THOUGHTS

When I first started working for Iowa State Extension and Outreach, I learned to focus on the assets a town has and not on their deficits. I’ve found this to be so helpful and so effective. I grew up in Mississippi and I’ve lived in Iowa for the last 15 years. In both states, I spend a lot of time driving around and listening the stories. It’s the best part of my job. In each new community I visit, I inevitably meet hear about someone doing some really creative thing to make their community better. These folks are scrappy – pulling together local resources and assets and talents together that’s grassroots, creative, and locally impactful.

On any given day, I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. Still. Seven years in. I’ve learned by doing, screwing up, changing, redoing. From watching other folks way wiser and more experienced than I am.

A few weeks ago, I wrote 7 Signs of a Vibrant Community, which is a brief introduction to the concept of the Community Capitals Framework. As a recap, the CCF provide us with seven distinct areas to evaluate to see how healthy our places (and consequently our people) are. While all seven are necessary for having a high quality of life, I’ll defend social capital to my grave as really being the glue that binds everything else together.

Many blogs ago, I rattled on about the basics of asset-based community development***, including why it’s been so influential to me as an artist and how it’s been the grounding nugget of The What’s Good Project. Each painting that I create is a testament to an asset shared with me by someone with strong ties to that particular community.