Recovery & Asset Based Community Development

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1 Recovery & Asset Based Community Development Training Programmes 2014 NURTURE DEVELOPMENT development redefined

2 The Approach ABCD stands for Asset Based Community Development, an approach developed by Professors John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann in Chicago. After decades of research, they set up the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute in 1995 at Northwestern University and ever since, have supported the growth of ABCD across the world. ABCD considers local assets (people, physical assets etc.) as the primary building blocks of sustainable community development. It offers a robust evidence-based framework for social change, challenging us to consider the following questions: What is it that communities can do best? What do communities require help with? What do communities need outside agencies to do for them? The ABCD approach helps us to find answers to each of these questions. It can also show us how to make better use of the resources that we all have or have access to and how to support one another to use them to the benefit of whole communities. ABCD is the way by which we can build healthier, safer, prosperous and more inclusive communities. The Trainers Nurture Development is a training and consultancy organisation that works with interested groups who want to learn more about ABCD. We are the only strategic partners of the ABCD Institute in Europe. Our core team is: Cormac Russell who set up Nurture Development in He trained directly under Professor John McKnight, the co-founder of the ABCD approach. As well as being a faculty member of the ABCD Institute at Northwestern University in the United States, he is a Co-Director of ABCD Europe. Martin Simon who founded TimeBanking UK in In the early 1990s he trained in the United States as a Community Organiser and has used these skills ever since to campaign for social change and social justice. He is a highly experienced mentor in ABCD and Timebanking and is also Co-Director of ABCD Europe. Rebecca Daddow who is Recovery and Justice Lead at Nurture Development. She has focused her research and practice work on areas of community development, criminal justice and recovery for almost a decade. She co-authored the 2010 report Whole Person Recovery: a user-centred systems approach to problem drug use. Rebecca is a trained mentor and Recovery Coach.

3 The Experience We bring the following to our training: We are recognised thought leaders Our thinking on ABCD has been published in academic journals and publications in the UK and abroad. Cormac continues to work with Professor John McKnight and other members of the ABCD Institute faculty on the ongoing development of the approach. We have combined a conceptual and on-the-ground understanding of ABCD that ensures we can advise and train at both policy and practice levels. We are established trainers in both the UK and abroad In 2013 we delivered over 70 workshops and keynotes to 5,000+ people, on a diverse range of subject matters, including public safety, public health, inclusion, children and young people, older people, social care, community housing, prison reform, recovery and many others besides. We understand what works (and what doesn t) We have 15 years of practical knowledge and experience in the implementation of ABCD and other strengths based approaches in Europe, Africa and North America. We have had successes and failures and believe in sharing our learning from both. There is no one right way to do ABCD and we have learned, through experience, how to navigate the different socio-economic and political environments and can show others how to do the same. We are doing it in a broad range of communities across the UK today In 2014 we have been commissioned to work side by side with 7 learning sites throughout the UK, where many community builders are changing neighbourhoods for the better, by focusing on what is strong, not what is wrong. This practical work enables us to bring real examples and stories of how ABCD is working in a wide variety of communities to our training. Learning by doing Our workshops are dynamic and interactive. We believe that people change their lives by doing, not by passively listening and our workshops reflect that belief. During our workshops, we introduce and use the tools, activities and exercises that we have developed to bring ABCD alive in communities and neighbourhoods. I believe that Nurture Development is uniquely placed to provide thought leadership and practical support in promoting more place based, citizen centred approaches throughout the UK and beyond. I highly recommend Nurture Development and am proud to have them as strategic partners. Professor John McKnight, Co-Director of the ABCD Institute, Northwestern University, Illinois.

4 Some of our Training Clients Workshops Tyneside Council Thurrock Council Leeds City Council Kirklees Council TQtwentyone (part of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust) Wirral Health and Wellbeing Board Ayreshire and Arran Health and Wellbeing Board Barnwood Trust Essex County Council (including the Emergency Services) Scottish Prison Service Scottish Government (Heads of Departments and Policy Makers) Wirral Council (Convened by leader of the Council and Elected Members) North-west Employers Leadership Masterclass Inclusion North and North Tyneside Council Tiny Spark Projects Conferences Global Futures Conference 2013 convened by the College of Medicine, UK and SOUKYA Foundation Children 1st Annual Public Lecture 2013 Glasgow European Social Network Conference 2013 Dublin Haygarth Public Health Lecture 2012 University of Chester FSC Seminar Aggregating Community Help to Strengthen Families 2013 Singapore (National Council of Social Service Singapore and NCSS Academy) In Cormac Russell, Nurture has a very charismatic, energised and empathetic leader, an individual who is able to inspire and inform across a very broad audience, comfortable talking to professionals who are leaders in their field but also able to reach people who are at the margins, in an intimate community setting. Les Billingham, Head of Adult Services, Thurrock Council

