At TEDxExeter, Cormac Russell presents a compelling vision of community development that challenges conventional notions of helping. His talk titled "Transforming Challenges into Strengths: The Power of Sustainable Community Development" explores how traditional approaches to aid often unintentionally harm the very people and neighborhoods they aim to support, and he offers an alternative rooted in recognizing and mobilizing existing community strengths.
Rethinking What It Means to Help
Russell begins by posing a simple question: “What does it actually mean to help another human being?” While the impulse to help is both powerful and beautiful, he argues that many forms of helping carry a shadow side. Too often, help focuses on what is wrong, deficient, or broken within individuals and communities. This “problem-first” approach, though well-intentioned, leads to unintended consequences that can cause long-term harm.
Drawing on the insight of Harvard academic Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Russell explains that when people are forced to change by external powers, they experience it as violence; conversely, when people change for themselves, it feels like liberation. This distinction underscores the importance of supporting self-driven transformation.
The Harm in Focusing on Deficits
Russell highlights four major harms that result from deficit-focused helping:
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Defining People by Their Problems: Instead of recognizing the gifts and capacities people possess, programs singularly focus on deficiencies, which dehumanizes those they intend to help.
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Misallocation of Resources: Funds meant for those in need often end up enriching service providers rather than the communities themselves.
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Erosion of Active Citizenship: Increasing reliance on technocratic expertise sidelines grassroots initiative, eroding local power and ownership.
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Internalized Deficiency: Communities labeled as deficient eventually believe that salvation lies only in outside intervention, undermining community confidence and agency.
Russell stresses that these are unintended but real consequences that professional helpers must acknowledge and avoid.
A New Way: Starting with Strengths
The alternative Russell proposes flips traditional helping inside out, focusing first on what is strong within people and their communities. This approach is rooted in decades of research, notably the groundbreaking work by John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann in the late 1980s. Their extensive study across 300 neighborhoods in North America uncovered six core “building blocks” — the assets and capacities communities use to enact sustainable, endurable change from within.
Across the world, from indigenous groups to urban neighborhoods, these building blocks have shown consistent relevance. By identifying, connecting, and mobilizing a community’s hidden treasures, change occurs naturally and respectfully.
Stories of Strength: Leeds and Wirral
Russell shares moving examples from his work in the UK that bring these ideas to life.
- Leeds: Here, community builders have shifted focus from treating older people as isolated clients to connecting them as active citizens at the heart of their communities. A case in point is Robin, a man in his seventies who lost his wife and faced loneliness. Instead of seeing him as vulnerable, a community builder asked about his passions, learning that he loved carving walking sticks. Today, Robin leads a multi-generational group that crafts walking sticks, fostering inclusion and purpose.
Russell emphasizes how such stories reclaim the dignity and soul of individuals, showing that people are not “clients” but citizens with gifts to share.
- Wirral: In this community, an artist named Frank identified a different challenge — the neglected environment of New Brighton beach. Instead of organizing another routine litter pick or petitioning authorities, Frank imagined a creative project involving locals: creating a pirate ship out of collected debris. This artistic, inclusive approach transformed a problem into a community-driven celebration of care, illustrating how artistic vision and community strengths can combine for meaningful change.
Building Respectful, Asset-Based Relationships
Russell advocates for a fundamental shift in how helpers engage with communities — moving from a top-down, deficit lens to one that prioritizes respect, partnership, and the inherent power within people. When we view communities through the lens of their strengths, we open the door to transformation that is authentic, sustainable, and self-propelled.
Conclusion
Cormac Russell’s TEDxExeter talk challenges us to reconsider the nature of help and community development. By moving beyond problem-focused interventions and instead investing in community assets, relationships, and capacities, we can transform challenges into strengths. His stories from Leeds and Wirral exemplify the real-world power of this approach and offer hope for building communities where everyone’s gifts matter.
Russell’s message is clear: sustainable change is not about rescuing people but about partnering with them — recognizing that the most enduring solutions come from within the people and places themselves. This paradigm shift holds vast potential to empower communities worldwide to thrive fully and authentically.
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