Lead Partner: The Asset-Based Community Development Institute
Description
The Asset-Based Community Development Institute (ABCD), established in 1995 by the Community Development Program at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research and is built upon three decades of community development research by John Kretzmann and John L. McKnight. The ABCD Institute spreads its findings on capacitybuilding community development in two ways:(1) through extensive and substantial interactions with community builders, and (2) by producing practical resources and tools for community builders to identify, nurture, and mobilize neighbourhood assets.
The Institute challenges the traditional approach to solving urban problems, which focuses service providers and funding agencies on the needs and deficiencies of neighbourhoods. Kretzmann and McKnight have demonstrated that community assets are key building blocks in sustainable urban and rural community revitalization efforts. These community assets include:
- the skills of local residents
- the power of local associations
- the resources of public, private and non-profit institutions
- the physical and economic resources of local places
Impetus for the new institute came in large measure from the overwhelming response to McKnight and Kretzmann’s 1993 guidebook, Building Communities from the Inside Out. In an era of federal budget cutting and downsizing in favor of local and state initiatives, the book’s emphasis on examples of successful local community development and the “glass half-full” rather than “half-empty” struck a responsive chord in hundreds of local and national groups.
Expanding from the hundreds of talks given by McKnight and Kretzmann at a wide range of domestic and international institutions, the ABCD Institute has developed a North American ABCD Faculty. This adjunct faculty group has 32 highly skilled practitioner/trainers who have worked as consultants, workshop leaders, and speakers for the many and diverse constituencies interested in ABCD ideas. The Institute also shares its findings in the ABCD Workbooks series, authored by one or more faculty members, and in various related publications. The workbooks provide practical resources and tools for community builders to identify, nurture, and mobilize neighbourhood assets. Some current projects at the ABCD Institute which may result in new publications, include research on the how local institutions can be more relevant partners with the communities they serve, and on how asset-based principles and practices can inform communities addressing issues associated with aging in place.
Contact Details
ABCD InstituteSchool of Education
and Social Policy,
Walter Annenberg Hall,
Room 148,Northwestern University,
2120 Campus Drive,
Evanston,
IL 60208-4100USA Tel: 847-491-8711
email:abcd@northwestern.edu