ABCD Institute Conference: Day 1

Wow! What a day!

Today and tomorrow I am participating in the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Basics Training on the campus of DePaul University in Chicago. It was a great day; full of insights and connections to amazing, talented people from all over the world! 

One of our (many) amazing instructors has been John McKnight, who developed the concept of ABCD! He not only knows this work inside and out, but he totally embodies it! Every conversation with him is full of abundance, joy and great questions! 

There was too much good information for a single blog, so I'll post a few in the following days. But what I wanted to share first was an explanation of what this is all about. ABCD is a way of relating to neighbors (and a neighborhood) by focusing on the gifts, skills and resources that are already there, and then looking for ways for those gifts to be shared. It sounds so simple, but it makes a tremendous difference in the way we interact with our neighbors. 

It is a wondrous thing to look at people and places with eyes of giftedness rather than need, and assets instead of liabilities. And being here with over 50 practitioners of ABCD is inspiring and insightful.