People found in these areas:

• Immigrants
• Single Parents
• Elderly
• Disabled (Physical / Mental)
• Chronic Welfare
• the “Invisible”
• Working poor / under employed
• The Addicted
• Aboriginals / First Nations
• Homeless

Things that distinguish/can be found these areas:

• Drug Paraphernalia
• Houses in need of repair (various extremes)
• Convenience Stores
• Pay Day Loan Stores
• Discount Stores
• Gang Markings
• Graffiti
• Kids / Adult idleness
• Closed / Abandoned Properties
• School Drop-outs
• Shopping Carts
• High Density Housing
• No grass or flowers
• Broken down cars
• Gangs
• Noise

Assets Based Community Development

• Use community resources
• Treat relationships as assets
• Mobilization of Community assets
• Identify “Invisible” assets
• Community driven economic development
• People better than programs to engage & create relationships
• Not problem based
• Connects people’s need with assets from within their community
• Asks questions of people
• Intentional
• Dialogue of what is there already – “Web” of gifts & assets
• Discovery of assets, gifts, skills
• Church initiated but “non-threatening”

5 Key Elements of ABCD

1. Individuals & their gifts
2. Associations
3. Institutions
4. Physical Assets
5. Connections

SOCIAL CAPITAL:  Synergy – reciprocal, allows success through relationships

WHAT YOU WANT TO KNOW

• Demographic
• Socio-economic: income, work status
• Ethnic Makeup
• Churches & Schools
• Neighbourhood Associations
• Sports Teams
• Community Events
• What is missing?
• Health Clinics
• Services Available
• Are there problem areas?
• Shopping
• Public Transit (bus routes)
• Parks
• Leisure Activities
• Community Centres
• How long in the neighbourhood?
• Police Services
• Community Pride

HOW YOU CAN GET THIS INFORMATION

• Networking
• Survey
• Observations
• Talk to neighbours (informal)
• Sporting Events
• Small business owners
• Open house ; BBQ, garage sales
• Local Social Clubs
• Radio Shows
• Fliers
• Local Newspapers

WHERE TO GET IT

• Libraries (Local and University Libraries)
• Recreational Facilities
• Early Years Centres
• Retirement Centres
• Neighbourhood Watch
• Local Restaurants
• Tim Horton’s
• Neighbourhood Bar
• Mall, Shopping Centres, Grocery Stores
• Public Health
• Real Estate Board
• MPP, City Council, MP
• School Board, Local School
• Local Churches
• Walking the neighbourhood
• Prayer walk

Hello Everyone,

I’ve finished uploading all of that Neighbourhood Transformation Training Notes – so you can now access them here online thru this blog. They are all under the Category of “London Training”. Categories are located on the right side bar of the blog.

I also wanted to let everyone know that everyone who has already joined the blog has been made an “Author” which means that you have the ability to comment, post, publish your posts, edit them or delete them. You can also include files on your posts, like pictures etc.

If you have any suggestions for the blog please make sure to send them my way. Thanks and God bless you all for all the talents you brought to the group, I really saw everyone shining as I typed up the notes!

God said it; that settles it!

We believe . . . the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, and without which there is no truth or understanding.
We believe . . . the Holy Scriptures are perfect and the final authority for all matters of both life and eternity.
We believe . . . all the feelings, opinions, and traditions of men are inherently worthless and highly dangerous.
We believe . . . humanistic education, the information explosion, and the rejection of God have almost eliminated truth from the earth.
We believe . . . only men born again by the Spirit of God and studying His Word according to His will can see the truth.
We believe . . . this Word is to be studied diligently and according to its own internal rules of interpretation.
We believe . . . the certain truth of God should be declared boldly and plainly on all matters without compromise or apology.
We believe . . . the Internet is a witty invention from God for publishing His absolute and final authority through the whole earth.

We hope you find in the following web pages a bold and plain declaration of the Word of God to defeat the ignorance and ungodliness of the present generation of Christianity.

We humbly submit ourselves and this website as your servants for the glory of God and the salvation of your souls in these perilous times.

