Topic: Asset-Based Community Development Essay
Essay Guidelines and Requirements
The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate:
1) the ability to assess and utilize one or more theoretical perspectives on a selected topic, to identify the theoretical concepts and constructs that are relevant, and to situate the topic and its significance within the contextual framework of human science, and/or organizational systems;
2) the ability to evaluate, select, and defend the use of appropriate methodological approaches for the study of a selected topic; and
3) the ability to conduct an evaluative review of the existing research and/or scholarly literature related to a selected topic.
The scope of this essay is on poverty mitigation from a systems view of asset-based community development (ABCD) as a methodology that seeks to uncover and use the strengths within communities as a means for sustainable development. The research basis is predicated on The Asset-Based Community Development Institute located at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The Asset-Based Community Development Institute is at the center of a large and growing movement that considers local assets as the primary building blocks of sustainable community development. Building on the skills of local residents, the power of local associations, and the supportive functions of local institutions, asset-based community development draws upon existing community strengths to build stronger, more sustainable communities for the future. Its founders, John Kretzmann and John L. McKnight, were influential in developing this community development philosophy. Application tools explored in this essay include “Guidelines for writing manuscripts about community-based participatory research for peer-reviewed journals” (Bordeaux, 2007).
