Different with Purpose .. Interview with Allison Lourash, PhD on Asset Based Community Development
From Starfire, this is a podcast on what's more possible in inclusion, community building and relationships.
Jan Goings:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Different with Purpose. I'm Jan Goings with Starfire Cincinnati, and today I am chatting with Allison Lourash, scholar and practitioner of asset-based community development. I'm really excited to speak with Allison to learn more about the promise and practice of ABCD and what it means for individuals and communities.
My first formal introduction to understanding the richness of community was about 2010 in Cincinnati. My personal experience growing up with neighbors, family, teachers taught me that there was a deep richness of care, love, hope and hospitality. There were folks in the Cincinnati area talking about the power of community, and I wanted to learn more. I'm holding my copy of the book, The Abundant Community, subtitled, Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods, authored by John McKnight and Peter Block. And I learned quite a bit from reading and listening over the last 10 years.
A couple of things and points that resonated with me was this idea and premise around the idea of abundance. Abundance is about a variety of gifts and assets and capacities that exist in our community. And our communities are abundantly filled with individuals and neighbors in their own place that they can call their own. And secondly, there's a power in creating new connections and relations among them and between what we have in our own neighborhoods and communities. And third, one thing I realized and as John McKnight and Peter Block share, those connections are not by accident. They happen when we individually or collectively act to make those connections. I'm really glad to make the connection with Dr. Allison Lourash, a leader, scholar, and practitioner with an abundance of gifts. Welcome Allison.
Allison Lourash:
Thanks for having me, Jan. That was a great story and thanks for sharing it.
Jan Goings:
So let me share a little bit about your background with our listeners, and feel free to add more. Allison is identified as a disabled community scholar practitioner. Her research centers around social capital, which I love to talk more with you about social capital and people with disabilities, as well as policy and evaluation of human services programs. Her PhD dissertation focused on community practitioners, working to advance inclusion for people with disabilities using an ABCD lens. And that's what we're going to chat about today.
Allison is also involved in numerous projects with the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at DePaul University, serving as a steward and board member. And welcome Allison to today, and love for you to share more about who you are and the work that you do.
Allison Lourash:
Sure. I was introduced to ABCD or asset-based community development maybe like 15 years ago as an approach in human services or as a lens in human services and have worked most of my career in education or human services around supports and programs for people with disabilities.
So at the time, it just made sense to me as many others say about ABCD. And so, since then I've been really trying to infuse it into my day-to-day work as well as in my work with the ABCD Institute and other projects, including my dissertation.
Jan Goings:
I know for Starfire, asset-based community development has been one of the foundations for our work. Tell us a little bit more about that and what ABCD means to you.
Allison Lourash:
The core of ABCD is that it is resident or community driven. It's not institutionally led. So institutions being government, nonprofit agencies and other organizations who typically hold the power in communities and the funding for projects to improve communities. So relationships are essential in ABCD work. So really thinking about the community as a network of neighbors and what does that look like and what's important to them?
I think the other core piece of ABCD is that it is a glass half full approach. So focusing first on what's strong in a community, not what we need to fix, not what experts or professionals need to come into a community and solve problems that they identified. It's really about looking at the community and that their residents have gifts and talents to contribute to that work and to their community. And when everyone contributes their gifts, magic happens. So it looks both at the assets of the community itself as well as the individual residents, especially those who are underrepresented often in community work or marginalized. And it's looking to build those relationships, especially those that can be mutually supportive. And so when you shift that focus and you shift community planning and community work to an ABCD lens, it really looks very different in terms of roles and power and creates greater opportunity for people led efforts.
Jan Goings:
I grabbed that phrase, the magic happens when you said that, right? So when we pull in the gifts and connections with folks, the magic happens and that shift in power that it really goes back to community and people to own those experiences in the neighborhood. Do give us an example of where you've seen the influence or the impact of ABCD in a community or a neighborhood?
