Asset based community development reflection

1. ASSET-BASED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT….. Thapa Chhetri 1
Asset-Based Community Development Reflection
My internship organization focuses on assets to serve its clients. The agency serves
refugees from different backgrounds, so they differ in terms of cultures, languages, and religions
from other Americans. The experience of serving these populations can be extremely difficult
because assisting in such a re-adjustment of someone’s life in a totally new and different culture
can be very challenging, particularly in the Western societies, where independence and
individualism are highly praised. When working with multicultural clients, my internship
organization uses the cultural proficiency approach, which focuses on the strengths within
clients’ cultural values, or it emphasizes what the community does have, not what it doesn't
(McDermott & O’dell, 2001). For example, according to an agency rule, a client must be self-
sufficient within few months of arrival, which is extremely difficult in most cases. The agency
receives a limited budget for each client and cannot exceed the limit. If the clients are from
collectivistic cultures, the agency can easily depend on clients’ relatives for the client’s care until
the client is independent. They easily agree with this condition, because they come from a
culture where care and dependency are acceptable among them. So, in this case the cultural value
that clients hold is an asset to my agency.
Furthermore, my agency also utilizes the assets to serve the clients beyond their needs.
Catholic Charities partners with Loyola University, which provides them many volunteers.
Those volunteers assist children as a tutor mentor for their academic success. This goes far and
beyond simply enrolling refugee children in schools to gain education. At the same time, my
agency also give priority to the deficits. Although deficit has a negative connotation, sometimes
deficits can benefit people. People tend to reach out to others when there is a deficit, so it tends
to expand one’s network or connection. For example, the language barrier is a deficit for my

2. ASSET-BASED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT….. Thapa Chhetri 2
agency, because there are people speaking many different languages. Providing language
interpreters is both challenging and costly. To solve this problem, my agency reaches out into the
community or to cultural centers to connect clients, so they can receive assistance. Although
there are extra steps involved in this process, a new connection is formed. Now, the agency can
count on one more community asset to serve its clients; we turn lemons into lemonade.
Similarly, in my agency, I also values assets and deficits equally; I focus on the assets to
overcome any barrier. Working for an agency that takes responsibilities for the most vulnerable
population of the U.S. society and aims to make them self-sustained within 90 days has provided
me with opportunities to learn how to empower people to develop not only their self-advocacy
skills but also their ability to change the community based on their needs. In addition to my
supervisor’s help, adequate training and trust towards my abilities further helped me to identify
the purpose, focus and different approaches of community development. I have had the
opportunity to meet my clients in person as well as study their cases notes. This helped me
understand their pre- and post-immigration history. Knowing community members’ histories
and their stories is a key factor for community development, because those people are the
foundation of the community. Although McKnight (2011, October 10), did not mention much
about the general people who may not be able to offer anything, my work helped me understand
to see people living in a community as the most important asset of that community. From my
everyday work experience and the recent decline in refugee arrivals at Catholic Charities, I
understood that Refugee Resettlement Program is meaning less if refugees are not entering in
this country. We call a community a community because many people live there. Imagine the
city of Chicago without anyone; there would be no community. I learned that to develop a
community, you must understand and embrace the people of that community before analyzing

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what resources it holds. So, I learned that not only knowledge and understanding of but also
participation of the community members must be at the core of community development.
I agree with McKnight (2011, October 10) that we must identify the assets at all levels to
develop a community, but not every community member is able to access the benefit of such
community assets or resources. Advocacy is necessary for oppressed people to receive services
that other people can access without a thought. For example, refugee children are placed in a
classroom and required to compete with others with a minimum to no additional services. These
children fail most of their tests or barely get Ds in their exams, but schools hardly call for a
parent meeting and keep moving them to next grades. Opposite to this experience, I receive
emails or notes from my children’s schools (also Chicago Public Schools) when their grades fall
below a 95 percent. Interesting enough, one of my sons goes to the same public school where
some of our clients are enrolled. According to ABCD 101 documentary, schools are one of the
most important assets a community has, but just having access to the building does not guarantee
the education. Because of these reasons, I am little skeptical about his approach to identifying the
multiple assets and combining them to develop the communities; if the assets in the community
are not assets to all the community, combining them won’t magically provide adequate services
to members of the community ignored by each individual asset. So, it is perhaps not the right
approach for all communities, particularly if many members of the community are unable to
navigate the system due a language or cultural barrier. This experience taught me the importance
of advocacy in community development. As a result, I have learned to advocate for people in
need or without a seat at the table, and I also practice teaching community members self-
advocacy skills.

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My work has contributed to my understanding of community development in slightly
different ways compared to McKnight (2011, October 10), probably because of the nature of the
population that my internship agency serves, or it could be a byproduct of my own life
experience, being an immigrant of color who has navigated and must continue to navigate U.S.
systems, institutions, and society.

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Reference
McKnight, J. (2011, October 10). ABCD 101. Retrieved from
http://www.abundantcommunity.com/home/videos/abcd_101.html
McDermott, R., & O’dell, C. (2001). Overcoming cultural barriers to sharing knowledge.
Journal of knowledge management, 5(1), 76-85.