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same agencies working in the same room having a very different understanding
and experience of working with mainstream services. This isolation was starkly
contrasted with the close relationships observed within criminal justice agencies,
where joint working protocols were clear, expectations on both sides were well
documented and co-location of service delivery normalised. There were some
examples where mutually beneficial relationships had been fostered in other
areas, but this was far less systematic. These points are by no means meant as
criticism of people with high caseloads of complex people in difficult working
environments, but help to illustrate the peripheral nature of multi-agency working
within some sectors.
Acknowledging the potential benefits of community assets, we are working
with Baseline Research and Development to ‘map’ resources (local people and
organisations), build connections between them and explore how they could
potentially enhance existing provision. This process will help us to understand
how community-led initiatives are initially formed and developed, and this learning
will be used to help establish similar activities where they do not currently exist.
Ultimately, we hope to encourage strong relationships between specialist
interventions, mainstream services, voluntary associations and local individuals
that will enable the co-production of a vibrant pathway that both draws from and
gives back to local communities.
BUILDING STRENGTHS
A second way in which asset-based approaches are being explored in
Staffordshire is through the recognition of the role that the development of
personal assets (strengths and interests) can play in people’s recovery – ideas
that were firmly established through the emphasis on ‘recovery capital’ in the
2010 drug strategy. In the same way that health is much more than the absence
of sickness, recovery is perhaps much more than the absence of addiction, and
the development of protective factors have a role to play alongside the alleviation
of problems or deficits.
There are a number of ways in which strengths and interests are being
encouraged in Staffordshire, including the recent launch of RIOT radio
(www.riotradio.co.uk) – an internet-based radio station run by people in recovery.
The station provides the opportunity for people to express their talents, as well as
develop new skills and interests. Following a small amount of investment and
training, the station broadcasts for up to ten hours a day, five days a week and is
hoping to apply soon for an FM licence to broadcast locally as a traditional
community radio station with a recovery twist. Not only does the radio station
provide the opportunity for people in recovery to build and display their skills, and
thereby strengthen their recovery, it also provides the opportunity to give something
back to the community – one of the founding principles of the station is that it
broadcasts a positive message, a highly visible (or audible!) form of recovery.
PEOPLE AS ASSETS
Through the radio station and other similar projects it is apparent how the people
in recovery and recovery communities become assets to the wider community,
helping other people struggling with drug and alcohol problems, breaking down
stigma, and contributing to society through fund raising and huge amounts of
voluntary work.
Observing such positive activities sparked the idea of this article: people in
recovery (not least through recovery communities) can be enormous assets to
their local neighbourhoods and community-led organisations. These initiatives
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Community assets
have huge potential to enhance specialist treatment provision – while services
can encourage the development of personal strengths and interests, they can
also enable people to become assets themselves, presenting what might be
considered a ‘virtuous circle’.
A real ‘light-bulb’ moment occurred at one of the asset-mapping workshops
that wonderfully illustrated the potential of asset-based approaches. What
became clear from the session was that there are numerous local people and
organisations that are putting huge amounts of time and effort into developing
their community, not for financial reward but because of a deep-held desire to
make their areas better places for people to live. However, this begged the
question of how much these community assets could achieve with just a small
amount of external support and resources, given the inherent motivation and
time contributed without cost.
While the activities of some of the local organisations may not have a direct
impact on people’s recovery, they did raise the possibility that asset-based
community development (ABCD) could potentially operate as a form of prevention.
While drug and alcohol problems clearly impact across all communities, they are
disproportionately concentrated in the most deprived areas, where risk factors are
high and protective factors low. However, the evidence base for effective
prevention appears to primarily relate to initiatives focused on changing the
behaviour of individual people (such as education in schools) and to some extent
families (such as the Strengthening Families programme).
Given the social elements of drug/alcohol problems and their concentration in
often closely defined localities, the ‘community’ could perhaps become the focus
of prevention. An ABCD approach offers opportunities to make communities more
cohesive, build connections and enhance protective factors, all of which could act
to prevent drug/alcohol problems developing in the first instance. While this, at
the time of writing, is very much only a germ of an idea, exploring community-
focused initiatives with an asset-based approach is perhaps something worthy of
further examination.
The asset-based perspective has contributed much more to the development
of the local strategy than was originally anticipated. This is probably because the
insights outlined above touch on what are fundamental but sometimes under-
estimated issues: people with complex needs can benefit from the community
and not just specialist resources; building strengths/protective factors can
complement addressing needs/deficits; and people in recovery are often
enormous assets to recovery and wider communities. While asset-based
perspectives may not offer wholly new ways of working (all of the examples cited
above draw from existing approaches), they nevertheless suggests a common
thread between what otherwise appear as somewhat disparate ideas and could
usefully galvanise them in the same way that the term ‘binge drinking’ did not
create the issue but helped to add sense and communicate a concept.
The approach also helps in creating a positive atmosphere of wellbeing that
promotes better partnerships across disparate public services and the people
and communities they serve. It will remain at the core of delivering the
Staffordshire Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
DDN
Further reading: McKnight, J. Block, P. (2010) The Abundant Community. Berrett-
Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, California.
Anthony Bullock is commissioning lead for alcohol, drugs, smoking and mental
wellbeing, Public Health Staffordshire; Samantha Weston is lecturer in
Criminology, University of Keele; and Dr Aliko Ahmed is director of public health,
Public Health Staffordshire.
‘Given the social elements of
drug/alcohol problems and their
concentration in often closely
defined localities, the “community”
could perhaps become the focus
of prevention...’
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