Who We Are
The Asset-Based Community Development Institute (ABCDI) is 501(c)3 nonprofit membership organization for asset-based community development practitioners. We're headquartered at and partnered with Depaul University’s Irwin W. Steans Center for Community-Based Service Learning & Community Service Studies in Chicago, Illinois.

ABDCI supports a global network of community-based practitioners that consider local assets as the primary building blocks of sustainable community development. Building on the skills of local residents, the power of local groups, and the supportive functions of local organizations, asset-based community development draws upon existing community strengths to build stronger, more resilient communities for the future.

About ABCD

Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) is an approach to working with and in communities that counteracts the prevailing focus on community needs and deficits. The approach begins by recognizing the assets of the community, including volunteer groups and associations, and shows how organizing to mobilize those assets is key to asserting the power and agency to bring about change. As such, ABCD’s practitioners, now putting ABCD principles into action around the world, see it as a way forward to support communities in mitigating increasing social, racial and economic inequality; threats to democracy; and climate change. By recognizing the inherent strengths found in every community and individual, ABCD revitalizes local initiatives and helps to recast relationships between institutions, associations, and residents so that communities are built from the inside out, rather than the outside in, and resilient in the face of the turbulence of our times.

Get Involved

ABCDI is run by members for members. We offer multiple ways to participate including general membership, training, events, online forums, work groups, committees and board service. Please go to our join page to learn more about the benefits of membership and join our community.