Communities are groups of people brought together by location, interests, beliefs, employment and many other reasons. Striving for self-sufficiency and using local resources to create and maintain community assets leads to financial freedom building community capacity and social capital, as the community builds a stake in their future.
There is a need to understand how to plan and approach asset building and retention. How to define the community and what connects them, how to engage with the community, and how to identify the key assets.
There is a need to understand what is available by way of structures and methods of collaboration. What are the options for possible legal models and hybrid solutions, and what emerging thinking and approaches could be used.
The merging of these two streams can lead to a picture of how the community might take ownership and move ideas into action.