Session Plan

Session 2

Assets and Deficits:

Identifying Our Resources

and Expectations

Rationale

Both problem based (deficit) and strength based (asset) approaches

to community development have contributed much to our thinking

in the  and reflect much of what we already do. The fact

that  programming is based on projects defined by problem

statements often leads us to focus on what's missing and how we can

fix it. On the other hand, the majority of the analysis carried out with

the Participatory Analysis for Community Action (PACA) tools

revolves around identifying and using assets in the community to bring

about positive change. Perhaps the most powerful lesson of the

strength based approaches is the mindset that is created from the

beginning. This is best illustrated by the phrase,  The first question is

fateful.  If you begin working with people by dwelling on their

deficits, what type of self image are you fostering? So many of the

' projects aim to improve self esteem that identifying

assets becomes a critical task.

Rather than viewing assets based and problem based approaches as

a dichotomy, it may be more helpful to think of them in terms of a

continuum. Our role along the continuum is clear: we need to start

with what people have and can do, not with what is missing. What

they see as missing may not be (or at least not all be) problems. They

may in fact be things they want, or perhaps need in order to change.

There are such things as problems, however, and the word has its

place. So do the critical thinking skills that lead to problem solving

In this session the distinction between asset and deficit thinking is

introduced. The participants, in small groups, consider themselves a

community, and describe themselves by their assets. They also

experience what describing or being described by their deficits would

feel like and, afterwards, reflect on the effects of the two approaches.

At the end of the session, the group uses the information generated

from the assets and deficits mapping to identify their expectations

for the actual workshop.

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