The Asset-Based Neighborhood Development Project brings together three diverse and unique Seattle neighborhoods: Greenwood-Phinney Ridge, International District, and North Beacon Hill for training and surveying of their individual community assets.

Through a collaborative effort with community leaders and Sustainable Seattle staff,  the group applied for a Small and Simple grant from Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods and received almost $15,000 to be trained and collect neighborhood assets. 

Collecting assets is an expansion of the data collection work that has already been established with these neighborhoods since Sustainable Seattle received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in July, 2003 for its Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods Initiative (SUNI).

For the first two years of SUNI, most of the community collected data focused on deficits or concerns, such as graffiti, litter, or vacant buildings collected with the use of handheld computers and digital cameras. 

Why Collect Assets?
Although the original deficit oriented data collection has been useful for engaging community members around problems and concerns at the street-level, SUNI neighborhood partners realized that this is only part of the story of a community.

The Asset-Based Neighborhood Development Project funded by DON has come to a close.  Some of the accomplishments of this effort has been the following:

•  On April 16 and 17, 2005, 32 neighborhood leaders and Sustainable Seattle staff came together for a training by Jim Diers, former Director of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, and Mike Green, both professional trainers of the ABCD Institute.  The training involved discussions of the importance of assets in community building, how to collect assets, and past examples of asset-based projects.
  
• Following the ABCD training, trainees were challenged to come up with their own asset-based mapping project or event in their individual neighborhoods.

The International District

The International District, under the guidance of youth from the Wilderness Inner City Leadership Development project (a program of the International District Housing Alliance) conducted a two-tiered approach to asset collection.  First, with the help of Sustainable Seattle, they modified the street-level surveys to include assets (as well as deficits).  The youth also conducted an intercept survey at a neighborhood event so that residents could identify their personal assets, such as plumbing, cooking, language skills.  Organizations located in the International District have also been identified as assets.

North Beacon Hill

On October 22, 2005, North Beacon Hill residents and business owners gathered at Mercer School for a pancake breakfast to discuss what they wanted for their neighborhood by expanding on community assets.  Over 200 people were in attendance, included guest speaker Jim Diers, who excited the crowd with encouraging stories of successful projects built upon community assets.   Potential future projects were identified at the breakfast including improving a viewpoint to attract non-residents to the neighborhood, starting up a farmer's market, and emergency preparedness project among others.  To view photos of the event, click here.

Greenwood-Phinney Ridge

On November 15, 2005, approximately 50 people gathered at the Wayward Coffeehouse in Greenwood to discuss what makes a neighborhood great.  A special guest panel led the discussion: Jim Diers, author of Neighborhood Power: Building Community the Seattle Way; Ron Sher, owner of 3rd Place Books and Friends of Third Place Commons;  Milenko  Matanovic, artist, community organizer, and Founder of Pomegranate Center; and Diane Sugimura, City of Seattle's Director of Planning and Development.  The conversation led to discussions of public safety, gathering places, inclusion of all neighbors, and pedestrian-oriented communities.  To see the event flyer, click here.  To see a map of some community assets in the Greenwood-Phinney neighborhood, click here.

• Two ABCD experts, Andrew Gordon and Willem Scholten were hired to give recommendations on the current asset collection process using the handheld computers for street-level surveys.  Their suggestions will be incorporated into the street-level surveys in all 10 neighborhood partners for future asset data collection activities.