Asset-Based and Place-Based Community Development

Abstract

Community practice has been an important area in social work practice since the beginning of the profession. In many countries of the world, social workers work with communities, empowering them to develop sustainability and strength. In North America, society generally has high mobility, low interpersonal support from family and friends, and high levels of social isolation. Social work practice tends to focus on individual work and social work education favors clinical social work practice. Neo-liberal policies have affected social development by focusing on economic stability to the detriment of the development of people and communities, with communities experiencing the consequences of a society focused more on the individual than the collective. This chapter focuses on capacity development in a geographical community to illustrate the growing desire to mobilize and strengthen local communities in Canada. In Edmonton, Alberta, community development has long been an important part of overall city development, through community leagues and support from the City of Edmonton’s Citizen Services Department. Over 35 neighborhoods are now engaged in Edmonton’s Abundant Community Initiative, locally known as Abundant Community Edmonton (ACE), which combines the asset-based community development approach with a place-based community approach, offering a unique social development outcome for Edmonton. This chapter will describe ACE in general and the experience of a Block Connector in an Edmonton neighborhood in particular, and will discuss the issues surrounding this type of community development and ways forward for future practice with communities.