Publications

Hope and Insight in Practice

Luther Snow's publications:

• are clear, lively, and well written
• share real world examples and lessons
  
• provide practical tips and guidance
  
• are insightful and inspirational

Buy the Book!

You can purchase the following books directly from the author (signed and dedicated to you!) or from the publishers or traditional booksellers.  Click below for more detail and purchasing information for each title.

• The Power of Asset Mapping: How Your Congregation Can Act on Its Gifts
• The Organization of Hope: A Workbook for Rural Asset-Based Community Development
• Community Transformation: Turning Threats into Opportunities.

Click here for more information on Luther's other Publications.

The Power of Asset Mapping: 
How Your Congregation Can Act on its Gifts. 
Published by the Alban Institute, Herndon, VA, 2004.  148 pages.

Bestseller and Early Description of Luther's Asset Mapping process.
The Alban Institute is a well-known consulting firm to congregations and faith communities, and they generally publish the work of their own consultants, but they made an exception for this title.  It's been a bestseller, selling as strongly today as when it came out.

This book contains the first widely-published description of Luther's Quick and Simple Asset Mapping Experience, with notes and tips for facilitators.  The book is written for a congregational audience, yet it is accessible to any community or group leader. 

Many volunteers use this book to prepare for leading Asset Mapping with a voluntary group.  If you are a paid professional, use the book to consider how this might apply to your work and to contact Luther to propose mutually beneficial consultation.

"This book is revolutionary in the best sense of the word.  it does a beautiful job of combining spirit and practice.  It is both inspiring and useful.  While ostensibly aimed at congregational and religious life, it should be the operating manual for anyone trying to transform institutions, communities, or nations."

"In these times of shrinking budgets and sagging ranks of volunteers, Luther Snow shares God's abundance in The Power of Asset Mapping. . .  Asset Mapping works with any group, and almost anyone can facilitate it.  Give it a try!" 


"Action-oriented love can change things.  That's my conclusion after ready this how-to book that offers much more than instructions." 


"It's about people discovering their assets and mobilizing them for ministry.  You will want to use this process, and you can -- because it's that easy."



Personalized Copy:  To purchase this book directly from the author, signed and dedicated to you, your group, or your designate:

Follow these instructions to buy with Paypal or a credit card. 

First, click on the link below.  Then, when you get to the "Review your Payment" page, click on "Add special instructions to merchant," and indicate the name of the person or group you would like Luther to make the dedication out to.

Or, send a check or money order for $18 + $4 1st class shipping and handling = $22 to:
           Luther K. Snow, 409 Upper Broadway, Decorah, IA  52101

Be sure to include the name of the person or group you would like Luther to dedicate the book to.

To purchase this book from the publisher, Alban Institute
Click here.
http://www.alban.org/bookdetails.aspx?id=956

The Organization of Hope:
A Workbook for Rural Asset-Based Community Development.

Published by the Asset-Based Community Development Institute, Northwestern University, 2001.  Sponsored by the Blandin Foundation, Grand Rapids, MN.  120 pages.

Bestseller at the Birth of the Positive Rural Development Movement
When this book was written, the field of rural development was widely negative.   Experts were wringing their hands, wondering if rural is "obsolete."  But the ABCD Institute and the Blandin Foundation got together with an all-star Editorial Committee of grassroots leaders, who identified and showcased rural communities who are using their rural strengths and assets to get things done.  They saw ruralness as strength, not weakness, and saw real opportunity for rural community development.

And since the publication of this book, the field of rural development has made a remarkable shift to the positive, thanks to a widespread movement of people like the folks described here.

The examples here address real and tough questions for rural communities:  "How do we develop and sustain our youth?"  "How do we protect our culture?"  How do we create jobs and business?"  "How do we organize for power and results?"

The strategies come from every kind of rural community, from every corner of the nation, the Heartland to the Sea Islands off the Carolinas, mountain country to the Colonias on the border with Mexico.  Their stories are their own, but the lessons they learned about approaching rural community from an "asset perspective" are useful and inspirational to anyone.