William Kamkwamba dreamed of powering his village with the only resource that was freely available to him.His native Malawi had gone through one of its worst droughts seven years ago, killing thousands. His family and others were surviving on one meal a day. The red soil in his Masitala hometown was parched, leaving his father, a farmer, without any income.But amid all the shortages, one thing was still abundant.Wind.”I wanted to do something to help and change things,” he said. “Then I said to myself, ‘If they can make electricity out of wind, I can try, too.’”Kamkwamba was kicked out of school when he couldn’t pay $80 in school fees, and he spent his days at the library, where a book with photographs of windmills caught his eye.”I thought, this thing exists in this book, it means someone else managed to build this machine,” he said.Armed with the book, the then-14-year-old taught himself to build windmills. He scoured through junkyards for items, including bicycle parts, plastic pipes, tractor fans and car batteries. For the tower, he collected wood from blue-gum trees.”Everyone laughed at me when I told them I was building a windmill. They thought I was crazy,” he said. “Then I started telling them I was just playing with the parts. That sounded more normal.”That was 2002. Now, he has five windmills, the tallest at 37 feet. He built one at an area school that he used to teach classes on windmill-building.The windmills generate electricity and pump water in his hometown, north of the capital, Lilongwe. Neighbors regularly trek across the dusty footpaths to his house to charge their cellphones. Others stop by to listen to Malawian reggae music blaring from a radio.When he started building the first windmill in 2002, word that he was “crazy” spread all over his village. Some people said he was bewitched — a common description for people with perplexing behavior in some African cultures.”All of us, even my mother, thought that he had gone mad,” said his sister Doris Kamkwamba.Villagers would surround him to snicker and point, Kamkwamba said. Ignoring them, he would quietly bolt pieces using a screwdriver made of a heated nail attached to a corncob. The heat — from both the crowd and the melted, flattened pipes he used as blades — did not deter him.Three months later, his first windmill churned to life as relief swept over him. As the blades whirled, a bulb attached to the windmill flickered on.”I wanted to finish it just to prove them wrong,” he said. “I knew people would then stop thinking I was crazy.”Kamkwamba, now 22, is a student at the African Leadership Academy, an elite South African school for young leaders. Donors pay for his education.His story has turned him into a globetrotter. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, an avid advocate of green living, has applauded his work. Kamkwamba is invited to events worldwide to share his experience with entrepreneurs. During a recent trip to Palm Springs, California, he saw a real windmill for the first time — lofty and majestic — a far cry from the wobbly, wooden structures that spin in his backyard.Former Associated Press correspondent Bryan Mealer, who covered Africa, wrote a book, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” after hearing Kamkwamba’s story. The book was released in the United States last week.Mealer, a native of San Antonio, Texas, said he lived with Kamkwamba in his village for months to write the book. The story was a refreshing change after years of covering bloody conflicts in the region, Mealer said.Kamkwamba is part of a generation of Africans who are not waiting for their governments or aid groups to come to their rescue, according to the author.”They are seizing opportunities and technology, and finding solutions to their own problems,” Mealer said. “One of the keys of his success is … he’s never wanted to rest on his laurels.”

WHAT IS NETWORKING?

Relationships

Complimenting each other

Learn

Communicate

Interdependent

Avoids duplication

Avoids mistakes, builds on knowledge

Builds Social Capital

Cross- pollination

WHY NETWORK?

Multiplies efforts

Matching gifts & Strengths

Expands effort

Opens door for gospel

Breaks down barriers

Meets them where they are

Meets key Influencers

Changes perception of church

Changes our perception of outside & ourselves

Increases opportunities

HOW DO WE NETWORK?

Events

Look at…

- Current networks, groups, associations

- Programs that already exist

- Informal norms/rules (DOG Walkers)

- Observations

Other Churches (Apologize, Small Churches, Acknowledge Issues)

WHAT MAKES A HEALTHY PERSON/NEIGHBOURHOOD?

1. Empowerment
2. Choices
3. Housing
4. Safety
5. Physical Exercise
6. Nutrition
7. Rest
8. Education
9. Sanitation
10. Jobs/ A Way to earn a living
11. Entertainment
12. Self esteem
13. Aesthetics
14. Spiritual Health
15. Purpose/Role
16. Infrastructure
17. Relationships
18. Health care
19. Leadership

Now that we have learned a lot about urban CHE, and some of us have been trained in the Training of Trainers (TOT) for Rural CHE, I am thinking about how to know when to use Urban and when to use the Rural CHE? Does Lifewind (MACA) acknowledge that sometimes it is necessary to blend the two, or are the programs usually implemented as an isolated entity?

When I was in Argentina a few weeks ago I had the chance to see a few of the programs that are slowly getting off the ground. One, in Baradero, a small town 1 hour from Buenos Aires, was definitely not an urban setting, but I wouldn’t describe it as being very rural either. If I was to pick, I would say it is more rural than urban, but the CHE facilitators were going to be using the Urban CHE for this community. I found that very interesting. Bibi any comments about why they are using Urban, and when to differentiate between the two?