Videos
DeAmon Harges on "The Rise" Project
"The Rise is a project where we attempt to prototype development with the people who inhabit the space. It is intended to discover new ways of really sharing power, wealth, and relationship beyond the normal scope of development. We bought a city block and our attempt is to illustrate new ways of designing policy around how we use land, how we transfer wealth, how we live into really equitable systems..." - DeAmon Harges, 2021 Tom Locke Innovative Leader Award recipient video.
ABCD in Higher Education: Story Sharing Series, 2022
Between January and July 2022, The ABCD Institute is hosting a series of virtual story sharing sessions on "ABCD in Higher Education." The series will showcase examples of how faculty, staff, and students at universities and colleges are intentionally doing - or trying to do - their work using an asset- or strengths-based approach, within their institutions or in their work with community partners.
Stories might include programs, initiatives, or short-term projects that illuminate successes and challenges. This is not limited to best practices and could include efforts that have been difficult at best.
Click on arrows to see all of the various presentations.
Asset-Based Community Development Practitioners talk about why gifts matter in the work they are doing
The Tamarack Institute in Canada has created a unique approach to reducing poverty in local communities. Their initiative in hundreds of cities has proven to be an effective method for engaging entire communities in poverty reduction.
John McKnight, Co-founder of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute interviews Paul Born, Co-CEO of the Tamarack Institute, as he shares their approach to mobilizing communities to launch campaigns for large scale change. Active in nearly 400 communities in Canada and the US, the Tamarack Institute provides both a methodology for organizing and the supports that make the work of large-scale community change easier and more effective.
On July 22, in celebration of 40 years of the Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, the Schumacher Center of a New Economics highlighted the work of past speakers, asking for updates of their earlier remarks, and invited them to reflect on current conditions.
John McKnight and Howard Lawrence discuss ways to evaluate ABCD community-building efforts using alternative approaches that do not rely as heavily on numbers and counting.
Cormac Russell and John McKnight discuss the unseen dynamic of power in community life, and wonder if there is a sort of hydraulic relationship between community space/effort and the institutional space/effort. How can institutional dependency be decreased and interdependency in community life be increased.
How can we help people to live a good life? Instead of trying to right what's wrong within a community Cormac argues we need to start with what's strong. We need to help people discover what gifts they have and to use those gifts to enrich those around them. This video features a short overview of the history of ABCD, and stories of community efforts in the UK and Rwanda.
Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis has redefined what it means to serve its urban community. Learn what faculty members, Mike Mather and DeAmon Harges are focusing on.
Read story on Abundant Community
John McKnight gives his keynote speech about the history, practice and future of ABCD
Paul shares how everyone has the potential to be a leader even in places where we don't look for leaders, especially in those places.
In his 40 years working with impoverished American communities, John McKnight witnessed incredible social change at the grassroots. He discovered that the majority of the solutions to issues like unwanted teenage pregnancy and crime depended on empowering local citizens and building relationships at the community level. Although social innovations disrupt the status quo in boundary-breaking and sector-spanning ways, change begins with the individual and their surrounding network. - Social Innovation Generation Plus.
ABCD Institute faculty member Al Etmanski is an author, advocate and social entrepreneur. President and co-founder of Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN), he led the successful campaign to establish the world’s first registered disability savings plan. Al has written two best-selling books: A Good Life and Safe and Secure. He is a founding member of the J. W. McConnell Family Foundation’s Social Innovation Generation (SIG) collaboration.
At Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, ABCD Institute faculty member, DeAmon Harges is the original “Roving Listener.” By listening, he discovers the gifts, passions, and dreams of citizens in his neighborhood, using them to build community, economy and mutual delight. DeAmon’s work is rooted in ABCD, joining neighbors and institutions to discover the power of being a good neighbor. His organization Tesserae Learning Community brings those ideas and others to the forefront of community and organizational life.
As an artist, DeAmon uses his art for social change and community building. He characterizes his work as “deep listening” and “positive deviance.”
Excerpt from Cynthia Nikitin- Reclaiming the Commons: Creating Community Agency & Ownership of Public Spaces and Resources
This video explains what the Active Aging Research Center has done in Richland County with asset-based community development.
"Wonderful video is a very useful description of the variety of activities that ABCD can stimulate." – John McKnight.
John McKnight ABCD 101
A four-part video series of John McKnight introducing ABCD principles. Video posted on his website, the Abundant Community.
View ABCD 101 part 2
View ABCD 101 part 3
View ABCD 101 part 4
ABCD Faculty member Jim Diers explores the key steps towards fostering effective community-government partnerships through examples of his work in Seattle.
For Part 2 Click here...
MALAKAS! Using ABCD for the Design of Sustainable Cities
A 3-minute trailer and 40-minute full documentary that tells the story of how three communities in the Philippines were engaged in a participatory design process to design their own systems of organic waste management in support of local food production. The documentary describes the Asset Based Community Design (ABCD) approach that was used. It was made possible by an IDRC (International Development Research Center) ECOPOLIS Graduate Student Award. Co-directed and co-produced by Jeannette Tramhel with Mario Guzman.
MALAKAS! Using ABCD for the Design of Sustainable Cities. 40-minute documentary (2010).
MALAKAS! Using ABCD for the Design of Sustainable Cities. 3-minute Trailer (2010).
Video Training Program: Mobilizing Community Assets
A downloadable training program based on Building Communities from the Inside Out (1995). The program consists of six separate modules, each lasting 30 to 45 minutes. They are below in fourteen 15-minute segments. John McKnight and John Kretzmann present clear, practical ways to mobilize the capacities of local residents, the power of citizens' associations, and the resources of local institutions to build stronger and more vibrant communities.
Segments 1 - 7
Segments 8 - 14
These segments may be downloaded. Send an e-mail to ABCD to request permission to reproduce copies for viewing.
Podcasts
John McKnight and Cormac Russell discuss their new book, The Connected Community: Discovering the Health, Wealth & Power of Neighborhoods.
ABCD Faculty member Ron Dwyer-Voss, discusses how ABCD draws on existing strengths of local residents, associations, and institutions to build stronger, healthier, and more sustainable communities. He shares strategies, tools, and examples of how ABCD can be used to engage community residents and support them in understanding and applying their power to improve their neighborhoods.
Listen to the podcast
John McKnight on Community and Its Counterfeits
Community and Its Counterfeits, Part One
Community and Its Counterfeits, Part Two
Community and Its Counterfeits, Part Three
A series of three programs John McKnight recorded for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Ideas program in 1994 with commentator David Cayley. The transcripts for this show were among the most requested of Cayley's productions and they have recently been made available as podcasts.
Discussion on Gifts
Faculty member Bruce Anderson of the Core Gifts Institute discusses the types and the importance of gifts with Katie Elliot of Little Challenges.
DeAmon Harges: The Dreams and Aspirations Behind a Youth-Led Bike Shop in Indianapolis
DeAmon Harges: Building Community, Economy and Mutual Delight
Robert Thompson and co-host Mike Neiss continue their Leadership for the Common Good blogtalkradio series with an interview with ABCD Institute faculty member, De Amon Harges. DeAmon is the original “Roving Listener” as a neighbor and staff member of the Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis. His role is to listen and discover the gifts, passions and dreams of citizens in his community, and to find ways to utilize them in order to build community, economy and mutual “delight.”
Listen to the Podcast
Podcast: Rob Hopkins interviews ABCD Faculty member Cormac Russell on Asset -Based Community Development
Listen to the Podcast
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