ABCD in Practice Workshop

Community Partnerships That Work
For Stronger Communities

How does a community start to move toward a wider circle of people working together to address problems and realize goals? Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) is a powerful approach to community development that will focus your effort on discovering and mobilizing the resources that are already present in a community. “Assets” are resources that become valuable when they are made productive. ABCD makes visible and concrete the basic structure for building a strong community. It comes from three interconnected activities: discovering local assets, connecting these local assets to work together, and then creating opportunities where these assets can be productive and powerful together (power meaning the ability to act effectively). When a group of people discover what they have they find power. When people join together in new connections and relationship they build power. When people become more productive together, they exercise their power to address problems and realize dreams. Together we are better.

Building the Road as You Walk It: Guiding Principles, Not Recipes

Each community development group has to find its unique path to success. There is no one model or recipe. People often want specific formulas, recipes, and models for community development that they can replicate. That approach does not work very well. Each situation is unique. Yet in some general ways all community partnership building is similar. So much more useful than specific recipes are “guiding principles” about how things work in community building. These can help you decide what is worth doing in your unique and specific situation. For an example from another field, if we wanted to help cooks become really good cooks, what would be most helpful are not specific recipes to follow but instead for our cooks to develop a deeper understanding of the principles of good cooking based on other successful chefs’ experience. Another important point to remember is that good community building is an art, not a technology. Our approach recognizes that people learn best how to build “community partnerships that work” successfully by learning from their own experience, by having clear principles of practice, and by learning from the experience of other community builders.

OUTLINE OF WORKSHOP

This workshop is for people engaged in the practice of community mobilizing and community development. The workshop will also be useful to people who manage, support or invest in community development projects to build stronger communities. We will have a blend of short presentations, practical skills exercises, and small group discussions about practice.

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