing agencies, groups and individuals in the Valley and some of their resources. It is hoped that this will result in a resource website. The County already has one called SOS (Siskiyou Organizations and Services Directory) that may be accessed at http://www.sosisk.org .

Once a community group has success in making the changes it wants for the future, it   develops its capacity to take on further problems and larger projects. People who have participated in HCCAP have seen many projects either completed or well on their way to being so. The process has created many beneficial physical changes in the town and strengthened community spirit. Having an active community group in place also allowed the quick spin off of a new local Fire Safe Council to move forward on needed brush removal projects.

To learn more about ABCD and community organizing, go to http://www.sisqtel.net/~armstrng/community.html for internet links