Actions and Callings

Six Asset-Focused Actions (From ERD’s AR&R integrated document)

As we live into our role of catalysts for asset-based transformation, Episcopal Relief & Development calls our attention to 6 simple asset-focused actions we should recognize and reinforce in ourselves and in others:

Affirm:       Affirm people’s existing gifts (assets) and attribute results to people’s own actions. The words used to voice appreciation and positive affirmation can powerfully combine to lift people’s emotional and spiritual states, and thus motivate them toward their true potentials. In our work we should seek genuine opportunities to recognize and reinforce people’s existing assets and positive actions, which in turn ignite an increase in people’s asset use (i.e., identification, valuing, protection, multiplication, application and sharing).

Include:       Include all persons, and value all contributions and gifts.  We are called to seek God in all persons and to respect the dignity of all who are made in God’s image. In our work we should therefore recognize and reinforce the principle that all people have God-given gifts and God-like value, and that no person or group is void of a contribution or ability to participate.

Integrate:       Integrate multi-sectoral activities. Holistic human development focuses upon the physical as well as the emotional, intellectual, social, environmental, and spiritual wellness and growth of individuals. In our work we are called to recognize, reinforce and integrate multi-sectoral activities that contribute to holistic wellness.

Facilitate:       Facilitate people’s discovery, decision-making and action. More sustainable development and transformational change comes when people learn from their own self-discovery and action – – which involves cycles of reflection and action that provide opportunities for dialogues, critical thinking, decision-making, experiences, exploration, and experimentation. In our work we should seek to recognize and reinforce the important role and skills of facilitators in creating opportunities and environments where people can discover, decide, act and grow.

Connect:       Connect people to people, and people to institutions; build bonds, bridges and links. The strengthening of people’s bonds within like groups, bridges between different groups, and linkages across social hierarchies of power all contribute to increases in the quantity and quality of an individual’s/community’s social assets (Aldrich, 2012). At the same time, relationships can be both beneficial and transformative when they encompass a mutual respect for the dual blessing that lies within being able to give and being able to receive. In our work we have the opportunity to recognize and reinforce situations that can heal or foster relationships and social bond/bridges/links, strengthen trust, and nurture reciprocity and healthy inter-dependencies based on people’s giving, receiving, sharing and collective use of their strengths, gifts and assets.

Demonstrate:       Model personally and institutionally the asset-focused philosophy we preach. Demonstrative leadership and modeling is a powerful motivator of others and a clear declaration of one’s own convictions and beliefs. In our work, in our daily interactions with partners, communities, colleagues and constituencies we must recognize and reinforce the powerful example that demonstrative leadership has, and seek to be a model of and inspiration for asset-focused transformation.

Types of callings:

• Pastoral Care
• Faith Formation and Education
• Social Justice and Outreach
• Stewardship
• Evangelism
• Liturgy and Sacrament
• Hospitality