ABCD Institute > About

About

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Training photo

The Asset-Based Community Development Institute (ABCD) is located at the Steans Center for Community-Based Service Learning at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. 

  • Building community capacity is at the heart of ABCD’s work. ABCD Institute Faculty engage directly with community groups to support their asset-based community development efforts. Faculty also participate in an array of local, regional, and international conferences and workshops as keynote speakers, workshop and training facilitators, technical support providers, and learning participants.
  • The ABCD Institute leads training workshops several times per year introducing principles of ABCD to individuals, community groups, non-profits, and an array of other institutions. The Institute also has a Faith-based workshop curriculum that can be tailored for your group and held at your location.
  • Working  with students, faculty, and other organizations, ABCD contributes to the development of the next generation of engaged civic leaders and community builders.
  • Producing community building publications and other resources for practitioners and scholars in the community development field, ABCD contributes to a growing body of knowledge about the effectiveness of the asset-based approach to strengthening communities.

ABCD and its affiliated faculty have created a library of community building workbooks, published scholarly articles, books, and chapters oriented to an array of audiences, and developed training curricula and other materials associated with the asset-based community development approach. Additionally, ABCD has gathered community stories from many of its partners and feature them on this website as a resource from which other communities can learn. Finally, ABCD provides examples of asset-mapping tools so that community groups and organizations can borrow from the experiences of others doing asset-based community development work​.