Empowering the Self Development of Communities
Coaching and training communities to discover what matters to them and how to attain it.
Coaching organizations to facilitate the self-development of communities.
These are the elements of our core identity.
Together, they offer an overview of who we are and what matters to us.
Our Vision
Strong, constituent-led Coastal Bend neighborhoods organizing to accomplish their shared dreams.
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Our Mission
Empowering communities to achieve self-determined goals through constituent-led development.
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What Makes Us Different?
We shift the power for neighborhood wellbeing back to the people who live there, by using a community development approach rather than a social services model.
Comparison
ABCD Approach
Focus on assets
Builds from opportunities
Investment orientation
Emphasis on associations
Focus on community
Goal is empowerment
Power comes from relationships
People are the answer
People are citizens
Social Service Model
Focus on needs
Responds to problems
Charity orientation
Emphasis on agencies
Focus on individuals
Goal is services
Power comes from credentials
Programs are the answer
People are clients
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What We Do
How we coach and equip neighbors to lead.
Initiatives
Resident-led work happening now, like Molina.
Get Involved
Volunteer, partner, or invite us to speak.
Gallery
See our neighbors in action.
“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what they care about.”
— Margaret Wheatley
“If you have come here to help me, you’re wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
— Lilla Watson
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Homelessness in the Coastal Bend is not an abstract issue or a headline that fades by morning. It is visible in parks, on sidewalks, in apartment communities under strain, and in the daily choices people make when they are trying to survive without stable housing, safety, or support.