The complex challenges facing our communities today require us to think differently. We need to turn things upside down and shift towards a world shaped by Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). A world where people are empowered to build the trust, relationships, and connections to create the change they desire.
Over the past 10 years, I have spent much of my time sharing, teaching, and supporting people to learn about ABCD. I see practitioners leave learning sessions energized by the possibilities, only to return to their workplaces and encounter challenges that can leave them frustrated, or questioning whether ABCD really works.
Established structures, policies, timelines, professional roles, and organizational cultures often reinforce the very ways of working that ABCD asks us to reconsider. Learning about ABCD does not automatically translate into practicing ABCD.
There can be a real tension between what we are learning about working differently with community and what our systems continue to expect of us. When faced with that tension, returning to familiar ways of working can feel like the easiest path.
But perhaps part of the answer starts closer to home. ABCD starts with individuals, building outward through relationships, groups, and associations.
If we are going to practice ABCD, we need to begin with ourselves.
How do we show up in community?
Who do we listen to?
What questions do we ask?
Whose knowledge and experience do we value?
Are we creating space for people to lead, or are we still leading the way ourselves?
These shifts require both learning and unlearning. They ask us to reflect on our own assumptions, habits, and ways of working and not to change what we do, but how we do it. ABCD isn't simply something we take back to our workplaces and apply to community. It begins with how we show up, build relationships, and work alongside people.