Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) is a strengths based approach to community development, looking now and the potential for the future.
ABCD was originally conceived as an approach to support community development in deprived inner-city populations in the United States in the early 1990s.
This approach does not view the local communities as being in need, but as bursting with assets to offer. Exploring these strengths with your local community and community organisations, supports ideas generation and relationship building.
In a mutually benefical relationship both parties share a range of assets – skills, experiences, expertise, networks, spaces and much more. This equality of contribution is at the heart of community partnerships.
The following exercises explore ABCD and other techniques to identify specific assets for example skills assessments.