ABCD Institute > Publications

Publications

​​ Throughout more than 30 years of community organizing and community development work, Kretzmann and McKnight gathered the stories of residents who built stronger neighborhoods by focusing on their strengths instead of their deficiencies. These stories are brought together in Building Communities from the Inside Out, the publication that launched the Asset-Based Community Development Institute. Now a must-have volume for community builders around the nation and the world, the Green Book, as it is fondly known, also launched the development of an extensive library of community building publications.

Kretzmann and McKnight encourage ABCD faculty members in the communities where they work to capture their own asset-based community development efforts into publications to be shared with community builders everywhere.

  • Cover for Basic Manual

    The Basic Manual
    Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets (1993). The seminal volume in which John Kretzmann and John McKnight explain the principles and practices that guide the asset-based community development approach.


  • The Training Guid​es​

    These guides support practical approaches to creating ABCD community collaborations utilizing organizing principles and best practices, examples, learning exercises, worksheets, and stories​.


  • ABCD Institute Workbooks​

    The following workbooks were  developed by the ABCD Institute Faculty members, as well as individuals and groups within our network (Affiliate Organizations). All are are downloadable for free.

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Basic Training Slides
These are helpful tools when presenting the ABCD principles, understanding what they can do, and comparing organizing practices.

  • Publications and Learnings​ 

    A complete list of papers and workbooks available in pdf format, written by ABCD staff and faculty on a wide range of community development issues.

  • ABCD Focused Books
    A series of books and articles about the theory and practice of asset-based community development and its many applications in the United States and around the world.