Jazzing our way towards a powerful community

The Tamarack Institute sent today an invitation to attend their ABCD Community of Practice session on Wednesday 29.09.21 . The session will centre around John McKnight, Co-founder, Asset-Based Community Development Institute and Senior Associate at the Kettering Foundation latest learning bulletin called ABCD, Jazz and the Structure of Powerful Communities.

In the learning, he present the local innovations which occured in neighbourhood over the pandemic though dispersed actors and then go on to introduce the invisible neighbourhood structure which enable innovative citizenships to emerge.

The three elements that creates this specific context are:

1. Communality - the place, the desire tot celebrate, entertain and enjoy

2. Individual Capacities - Every neighbour has the belief that they have special gifts, talents or knowledge to share

3. Connectivity - the consideration that all local capacities are latent and what brings them to life is connectivity. Through connections the capacities power is created and citizenship can truly emerge.

As I read his words, I reflected on the conversations at Quetzal about our weak connections (Connectivity with the female survivors and volunteers using our building (Our Communality) and all their hidden individual capacities that could when uncovered transform Quetzal into a truly powerful community (Individual Capacity). What we ought to do more of is making the necessary effort to connect at a one-to-one level and ask simple questions: what is your story, what is your talents, what is that you would like to share with others?

From there anything is possible.