The Editorial Board that shaped and guided the book included:

• Terry Lynn Holley, VP for Programs and Rural Development, East Tennessee Foundation, TN
• Jim Krile, Director, Blandin Community Leadership Program, MN
• John Kretzmann, Co-Director, ABCD Institute, IL
• Deborah Puntenney, Director of Research and Publications, ABCD Institute, IL
• Diane Littlefield, Executive Driector, Center for Collaborative Planning, CA
• Bernie Mazyck, CEO, South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations, SC
• Frank Sanchez, Program Officer, Needmor Fund, CO
• Geralyn Sheehan, Community Development Consultant, MN
• Carol Spearman, Director, Blandin Community Investment Partnership, MN
• Dianne Williams, Consultant to the Kellogg and Rapides Foundations, AR

To purchase this book directly from the author, signed and dedicated to you, your group, or your designate:

Send a check or money order for $12 + $5 express shipping = $17 to
Luther K. Snow, 409 Upper Broadway, Decorah, IA  52101

Be sure to include the name of the person or group you would like Luther to dedicate the book to.

To purchase this book from the distributor, ACTA Publications,
click here:
http://www.abcdinstitute.org/publications/workbooks/

Community Transformation:
Turning Threats into Opportunities
Published by the Asset-Based Community Development Institute, Bethel New Life, and the Chicago Association of Neighborhood Development Organizations, 2001.  With assistance from Uchenna Ukaegbu.  Sponsored by the Woods Charitable Trust, with additional support from the Chicago Community Trust/Kinship Foundation.  97 pages.

Nuts and Bolts Lessons from Community Innovators.
Some books about community development come with "rose-colored glasses."  The partners who developed this book meant it to provide real, tough, practical lessons for community development practitioners and leaders.

The cases in the book are among the most dramatic and exciting examples in the the nation of the power of grassroots development .  There's the nation's first "transit-oriented development," sparked not by a transit authority, but by the Spanish Speaking Unity Council in Oakland.  There's the Pathway Supermarket developed by Absynnian Development Corporation, the first supermarket ever to serve the 350,000 residents of Harlem.  There's the case of the monumental fishing initiative of Coastal Enterprises, Inc, striving to restore the fishing supply and the community economies of rural Maine.

In each case, you'll hear from the staffers and leaders who were there on the ground.  They share their heartaches as well as their victories, and tell you how they managed to assemble the partnerships, package the financing, manage the politics, and keep the faith over the length of the process, sometimes for years.

If you are a community developer, economic developer, or volunteer leader, you'll want to read this book to see you are not alone, and that yes, it can be done.


To purchase this book directly from the author, signed and dedicated to you, your group, or your designate:

Send a check or money order for $12 + $5 express shipping = $17 to
Luther K. Snow, 409 Upper Broadway, Decorah, IA  52101

Be sure to include the name of the person or group you would like Luther to dedicate the book to.

To purchase this book from the distributor, ACTA Publications,
click here:
http://www.abcdinstitute.org/publications/workbooks/

Other Publications, Articles, and Presentations

Strategies for Sustainable Small Town and Rural Development, series published by Consumer's Energy, Michigan, 2009.

http://www.consumersenergy.com/content.aspz?id=1868

• Transformational Strategy and Rural Latino Development, with Susan Murty and Elizabeth Mendez-Shannon, white paper for the Northwest Area Foundation, 2008.

Civic Engagement in Higher Education: Reflection, Power, Evaluation, Risk Management, contributing editor with Campbell, Hamerlinck, Kim-Han, Morton, Pribbenow, Campus Compact, 2007.

http://www.compact.org/resources/civic-engagement-in-higher-education/1272/

• Asset Thinking and Network Strategy. Presentation for national staff of the Episcopal Church.
• A New Paradigm for Community Economic Development, presentation for the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, 2007
• Ruralness is a Strength. Keynote presentation to National Rural Economic Development Association, 2009.
• Sustainability is Thinking Backwards: Networked Strategies for Rural Economic Development, presentation to Rural Development Initiatives, Inc., 2005.
• The Networked Youth Development Center: A Business Model for Systemic Change, collaborative product for the Humboldt Park Youth Coalition, Chicago, 2003.
• Convergence: Trends in Academic, Community and Business Development, report to the Ford Foundation for DePaul University, 2001
• Community Planning from the Bottom Up, community planning model developed by grassroots groups, Community Workshop on Economic Development, 1992.
• "The Community's Perspective on the Land Development Process," in Challenging Uneven Development: An Urban Agenda for the 1990s, ed. by Philip W. Nyden and Wim Wiewel, Rutgers University Press, 1991.
• Economic Development Breaks the Mold: Community-Building, Place-Targeting, and Empowerment Zones," Economic Development Quarterly, May, 1991.