5 Recovery and ABCD The Overview Despite the increased focus on recovery in recent years, the evidence remains patchy around what works best, at what points and for who. Combined with this, addiction is still largely considered and treated as a health and criminal issue with allopathic responses seen as the primary solution. Even with the broad understanding of recovery as a social process, this places the fundamental challenge on the individual s shoulders, focusing on a malady within and seeks to bring recovery capital to bear in mending the problem. It does little to identify and address the deeply entrenched socio-economic and political conditions that may have led to the substance use in the first place. In Nurture Development, we believe that a strong case can be made that addiction itself is a social issue and that recovery comes about from living a self-fulfilled life in a healthy community and local economy. The things that people in recovery need to live a full life are no different to what everyone else needs e.g. positive relationships, job/purposeful activity and somewhere safe and secure to live. Communities, including people labelled by their addiction, can create these conditions for recovery and that is their challenge. The development of recovery communities has gone some way in meeting this challenge, yet investment has too often been patchy and linked to service provision. Recovery communities, understandably, tend to focus on those in recovery supporting others in recovery. We want to broaden and extend the challenge to the whole community to step into their role as citizens and create the conditions in which everyone can thrive and in which the socio-economic drivers of addiction weaken. We want to help create communities in which addiction is less likely and in which those who find themselves on a recovery journey, can contribute, tap into and develop the high quality recovery capital they need to flourish. Investment in building these communities will yield a greater return in sustainable change, than augmenting a system of service provision that can be restricted by commissioning structures, budget cuts and internal agendas. We show how neighbourhoods can help find the resources and assets (recovery capital) of each individual and how these can be nurtured and strengthened by friends, neighbours and the wider community, using ABCD, resulting in healthier, safer and more prosperous places to live. The event more than surpassed our expectations Nurture pitched the event perfectly and moved seamlessly from an introduction to ABCD to the application of ABCD in practice the power of communities was a constant thread throughout the day. Mark Stephenson, Tiny Spark Projects

6 Recovery in a Healthy Community One Day Workshop What will you learn? 1 Day Workshop This workshop will: Give you an understanding of the history of ABCD, relating it to your experience of community development and Recovery. Explore the relationship between the core principles of Recovery & ABCD. Define a healthy community that can facilitate Recovery and identify the six building blocks or assets that can be used to build one. Explore how these building blocks can be more effectively identified, connected and mobilised to action in local neighbourhoods. Examine the relationship between institutions and communities using the Geometry lesson (Circles and Triangles). Identify the ABCD Tools for change: Learning Conversations & Asset Mapping. What will you be able to do? You will have a good understanding of ABCD and the contribution that ABCD can make to Recovery in the neighbourhood where you live/work. You will have identified actions that you can take to improve the conditions for people s recovery. The exercise of sharing gifts during our training in Cirencester was life changing and the stories of connections gathered in the space of two hours unearthed the power of conversations to connect people with others in their neighbourhood to build toward meaningful change. Jennine Bailey & Paul Macey, Croydon Voluntary Action

7 Creating the Community where everyone can live a Full Life Two Day Workshop What will you learn? 2 Day Workshop This workshop will: Give you an understanding of the history of ABCD, relating it to your experience of community development, and Recovery. Consider mainstream approaches from needs-based to asset-based with a focus on Recovery Capital. Lead from developments in Whole Person Recovery to Whole Community Recovery with a focus on the role of recovery communities. Help you identify where and how ABCD can change communities and peoples lives using the 12 Domains of Change exercise. Show you how to bring ABCD to life in a neighbourhood using the Six Stepping Stones approach. Use stories and case studies of ABCD in action from our learning sites in the UK and around the world with video input from citizens, community builders and commissioners. Involve you in activities and exercises e.g. Asset Mapping and Learning Conversations that you can then use to introduce ABCD to the neighbourhoods where you live and/or work. Explain how to establish strategic mini grants. Show you how to evaluate the outcomes of ABCD in relation to recovery. What will you be able to do after this workshop? You will be able to take ABCD into action in living neighbourhoods in a way that is respectful of the local context and ultimately create safer, healthier, more economically and environmentally vibrant places to live and to recover. You will be able to use what s strong in the neighbourhood where you live and/or work to deal with what s wrong, but also make what s strong, stronger.

8 Using what s strong to deal with what s wrong, and making what s strong stronger For further information on our Recovery Training or to book a workshop, contact Rebecca Daddow at: T: E: [email protected] W: NURTURE DEVELOPMENT development redefined