COMMUNITY ANIMATION SERIES
ABCD Increasing Mastery
A 2-day intermediate course designed for practitioners already active in community work and wish to deepen how they practise ABCD in real-world contexts.
It’s easy to champion community-led power.
The real work is learning how to support it without taking over.
Course Overview
Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) is more than a shift in perspective - it is an ongoing discipline of recognising, connecting and mobilising the gifts, relationships and local assets that already exist within a community - while learning when to step back, walk alongside and follow residents’ lead.
Designed for practitioners seeking to deepen their practice, the Increasing Mastery course moves beyond the foundations of ABCD and into the real-world discernment required to nurture resident-led action, relational power and lasting associational life.
Your takeaway in 2 days:
Reading power and making space: Deepen your ability to recognise the different roles, gifts and forms of power within a community. Discern what may need to shift to create more space for resident leadership.
Animating purposeful conversations: Practise (culturally) grounded ways to discover gifts, invite participation, connect people and mobilise small, collective steps towards change.
Drawing collective insights: Glean lessons and insights from faculties’ struggles and successes in their practice.
Convening for shared ownership: Use the Community Canvas to co-create the identity, relationships and structures that enable resident-led communities to take root and grow.
In this highly participatory space, you’ll leave better equipped to foster self-led processes with greater confidence and purpose.
Who Is This Course For?
Community practitioners and professionals who are actively engaged in community work and wish to deepen their ABCD practice. This includes:
Resident leaders and active community organisers
Community workers and social service professionals
Programme managers and community-facing staff
You may be a good fit if you:
Have prior experience or are currently involved in community development or community engagement work, whether formal or informal.
Are involved in a place-based community, though some may work across multiple ones.
Want to move beyond the foundations of ABCD into the practical craft of discovering, connecting and mobilising local assets.
Seek to use your power with greater discernment, making space for resident agency and collective action.
Are ready to move from the For space towards with With / By space, supporting communities to lead and act on what matters to them.
Want to enable collective action without over-directing the process.
Have attended an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Foundational course or possess equivalent exposure.
Possess proficiency in English (written and spoken), equivalent to Employability Skills System Workplace Literacy (WPL) Level 6 and above.
This course is open to social service practitioners, ground-up leaders, community organisers and more.
By the end of the course, you will be able to…
Articulate and reflect on your roles within community and institutional systems
Identify where your current approaches sit across different modes of engagement
Distinguish clearly what Asset-Based Community Development is, and what it is not
Strengthen your ability to connect, mobilise and animate within their collective
Practise facilitative leadership that nurtures agency and shared ownerships
Apply ABCD concepts directly to their own initiatives and neighbourhood
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MORNING (Discovering Ourselves in In The Work)
Cohort Compact
Setting shared expectations, trust, and psychological safety for learning together
Shapes, Space and Sway
Identifying which of the seven "Shapes" we embody - from the
institutional Square to the emergent Spiral - and exploring how these varied postures interact in the space for collective action.
The Helper’s Crossroads: Locating Our Practice
Reflecting on whether our practice operates to, for, with, or by the community, and identifying where and how we aim to shift.
Ceding space
Reflecting on, and committing to the behavioural shifts required to cede space to your community while maintaining support.
AFTERNOON (Connecting In Practice)
Facilitating and Animating Community
Mastering the "Discover, Connect, and Mobilise" framework through answering and exploring transformative prompts that turn individual passions into sustainable, resident-led initiatives.
Grounding our Facilitation
Facilitating for inclusion, diversity and accessibility beyond words.
Walking the Helper’s Crossroads - Part 1
A Fireside Chat with ABCD Elders to harvest lived insights on navigating the tensions between different organisational “Shapes” and the long-term journey of community work.
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MORNING (Mobilising with Intention and Skill)
Walking the Helper’s Crossroads - Part 2
Building on the reflections with the Elders, we’ll examine Skillseed’s own journey with the Resilience Trails initiative: sharing the tensions, lessons, and considerations in shifting toward the By space as you navigate your own practices.
