Response Paper to McKnight

Building Communities from the Inside Out: a Path toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets described the two common ways that our society takes in rebuilding a troubled community. The most common, and often least effective, way is to identify all of a communities needs. However, as the article points out, focusing on all of the negative aspects only hurts the community more. To me, the first thing that comes to mind is everything that you see in the movies. Unless it is from a community members’ point of view, lower income areas are portrayed as dangerous and void of morality. By zeroing in on the negative and lacking parts of that area, the people from outside of it form a degrading mindset and think of it only as a needy area. In my opinion, the people from outside will eventually begin to resent the constant aid that they pour into the community. Eventually, stereotypes of “slackers” or people “cheating the system” start to take hold, and then the people that really DO need assistance will not receive it. Additionally, doing this starts to make the community’s own members view themselves and their area that way too. Soon there is little pride to be had from your community and you start to believe that you cannot survive without help from the outside.
The other method of building the community is to focus on all of its strengths and assets. By concentrating on the positive parts of the area, members of it can have a sense of pride in the change they are making. Plus, who knows more about a community than its own members? They will know best how to use its positive points to influence its deficient areas and promote growth. As McKnight points out, change happens when the people from within are the ones to implement it. There is nothing more gratifying than realizing that you do matter and can make a positive difference. Although it is important to not completely withdraw help from these communities until they can stand on their own, it is essential to let the members of it have a hand in the decisions being made.

The best part of this article was how I found myself applying it to other situations around the world. Currently in World Geography, I am learning about foreign aid: its history, the types, and the countries and organizations that give it. Take the African country of Malawi for instance; it is projected that within a few months nearly 5 million will be suffering from malnutrition due to the current famine. After years and years of aid, many contributors are saying that the best way to make this country change is to withdraw aid so that they may, “learn their lesson.” However, as feeding shelters begin to overflow and the effects of hunger ripple to other aspects of society, most of these people will not survive if food does not come soon. So what is to be done? I think that by using the methods of this article, some positive change might be implemented. Perhaps just giving money to the corrupt government is not the route to go, but if there is a way to involve the people in changing the irrigation system and building their own resources for grain storage, there will be hope.

Overall, I thought that reading this was an important way for us to look at changing communities. It certainly made me feel less hopeless for the situations that before this seemed doomed either way.