Action for Boston Community Development

ABCD provides services to the community through a decentralized, citywide network, which includes 15 neighborhood centers.[6]

These centers are usually an Area Planning Action Council (APAC), a Family Service Center (FSC), or a Neighborhood Services Center (NSC).

The neighborhood centers include:

• Allston-Brighton Neighborhood Opportunity Centers
• Asian American Civic Association in Boston's Chinatown (which also publishes the newspaper Sampan since 1972)
• Citywide Boston Hispanic Center, downtown Boston
• Dorchester NSC
• East Boston APAC
• Roxbury / North Dorchester
• Jamaica Plain APAC
• JFK Family Service Center in Charlestown[9]
• Mattapan FSC
• Mystic Valley Opportunity Center serving Malden, Medford, and Everett
• North End / West End NSC
• Parker Hill / Fenway NSC
• South Boston Action Center
• South End NSC (SNAP)

ABCD operates two schools for specialized populations and serve as alternative learning environments.

• William J. Ostiguy High School [10][11]
• University High School [12][13]

The ABCD President/CEO provides operational and visionary leadership to ABCD, reporting to the 50-member ABCD Board of Directors. The Vice Presidents provide management covering every program and employee. Department Heads and Program Directors manage ABCD programs. Neighborhood Directors oversee operations in the many neighborhood-based centers.

• 1961. Boston residents, with support from Mayor John F. Collins and the Permanent Charity Fund (now called The Boston Foundation), established the Boston Community Development Program (BCDP) to improve quality of life for city residents.
• 1962. BCDP was incorporated as Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), a prototype for urban “human renewal” agencies (such as Community Action Agencies), with initial funding of $1.9 million from the Ford Foundation. Community activists, including Melnea Cass,[3] founded ABCD.
• 1964. Congress passed the Economic Opportunity Act as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society campaign and its War on Poverty. The City of Boston designated ABCD as its official anti-poverty agency. ABCD established a neighborhood-based Area Planning Action Council (APAC) system to manage 11 target neighborhoods of acutely concentrated poverty.[5][14]
• 1967. ABCD started the Urban College Program[15] to meet the educational, employment and career development needs of the adult community. This was a collaboration with major Boston area colleges and universities which enabled men and women over the years to earn academic credits toward undergraduate and graduate degrees while still acquiring job-related skills.[16]
• 1973. ABCD and three other community action agencies filed a successful class action suit to prevent United States President Richard Nixon from abolishing the Office of Economic Opportunity.[5]
• 1982. ABCD received an award received from United States President Ronald Reagan for the private sector initiative in the ABCD/Shawmut Bank/Bank of New England Training Program.[5]
• 1993. The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education gives a charter as a degree-granting institution of higher education to the Urban College of Boston, a two-year college, set up by ABCD.
• 2006. The Urban College of Boston received continued accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), Inc. Commission on Institutions of Higher Education.[16]
• 2009. Following the death of long-time president and CEO, Robert M. Coard (who had worked for ABCD since 1964 and was its Executive Director since 1968),[17] ABCD's board of directors named John J. Drew as Coard's successor. Prior to his accepting the top post, Drew had served for more than 20 years as ABCD's Vice President.[18][19]

ABCD runs a variety of programs for individuals and families living in the City of Boston. The agency's stated goal through these programs is to "meet needs, empower individuals and families, and strengthen communities."[20] These programs include Career Development, Charitable Campaigns, Early Child Care & Education, Elder Services, Financial, Food Pantries, Fuel Assistance/Energy Conservation, Health Services, Housing & Homelessness Prevention, Immigration Services, Youth Development.