Who We Are: We are a group of Asset-Based Community Development practitioners who believe that story is a key asset in community strengthening efforts and value storytelling as the most effective community building practice we can use to strengthen communities.
Our Core Values: As an ABCD Community of Practice we will strive to embody the shared principles defined by the international ABCD community, which can be found here.
Our Purpose: Our purpose is to work together to answer this question: "How might we cultivate spaces where soul-full stories are shared, develop processes for gathering and weaving them together, and platforms for sharing them in a way that shifts harmful narratives toward more hope-filled ones?"
Our Social Contract:
- Assume positive intent
- Respect each other's experience.
- Appreciate the essence of each other.
- Check-in instead of checking-out when you feel you need to pause and gain clarity.
- Use inclusive language that honors our beautifully diverse table.
- Acknowledge and own your own feelings and understand how they can shape individual perspectives
- Have fun - If it feels like work, we are doing something wrong!
History: This group grew out of a facilitated conversation on the topic of polarization hosted by the Soul-Full Bridges Collective in December of 2021.
MEMBER BENEFITS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
This Community of Practice is committed to supporting one another by creating a space that is:
- Participatory: ABCD doesn't happen if you're doing work for someone or to someone; authentic community building occurs when we do our work with one another. This CoP will strive to create a space for mutual exchange. There are no “experts”, only peers. This is not a webinar series.
- Co-Created: Participants will co-create the content by sharing their stories, knowledge, skills, ideas, tools, techniques, resources and provide feedback and suggestions to other participants.
- A Networking Opportunity: Facilitators will provide networking opportunities with the opportunity to make connections and build deeper relationships outside the group if so desired.
- On-going Learning: Focused on ongoing dialogue and learning rather than the production of an end product.
NETWORK FACILITATION:
This group is sponsored by Embrace Communities in partnership with the ABCD Institute and the ABCDI Story & Culture Workgroup. It is co-facilitated by ABCD practitioners from across the globe.
MEMBERSHIP COST:
There is no cost for membership.
MEMBERSHIP PROCESS:
- This community of practice meets on the 1st Tuesday of even months at 1:00pm EST.
- Join this group through our Mighty Networks site here.
- You can contact the group hosts here with additional questions.