Resource Database

Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) is a place-based framework that can help build strong, safe, and healthy neighborhoods and communities. By bringing the community together and focusing on the gifts within, ABCD helps residents, associations, nonprofits, government, and the business community, to act collectively as co-producers of their community’s well-being.

From the Main Street Guide from Village Well "Main streets are the thriving heart of the local economy, influencing the economic, cultural, social and environmental fabric of the surrounding area. They are places where people live, work and play; however in recent years, many main streets have been in decline as the rise of online shopping, increased dependence on cars, and big regional shopping centres have dominated the retail scene.

Today, the old-fashioned pattern of local villages serving their communities is in vogue again. Local villages are seen as the key to supporting a healthier, more walkable and sustainable lifestyle, better connected local communities and greater opportunity for local economic development.

It’s becoming more widely recognised that our streets are valuable community assets. Creating a great main street requires a return to human-scale elements (textural building materials, sounds, wafts of delicious food, window shopping, trees, smaller sized retail spaces, park benches), and putting people back as the focus. It requires deep community participation, forward thinking design activities, food, beauty and embedding local identity.

This simple Guide provides 10 key steps to create a great main street and demonstrates that main streets are more than just conduits for traffic and commerce; they are the stages upon which public life is to be celebrated. Enjoy!"

From the introduction of The New Local Activation Toolkit: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused far- reaching social and economic impacts and immense challenges that have forced us to quickly alter the way we interacted with our cities, streets, neighbourhoods and public spaces. This has fundamentally challenged our sense of place and the foundations of public daily life.

It is anticipated that our cities, towns and neighbourhoods will experience ongoing repercussions of COVID-19, yet the extent of these are hard to envisage and understand today. One thing that is certain, however,

is that the pandemic has demonstrated incredible examples of community resilience, our ability to come together and keep each other safe, while also creatively enjoying ourselves in whatever way we can. It has also shifted our way of life to a more local scale, and we believe that this ‘New Local’ will be critical in refocusing the role and contribution of community, economic development and placemaking in building resilient cities, towns and neighbourhoods in a post-COVID-19 and climate change world.

We understand that the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 are still emerging
and have not been felt evenly across our communities and regions. Recognising the unique lived experiences, opportunities

and challenges of each place will be an important piece of the puzzle when planning for recovery. Furthermore, as we continue to re-emerge and plan for this recovery, it will be important to mobilise available information and expertise, authentically engage with local communities and leverage existing investment strategically to support capacity building and

amenity improvements, as well as identify creative ways in which to safely welcome communities to meet, socialise, shop and connect locally.

This is what the purpose of this Toolkit is – a guide beside and inspirational tool to kickstart your creative ideation process around ways to build back better by putting people, place and planet first. Alongside some actions specific to this ongoing recovery, this Toolkit also inspires an ongoing narrative around building stronger and more inclusive, regenerative and resilient places and communities. It draws on global examples but mostly focuses on Australian ones, some of which are specific to our ‘place’: Melbourne.

The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) believes that all placemaking is creative. PPS is a hub that connects people, ideas, expertise, and partners who have a passion for creating vital places.

Village Well is one of the world’s leading placemaking organisations. We passionately believe in creating a more just and regenerative world with more inclusive, resilient and thriving communities and places. We act as a conscious and purpose-driven organisation but think like a movement towards creating a fair and kind world. For nearly 30 years we have worked with more than 2000 places and communities, from helping to make Melbourne one of the most liveable cities, to revitalising small towns and communities around the world.