IACD Launches Collaborative Inquiry Process

On November 17th, 2009, IACD in collaboration with Carnegie UK Trust launched an inquiry process into asset-based approaches to community development to explore the applicability, challenges and potential of these approches in the UK/Irish context drawing from global connections.  This event helped develop some key guiding questions for the inquiry which will last from November 2009 to April 2010.  A publications of the inquiry findings will be released at IACD's global conference in New Orleans in July 2010.

 Setting the Scene:

 The International Association for Community Development (IACD) began this partnership with Carnegie UK Trust in 2005 by exploring the global literature on asset-based community development. This led to a publication titled “Asset-Based Approaches to Rural Community Development: Literature Review and Resources.’ This was part of a wider Rural Action Research Programme (RARP) whose findings are summarised in the 2009 briefing paper “Building on What You Have Got—A Guide to Optimising Assets’ (please see attached.) IACD has also produced a supporting brief which starts to look at Asset-Based Approaches to Community Development in more detail (also attached.)

The Inquiry Process: how will it work?

Face-to-face events- Face-to-face events will include a launch event in London and smaller informal meetings in the global regions of the IACD network.

Interviews- We will have conversations with community members, policymakers, funders, community development practitioners amongst others.

Online- A dedicated group at www.fieryspirits.com will offer online space to develop key themes. IACD global members will invite people from their networks to join these online conversations.

Case studies- IACD will seek further global case studies on asset-based community development in practice to provoke and sustain conversations in the fora listed above. If you would like to share your own experiences through
a case study, email Debi Fry at debi.fry@iacdglobal.org.

The Unfinished Quilt:

This inquiry process is like an unfinished quilt. It will try to stitch together many different voices, traditions, approaches, practices – some pieces will fit together quite neatly, others may look out of place; there are pieces of the quilt missing and there are many loose threads. These documents and events are our invitation to you to join us in stitching together this quilt. You may have important pieces, you may be able to add colour or stitch in important stories that help to join up the parts. We intend these documents to be an introduction and an invitation to the quilt. We will introduce you the reader to some of the threads of asset-based approaches to community development – but we’re convinced that if it remains in its current form it will not be strong enough to survive a long journey around the country and across the world.

Documenting this broad range of threads is a somewhat daunting task. Some of the threads have not been connected before, and we’re sure that there are many other threads that we haven’t managed to weave into this very brief document. So, we invite you to add pieces, pull threads, patch up holes, stitch in your own experiences and stories and generally contribute to making this an even richer and hopefully more robust quilt. These events are only a beginning...the conversation will continue in many communities, around workplace tables, kitchen tables and at virtual tables through sites such as www.fieryspirits.com.