Allison Lourash:
One example I use a lot is several years ago I was working with folks to create a time bank, which can be in, when we talk about social capital, reciprocity is the key component of social capital. So time banks are a way to mutually exchange your gifts and talents with your neighbors, but also find your neighbors that have other gifts and talents that you're in need of.
And relationships are formed that way and reciprocity takes place and just a greater sense of community. A time bank can also, within other contexts, especially for people with disabilities, look to be an opportunity to maybe use more natural supports than services. And I think really looking at using an ABCD lens for a time bank of one, bringing community members together to create that and what it should look like, but also looking at what is the role of institutions and community work. In ABCD, we talk about four questions that frame ABCD work. And the first one is, what can community members do by themselves? That's an example of really thinking about that main question and realizing that institutions don't necessarily need to lead everything in community.
Jan Goings:
Using that lens of ABCD. How do you facilitate communities to help identify those gifts that are probably abundantly in their community?
Allison Lourash:
One is really getting to know a community. This is relational work. So if you're a person maybe from an institution or from an organization where you want to support community, really getting to know the people in that community. So building those relationships, sticking around for a while, it's slow work, but also identifying and working with those key community connectors. Some people are just natural community connectors and also there's just those key community connectors or elders in a community that you want to understand where they're coming from and know what's important to them. So the grandma who sits on her front porch a lot of the day and knows all the kids in the neighborhood is somebody you want to sit on the porch with and learn from. I think that's one of the key pieces of doing this work and also bringing community with you as you go.
Jan Goings:
I love the example that grandma sitting on the porch and it sounds like relationships, as you said, take time. There must be an element of not only a time investment, but intentionality and also perhaps being a keen observer about what's happening in your community and your neighborhood. I know one of the things I like to do is to walk my block. And I know the woman who has a dog that's a black doberman, or if someone's trash cans are still out later than typical, like paying attention to that. But also the neighbor children across the street that love to have the lemonade stand and being able to spend time connecting with them and being really intentional in those experiences. But it does take time. I would say maybe boldness or courage. Would you agree with that?
Allison Lourash:
I think for some folks, maybe a little bit of extroversion to initiate those conversations, but also a level of stepping back and listening and observing. Thinking about if you're having a community meeting, who do you want at the front talking and who do you need in the back listening and observing the dynamics of what's going on. I think really listening to residents is a key skill to work on things in community.
Jan Goings:
So I'd like to explore this idea around hospitality you're saying as we invite people into community and relationships. How do we extend or create that and welcoming experience that people do feel included and connected?
Allison Lourash:
I think really being intentional and again, connecting with community members and knowing your community, I think about in the context of what I talk about on a daily basis and what Starfire is doing, really thinking about access and inclusion. So what does your community space look like when it's welcoming? Is it affirming to everybody to be in that space? Is it not just physically accessible and things like that, but really taking the time to know your community, to know the cultures and customs of the people in the community?
We talk about the six assets, and one of those is not just the assets that you can physically see, but things like traditions. Events and traditions is considered an asset. So thinking about what are the events and traditions that you want to incorporate into community work or be respectful of, but also maybe want to minimize because they've caused harm to people in the community. So all of that goes into planning a community event and getting a lot of feedback and also involvement from different community members.
I talk a lot about, I know folks are like, "Well, we welcome everybody." But how do people know they're welcomed? So I'm doing some work with some service organizations and how they are looking to include more diverse members and realizing that people look at your welcome before they come to your event. So do you put on flyers or different things that encourage people to ask questions if they're uncomfortable or they have concerns or if they're going to need accommodations. Just putting that statement on a flyer is a form of welcome because it says that you're wanting to start that conversation and make sure they're welcomed.
Jan Goings:
I love that. And those are just really great practical steps, but they really do have an impact. So Allison, I was listening to you as you were talking about ABCD, it seems like these principles and practices are universal, right? They are for all folks or all neighborhoods or all communities. Is there a specific connection around ABCD with people with disabilities? I know at Starfire that is where we position ourself in terms of connecting with people with families with disabilities, but I'm just really curious about how you see those interplay.
