This October, more than 60 people came together in Penticton for a two-day Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) workshop. The gathering was designed to strengthen relationships, build shared practice, and imagine what community leadership can look like across the South Okanagan Similkameen.

Participants included elected officials, service providers, Indigenous partners, grassroots leaders, and neighbours who simply care about where they live. Facilitator Heather Keam from the Tamarack Institute guided the group through conversations focused on gifts, relationships, inclusion, and the strengths already embedded in every community.

Our goals were simple but ambitious:
• Build shared understanding of ABCD approaches.
• Create space for people who don’t often meet to learn together.
• Spark ideas that organizations can adapt to their own context.
• Begin laying the groundwork for a longer-term shift toward community-led solutions.

Over two days, participants mapped community assets – everything from cultural knowledge and lived experience to local parks, halls, trails, and gathering places. Together, they explored how these strengths can support neighbourhood resilience, cultivate belonging, and help people feel more connected to one another.

People shared stories of neighbours taking initiative, small ideas growing into community-wide moments, and the quiet but powerful gifts that often go unnoticed: skills, relationships, creativity, cultural teachings, and the wisdom of long-time residents and Elders.

While this workshop wasn’t about launching new initiatives on the spot, a few clear threads emerged:
• People left feeling more connected – especially across communities that rarely get shared space.
• Participants named new possibilities for bringing neighbours together using the gifts-and-assets lens introduced in the workshop.
• Many expressed interest in continued learning through follow-up sessions, peer circles, or applying ABCD tools in their own settings.

For the Foundation, the workshop affirmed something simple but important: when people slow down, listen deeply, and notice the strengths already around them, connection grows. And connection – to each other, to community spaces, and to local knowledge – is the groundwork for anything we build together.

Thank you to everyone who joined us. Your generosity, stories, and presence made the gathering what it was. If you’re curious about future ABCD learning opportunities, we’d be happy to connect.