Hi, I'm new to ABCD, though I've been doing this sort of work in my neighborhood organizing already. I'm wondering about learning more and whether I should really make it out to a Conference/workshop to really learn ABCD or if getting the Videos and Workbooks on the website will do the trick?

Here's an upcoming conference I was thinking of attending that was on the ABCDinstitute website:https://abcd2013wjscanada.eventbrite.ca/?ref=ecal

(On that note, anyone know been to a workshop with the facilitator Dan Duncan? Is he good?http://www.hdanielsduncanconsulting.org)

Otherwise I'd just purchase the resources listed here, they just seem to be fairly old:

http://www.abcdinstitute.org/resources/

Thanks for your input!

updated by @ariah-fine: 10/24/16 04:47:22PM

Hey Ariah,

I have most the old texts and watched all the videos available on the ABDC site. I absolutely agree, they are old, but I have found to still be superbly relevant. My opinion, that is step one, when you wanna dig deeper and more current, I learn the most from watching videos and reading articles, especially those on John's site,http://www.abundantcommunity.com/

Conferences are cool, I go to a least one conference every year, but mostly for networking. I also visit other cities and try to meet fellow neighborhood organizers and community development folks. I love visiting other cities and neighborhoods.

Hope this helped.

Paz Y Bien,

Oscar Duran

Start with the workbook. The material may be old but it's gold. Also, check out the resource page on this forum. I've posted a few items myself.

I've been a community organizer for a number of years also, and I have to say that in-person training is very useful. For me, the videos, workbooks and everything else online became that much more useful after training because I found outhow much my mindset is already fixed a certain way.

After the training, I pointed my colleagues to the videos and workbooks since there wasn't any training local to any of them. Each one of them fell in love with the concepts, especially talking about gifts, and "learning conversations" etc. However, when it came time to apply ABCD to our community, they could only envision the creation of a database of information that could just be mined. They couldn't make the connections needed between their minds and hearts, so we started heading down the path of community development in name only. It wasn't until one of them attended the Toronto Summer Institute this past season, where John McKnight and some younger field ABCDers were offering a training, that this one person "got" it. Now she's my ally in the work we are attempting.

I don't know Dan; I took my training with Ron Dwyer-Voss a few years ago. Ron is very experienced, having been an organizer, a minister, and an ABCD'er for many years. I see that he includes Dan in the list of stewards, and to me that is a fantastic recommendation. The folks on that list are very committed to this work.

I would encourage you to attend the NeighborhoodsUSA (NUSA) conference next spring in Eugene, Oregon. (See NUSA.org) NUSA is a national non-profit dedicated to improving neighborhoods through community mobilization and leadership capacity building and improving partnerships and collaboration between community sectors. The conference is ABCD focused, with John McKnight having provided a keynote and a workshop last year. The conference is very affordable (225.00 for three days of workshops and activities and networking and food and fun) and is open to all -- residents, government, non-profits, all interested sectors of a community. This year's keynote will be Jim Diers who is faculty at the ABCD Institute and a wonderful presenter and ABCD practitioner.

I am on the NUSA board of directors and would be happy to answer any questions you may have. My email address is evayakutis@gmail.com