I first got involved with Community Assets working with Community Woodlands in Scotland.  At the turn of the millenium i was lucky enough to learn from the board of the Abriachan Forest Trust -- they let me attend their monthly board meetings for over a year and made me feel very welcome. As time passed and i grappled with how to make community developments 'sustainable' i came to realize that ownership of a CW was the fulcrum around which all sorts of important activity developed -- people gained new skills in managing and promoting their asset; the wider community gained public goods and often, in the growing tourims/experience economy, capitalized on the drawing power of the asset.  The links between people within the community and between the community and the outside world also increased.  Thus, they had developed what Putnam calls 'bridging' capital (links with outside) and 'bonding' social captial (links within the community).

Working at the Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research exposed me to John Bryden and Keith Hart's Distinctiveness of Rural Areas project which showed how high social capital, existing cultural practices and goods, and strong local and regional identities were important parts of how successful rural areas were able to develop.  This made me realize there are two kinds of Community Assets -- Tangible Assets and Intangible Assets.   The former are the buildings, land and other material assets which form the essential fulcrum around which development hinges.  And the latter are the skills, practices, knowledge and networks which communities develop in the process of developing the material assets.  All are needed for successful sustainable community development, whether rural or urban.  And all are amenable to development.  Communities can acquire assets -- governments and charitable funders have programmes to support this, and there are all sorts of examples of innovative ways for communities to acquire assets.   And Intangible Assets can be developed -- skills can be acquired; the process of doing one project builds community capacity which can be used to take on another.  It is a virtuous circle -- but 'Virtue' is another topic, one i focus on in the "Making Place" section of the website.

These Links will take you to some of the people i have met along this learning journey and to some of the organisations who work to support community asset development