Allison Lourash:
It's an interesting dance because I see many human service organizations who are providing paid supports, wanting to look at how they support people with disabilities in a more ABCD way. But I think part of that is also recognizing that we need institutions, we need those paid supports, and that is a value to people and a needed service, but that doesn't necessarily represent community. And so how do agencies and organizations support people in their community while not being a barrier to be in community? I think it's a very finite dance of doing that. And I think even just acknowledging that nonprofit organizations providing services are an institution, and one of the key components of ABCD is really looking to the power of associations.
So not looking at needing to end supports, but how can supports look different to be in the background, per se, to encourage folks to be connected to their community. And I think for organizations to just acknowledge that they're institutions. There's a lot of excitement around ABCD work, but utilizing an ABCD lens also recognizes your role within that, but also recognizes that the idea of ABCD is not to, for instance, go to completely looking at natural supports. We're always going to need services, and there's an independence in community when, I as a person with a physical disability to be able to say, "I need this as a paid service in my home. I shouldn't ask my friend for this or my neighbor, I don't need my neighbor for this, but I need to be connected to my neighbor in this way."
So I think really looking at those types of things and continually asking questions about what services and supports look like can really help explore that and is this a support that we need to be providing? I also think on the flip side of that, if we had a community that was more welcoming and also more accessible to people that would also naturally support people with disabilities be in their community more.
Going back to the question of being intentionally welcoming, there's a graphic about kind of the inaccessibility cycle that if people with disabilities are unable to participate, they're not visible in the public. So then disabled people are seen as rare. So we don't need to consider that because we're not seeing people with disabilities in our area. So this kind of continual cycle of, if it's inaccessible and you don't see people with disabilities, you're not recognizing that you need to make things accessible.
We talk about that more in context of business or community spaces, but also just within community. And not just for people with disabilities, but many community events happen on Saturdays. If you are of a faith where that is your holy day, you don't participate in things. So that's a example of, well, why aren't these members of our community attending? So very similar things. So I think institutions, especially organizations serving people with disabilities can certainly have a role in the ABCD of a community.
Jan Goings:
Well, we are excited that you and your colleague, Indigo Bishop, will be coming to Cincinnati and facilitating a three-day learning experience around asset-based community development principles and practices. And I know it's probably not enough time over those three days, but I would love for you to share some of the highlights.
Allison Lourash:
I'm really excited because I think Starfire is really wanting to infuse some great examples of ABCD work into these three days. So we're going to provide a primer on the key components of asset-based community development. We talked about some of those, but also the values of ABCD and asset mapping, which is one of the core pieces of ABCD work that often happens in community and give attendees also some other tools and lots of stories.
So Jody Kretzmann, who is one of the founders of the ABCD Institute along with John McKnight who wrote what we call The Green Book, that kind of created the conversation and gave a name to this work as ABCD, said that stories are community's way of knowing. And so really trying to incorporate the stories. Indigo's from Cleveland and has done work there and also talking about my work in Wisconsin and Illinois. As well as Cincinnati within itself has a deep rich history of ABCD practitioners as well as projects and work that has been done. So sharing all of that and being in community with a great group of folks will be really exciting.
Jan Goings:
It's going to be a really great several days. Our event is held in Findlay Market area Over-the-Rhine. So it's a great active space with a lot of energy and sensory-rich experiences, and we're looking forward to hosting a number of attendees from all over the United States. So we're excited about you and Indigo facilitating us through this learning experience. Allison, is there anything that you'd like to add at the end as we wrap up this conversation today?
Allison Lourash:
I think also having the opportunity to work with Starfire in those three days to talk about things like placemaking and other approaches that use an ABCD lens will be really exciting. And just learning more about Cincinnati. I'm looking forward to that.
Jan Goings:
We are looking forward to having you and having some of our family mentors voices present and IOBY to tell some stories about the work that they're doing in Cincinnati and to really create a space where folks are walking away with the knowledge and tools and power of this experience, but also making some social connections and relationships as we are coming together.
Thank you again. It's a pleasure chatting with you today.