Ask Us Anything: Collective Sense-Making
An immersive, participant-led Q&A session using the Fishbowl format to dialogue on complex challenges, reconcile roles, and collectively unpack the nuances of power in our communities.
AFTERNOON (Visioning & Integration)
Community Visioning and Convening
Mapping a comprehensive Community Canvas - defining the Identity, Relating tools, and Structure required to seed or nurture a member-owned community.
Check Point
Synthesising our two-day journey to bridge immediate learnings with long-term growth, including an introduction to our Community of Practice (CoP) designed to support your ongoing ABCD practice.
Reflections & Check-Out
Individual and collective reflection on growth, tensions, and next steps
Structure & Curriculum
(2 Days)
Course Faculty
Meet the experienced community practitioners who will be facilitating the course
*Kindly note that the order of Faculty is alphabetical, and not indicative of who will be anchoring the sessions.
Mdm Ng Bee Leng
Bee Leng is a social worker by training and an official ABCD Guide accredited by Nurture Development and the ABCD Institute, Europe. With 30 years of experience working with disadvantaged communities, she is a strong advocate for asset-based community development that focuses on "what is strong" rather than "what is wrong," empowering residents to collectively improve their own lives rather than relying solely on external experts. Bee Leng frequently conducts participatory research projects within under-resourced neighbourhoods. Through this collaborative approach, she partners closely with the community to co-create and implement sustainable, community-driven solutions.
Dr Wong Sweet Fun
Dr Wong Sweet Fun is a community-centred design practitioner and healthcare innovator whose work focuses on strengthening the relationship between communities, systems, and wellbeing. Trained as a clinician, Dr Wong is widely recognised for pioneering approaches that extend care beyond institutional settings, advancing frameworks like Communities of Care that mobilise resident strengths and local assets. Her work heavily reflects Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) principles, reframing communities as active contributors to health and resilience through successful initiatives like Wellness Kampung. As a facilitator and educator, Sweet Fun brings a systems-aware perspective that bridges community practice, institutional realities, and leadership decision-making.
Mr Wilson Chan
Wilson served previously on the panel of CSC-MCCY’s Partnerships and Engagement Experts Panel (PEEP) from 2020 to 2021, and then again from 2022 to 2023, and was engaged to provide expertise in Engagement and Facilitation Strategy and Design within the Public Service. Over the years, Wilson has conducted ABCD workshops for various government organisations, including MSF, URA, CSC, and NYC. Most recently, Wilson was the lead trainer for the “Leading with Empathy” workshop for participants in the Social Sector Milestone Programme under CSC from 2024 to 2025. Wilson is a MOE-registered instructor.
Key Details
Course Fees (Lunch and refreshments included):
Organisation-sponsored Individual - $995 - Contact us for bookings for 10pax or more)
Learn Alongside Bundle - $2,320 for three participants, comprising:
1 organisation-sponsored staff; and
2 community participants (non-staff).
Self-sponsored - We offer supported rates. Kindly see registration link below for more info (CHAS / PG / Merdeka cards)
Completion Requirement: Minimum 80% attendance
Read more about the course’s Terms & Conditions
BONUS
Community of Practice (CoP)
In addition to the 2-day ABCD Foundations course, there will be Communities of Practice (CoP) sessions offering ongoing support and opportunities for continued application of what has been learnt.
Details of the CoP will be shared with participants after the course, so please join us for the workshops to find out more!
What Our Participants Say
*Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity
“I learnt to move at the pace of trust, and to hold space for the community in different forms and through different actions.”
— Shujun, Community Builder
“The Shapes discussed in the workshop help me better recognise agents within a community and potentially know how to activate them.
— Stacy, Community Coach
“The workshop was insightful, engaging, and highly relevant to community work.”
— Shifa, Singapore Children’s Society
Ready to deepen your ABCD practice?
Join fellow practitioners and community leaders in learning the practical “how” of ABCD!
Sign up via the buttons below today, or contact us for more info.
We are deeply grateful for the overwhelming support and we have reached maximum capacity. If you are still keen, please join the waitlist!
