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How We Work


The ABCD Institute has a 30+ year history of supporting local communities to create positive and sustainable change using the skills, assets and talents community members have within their own neighborhoods.


ABCD practice promotes local efforts, decentralized power systems, co-creation and many other values that align with anti-racism practice. Currently, ABCDI is shifting our operational practices to create a more equitable and accessible organization. As part of our anti-racism efforts, we are creating permeable walls to the Institute by ensuring that we have accessible and clear ways for our partners and members to participate, engage and co-create with one another and our organization. Our goals for this shift are to become transparent, collaborative, informed by both-and thinking, and have a focus on effectiveness versus efficiency, in line with anti-racism practice.

One key way this practice is currently manifesting is our board's decision to not hire an executive director but community connectors so that our organizational power structure can remain decentralized and collaborative. ABCD practice promotes local efforts, decentralized power systems, co-creation and many other values that align with anti-racism practice. ABCDI’s structure aligns with the ABCD movement with a flat organizational structure.

Our Stewards, are ABCD practitioners who support the Institute with their contributions to workgroups and projects.

Initiatives

Stewards and other practitioners have contributed to a number of initiatives to grow and support the network of practitioners across the globe.

In 2022, members of the Higher Education Work Group collaborated on a edition of the academic journal Gateways focused on ABCD
Gateways Journal

2017 Fellows: the network of practitioners affiliated with the Institute expanded significantly with XX Fellows joining and paired with mentors. This infusion of new and diverse practitioners led to advancement of several new work groups and initiatives including:

  • Points of Access: this group developed the network structure that is currently being implemented.
  • Co-Learning Journey: a diverse group of practitioners formed a cohort in 2022 to learn and exchange information around practices.

Current Strategic Plan:

In 2023, ABCDI Board and Stewards engaged in a new strategic planning process that resulted in the following Strategic Directions:

  • Honoring and Sharing Stories that Inspire Systems Change
  • Reckoning with our Organizational Culture and History
  • Nurturing and Activating a Network of Trusted Relationships
  • Collaborating on and Communicating Our Emergent Structure
  • Prioritizing Our Organizational Health and Impact

Symposium- Chicago Summer 2025

As part of our strategic plan, we have also started planning a symposium to take place in Chicago in the summer of 2025. We are framing the content around our five strategic directions.


ABCDI Stewards and practitioners have engaged in extensive capacity building activities in communities in the United States and around the world. This work often takes the form of working directly with community groups to develop asset-oriented strategies and facilitate local asset-mapping and mobilizing activities. At other times it takes the form of introducing larger agencies and institutions to the concepts and ideas associated with ABCD, and providing the encouragement and support for these entities to transform the ways they work with communities.  

For more information on engaging with our network of practitioners, contact Jen Kouba at connect@abcdinstitute.org.