Community Matters: The quiet strength of community builders

As our community builders have been active in Torbay for eight years most of you will have met them and many of you will have attended groups or events facilitated by them.

So, you know what they do, meeting people, talking with them, finding out what interests them and connecting people with each other, facilitating groups of like-minded residents and introducing new people to them.

But what is the philosophy or principle behind what they do and how they do it? It's one of those subjects that is both simple and deep at the same time. This article offers a very very brief snapshot of the theory behind what the Community Builders are doing

For some time, there has been a growing recognition that some of the most meaningful changes in our communities come from the relationships between neighbours. At the heart of this approach is something called Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). Our Community Builders are at the forefront of this ABCD approach in the Southwest.

ABCD stands for Asset-Based Community Development. It’s a way of working that focuses on:

Strengths: Every community has skills, knowledge, and experience. Community Builders help uncover these strengths, some hidden, and connect people with each other for the benefit of the whole neighbourhood.

Empowerment: Community Builders encourage people to take the lead in shaping what happens in their own neighbourhoods. By listening to the community they encourage change through ideas coming from the neighbourhood.

Relationships: The emphasis is on mutual support, as we all know; sometimes we need support, sometimes we can offer support and sometimes we just need to share good or bad times with others.

Sustainable change: the work of the Community Builders is slow, it's like gardening or painting and decorating, all about preparation and patience. But the Community Builders are patient and like gardening that patience will pay off.

So, how do these principles guide the work Community Builder do? They work quietly and consistently using ABCD to connect people, spot local strengths, and encourage residents in their neighbourhoods to support one another. Across our area, 17 Community Builders are employed to help neighbourhoods flourish, listening to the community, connecting people, and encouraging people do things with each other and for each other. Community Builders believe strongly that ‘the glass is half full' not ‘half empty’ they believe that everyone has something to offer, and that communities are strongest when those contributions are recognised and shared.

Following the principles of ABCD Community Builders consistently seek out and encourage ideas that come not from them or from outside but from the neighbourhoods they work in. Where possible nurturing these green shoots without stifling them and allowing them to flourish.

The most important thing to remember is that the ABCD approach t is a different way of thinking. But it is not a solution to all of society's ills. It would be hard the imagine how a community led ABCD heart unit might work or a ‘people powered’ army for example.

Because of this our Community Builders work closely with; charities, volunteer groups, the NHS, Torbay Council and many others. They may work in a different way to these other organisations, but their goal is the same, to make Torbay an even better place to live.

By encouraging informal, neighbourly connections, Community Builders build trust and resilience.

Community Builders certainly do not have all the answers, but they do have a way of finding the answers that are there in our neighbourhoods.