This workshop is designed so that a limited number of neighborhood professionals and "gappers" can spend three days guided by two senior members of the ABCD faculty.

The objective for the training is to ensure that each participant learn the concepts, principles, and application of ABCD. The workshop will begin with an ABCD Concept Seminar. The "ABCD Concept Seminar" will present concepts, methods, and case studies about key elements of ABCD practice. There will also be time for discussion and exercises for deeper understanding.

The key elements of ABCD are: the core principles of ABCD, community organizing for ABCD, institutional support for citizen centered ABCD work, and the methods/tools of ABCD. The core principles are guiding concepts about "what to do" and "what not to do."

Community organizing for ABCD is a practical method of organizing to effectively build a citizen centered initiative to find and mobilize local assets. Institutional support will be discussed that strengthens local community members, develops leadership, and helps create effective ABCD work. The tools/methods of ABCD are capacity inventories, association mapping, institutional self inventories, economic asset mapping, and ABCD neighborhood planning.

On Friday, an "ABCD Practice Seminar" will explain how ABCD is applied, use of ABCD tools, and discuss a case study of ABCD in progress. There will be time for discussion in small groups, case studies, and planning for back home application. The faculty will help the participants understand how to take the ABCD concepts and put them to work in their communities. Participants will develop strategies for using ABCD.