Activity of the Month: Gifts BINGO, setting the stage for appreciating individuals' talents

When we do a training, we find it’s especially helpful for everyone to give each activity a little bit of context. So that’s what we’re trying to do here – bring a bit of our training interaction to the Internet by highlighting a great activity from one of our tool kits and explaining how it may fit into the greater scheme of community change work. We hope to do this on a regular basis, so check back often – we also want to hear about your experiences with an activity and a theme, so please comment and share your thoughts!

This activity, "Gifts BINGO" is part of our Building Community toolkit, a resource that brings an asset-based approach to community work. Gifts BINGO is a great activity to plan for the beginning of a meeting. It not only breaks the ice among group members, but sets the stage for work that requires and appreciates all manners and kinds of individuals' talents and contributions.

Individuals come to community work with a wealth of personal experiences, talents, and insights. These gifts, in collaboration with other team members' gifts, are crucial to deep-rooted and sustained community change; however, it is easy for individuals' gifts to go unnoticed. By engaging team members in talking about their experiences and talents, however obscure, groups discover assets they never knew they had. This variation of BINGO paves the way for such discoveries.

What gifts and experiences do YOU contribute to your community change group?