The Institute of Cultural Affairs is a research, training, and demonstration group concerned with the human factor in world development. The ICA is a not­for­profit tax exempt corporation chartered by the state of Illinois. Though headquartered in Chicago, the ICA has over one hundred offices in major urban centers around the world. Fifty­two of these offices are in North American cities. The area offices of the ICA in the United States are located in New York City, Houston, San Francisco, and Chicago.

For some fifteen years the Institute of Cultural Affairs was a program division of the Ecumenical Institute of Chicago, also a not­for­profit corporation chartered in Illinois. In 1973 the ICA was formally incorporated as a separate yet coordinate group. The scope of the work of the ICA is broad and varied, ranging from management seminars for business executives to comprehensive community development projects in many locations. In all the programs the emphasis is on effective methodologies relating to human motivity, corporate operation, and tactical planning.

The programs of the ICA are supported by governmental agencies, private foundations, major corporations, denominational bodies, and concerned individuals, as well as from program income. The Institute of Cultural Affairs operates with two directing boards: The Board of Trustees and the Board of Consultants. The officers of the Trustees are listed below. The Consulting Board, a unique network of more than two hundred business and professional men and women located throughout the nation, represents many different fields of expertise. These advisors meet semi­annually to review and plan the specific programs of the Institute.

The research of the ICA relates entirely to its practical program arenas. Presently there are five major training and demonstration programs

Community Development, ICA's social demonstration program, interrelates social and economic development and emphasizes methods of effective actuation as well as planning. The pilot experiment for this program is the 5th City project on Chicago's West Side, now in its second decade. The methods forged in 5th City are being applied to community development projects from North American urban centers to Australia's Aboriginal communities and the Marshall Islands of the Pacific.

LENS, Living Effectively in the New Society, is an innovative forty-four hour seminar in management planning for corporation executives and the leadership of other organization! concerned with operational effectivity. Through uniquely designed "think tanks," LENS demonstrates the processes of tactical planning, corporate decision­making, and methods of motivity necessary for effective achievement.

Local Community Forum is a one­day Town Meeting construct that enables local citizens to participate in the planning and development of their own community. During the celebration of the American Bicentennial, five thousand such programs, entitled Town Meeting '76, are being held across the United States. Concurrently the project is being replicated in Canada under the title Community Forum Canada.

Social Methods School is a five­day training laboratory in methods of social and institutional change. It deals in depth with the corporate methods of model building, contradiction analysis, proposal designing, consensus forging, and group motivity. These methods for socio-economic development are applicable in both local communities and a wide variety of business and social organizations.

Planning Consultations of three or more days may be arranged with the ICA staff by corporations, local communities, and other groups. The planning process deals with the organization's unique situation and assists in clarifying definitive goals and in building the necessary comprehensive tactical systems for effective operation toward these objectives.