What We Do

Community leader standing beside a handwritten list of neighborhood priorities

Asset-Based Development

CBCE follows the Asset Based Development Principles and Skills for Community Development. Rather than focusing on needs or deficiencies, we use these principles and skills to help residents discover their strengths, build relationships, develop local leaders, and organize around a shared vision for their community. Our role is to coach and equip neighbors to become the leaders of their own revitalization.

We also coach and train organizations and agencies to use these “power shift” principles and skills to facilitate the self-development of communities.

Our Approach

The Power Shift

Power Shift Principles

Shift 1: Shifting from RELIEF (social services) to DEVELOPMENT (empowering)
Shift 2: Shifting from doing FOR (individuals) to doing WITH (community)
Shift 3: Shifting from (our) CAUSE to (their) COMMUNITY
Shift 4: Shifting from (meeting) NEEDS to (mobilizing) ASSETS

Power Shift Skills

Shift 1: Moving from WORKING OUR PLAN to DISCOVERING (community) DREAMS
Shift 2: Moving (residents) from PARTICIPANTS to ENGAGED to OWNERS
Shift 3: Moving from COMMITTEE MEETINGS to BUILDING BELOVED COMMUNITY
Shift 4: Moving from OUTSIDE-IN (top-down) to INSIDE-OUT (grassroots up)

Four Stages of Community Development

CBCE uses an approach called Asset Based Community Development to coach and train communities to discover what matters to them and to attain it. This approach shifts the focus from community needs to community strengths, and the power from outside agencies to the community residents. There are four stages to this approach.

Three smiling community members taking a selfie in front of sticky-note planning boards

Icon of two people facing each other with speech bubbles

Stage One

Listening and Discovering

We help communities listen one person, one household, and one block at a time to discover what neighbors care about and what gifts they can bring to shared goals.