Standards Resource Guide
COMMUNITY STRENGTHENING
Trainings
Developing a strong and healthy community by working collaboratively with various stakeholders and supporting families' civic engagement, leadership development, and ability to affect systems change.
Bridges Out of Poverty
Offered by Communication Across Barriers
http://nfvlx.ohaae.servertrust.com/product-p/inmkit.htm
$424 Curriculum Kit
This poverty awareness curriculum kit will serve to deepen and apply the learnings presented by Dr. Donna M. Beegle. The 7-video segments, along with the companion materials (participant guide and facilitator’s guide), are designed to assist individuals and organizations to go beyond addressing immediate needs (e.g., providing food boxes, temporary shelter, financial assistance with rent and utilities) to a more systemic approach for helping our Neighbors to move out and stay out of the crisis of poverty. This kit includes 1 facilitator guide and 10 participant guides.
Foundations of Community Engagement
Offered by Tamarack Institute
Community Engagement (tamarackcommunity.ca)
$249 CAD / $185.81 US
Build a foundation of knowledge and practice for community engagement work. Online videos and coursework over the course of 5-10 hours. Topics such as Role of Community, How to Engage, Who to Engage, Overcoming Challenges, and Evaluating Engagement are covered.
Parent Leadership
Offered by FRIENDS
https://friendsnrcelearning.remote-learner.net/
Free
Free Online Learning Course on Parent Leadership
Online Resources
Community Health Assessments
Offered by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CDC - Assessment and Plans - Community Health Assessment - STLT Gateway
Free
"Principles, processes, and guide to assessing and addressing community health needs"
Assessing Community Needs and Resources
Offered by Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas
Chapter 3. Assessing Community Needs and Resources | Community Tool Box (ku.edu)
Free
Learn how to identify and assess community concerns, needs, and assets
Needs Assessment
Offered by National Community Action Partnership
Community Needs Assessment Resource Guide | National CAP (communityactionpartnership.com)
Free
A Community Needs Assessment is a process conducted by all Community Action Agencies every three years to determine the underlying causes and conditions of poverty within the community they serve and identify the available resources to address the unmet needs of the community’s most vulnerable residents. The Community Needs Assessment is the first phase of the Results Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA) Cycle, grounding and guiding the work to develop and implement programs and services that lift families and communities out of poverty. The execution of a regular Community Needs Assessment is a requirement for all CSBG Eligible Entities, and one of the nine category’s (Category 3) of the Organizational Standards. To assist with this critical activity, the resources shared below have been curated to provide Community Action Agencies with comprehensive information and easy-to-use tools for each step of the Community Needs Assessment.
Supportive Communities, Resilient Families, Thriving Children - Indiana’s Framework for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
Offered by Indiana's Supportive Communities, Resilient Families, Thriving Children
Free
The framework provides a road map for the state and local communities to better support, empower, and protect families. It is centered on primary prevention efforts, or services and interventions available to the general population, to prevent child maltreatment before it happens.
Positive Experiences
Offered by HOPE - Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences
https://positiveexperience.org/
Free
Impact of positive childhood experiences over the lifespan. HOPE is a new way of seeing and talking about experiences that support children’s growth and development into healthy, resilient adults
Social Connections & Social Capital: Opportunities, Challenges, and BarriersSocial Connectinos & Social Capital: Opportunities, Challenges, and Barriers
Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention Board
https://preventionboard.wi.gov/Documents/CANPB%20Opportunities%20Challenges%20and%20Barriers%20FINAL.pdf
Free
Newbrief.
Community Toolbox
Offered by Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas
Free
Millions of people use the Community Tool Box each year to get help taking action, teaching, and training others in organizing for community development. Dive in to find help assessing community needs and resources, addressing social determinants of health, engaging stakeholders, action planning, building leadership, improving cultural competency, planning an evaluation, and sustaining your efforts over time.
Community Mapping: Early Relational Health
Offered by Center for the Study of Social Policy
https://cssp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ERH-Community-Mapping-Tool-1.pdf
Free
The Early Relational Health (ERH) Community Mapping Tool allows community leaders to reflect on the ways in which their community currently supports and promotes the development of ERH and identify action steps to improve and expand upon those efforts.
Families Leading Change in Early Childhood Systems
Offered by Center for the Study of Social Policy
https://cssp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FirstFive-EngagementToolkit-5.pdf
Free
Ripples of Transformation: Families Leading Change in Early Childhood Systems. This toolkit is designed to inspire, challenge, and support leaders in early childhood to embrace a vision of families as agents of change in their children’s lives, communities, and early childhood systems.
Partnering with Affordable Housing and Community Development
Offered by Center for the Study of Social Policy
https://cssp.org/2020/12/early-childhood-community-development/
Free
This report summarizes projects carried out by early childhood leaders in four communities across the country at the intersection of community and child development, including the adaptations they had to make when the COVID-19 crisis began. This resource also shares lessons learned and recommendations to guide others who are looking for ways to improve outcomes for young children and their families by partnering across these two fields.
Community Conditions that Strengthen Families
Offered by Center for the Study of Social Policy
https://cssp.org/resource/community-conditions-report/
Free
Community Conditions that Strengthen Families: Protective Factors Work at the Community Level: This report summarizes survey findings from organizational partners and members of the Strengthening Families National Network interested in using the Protective Factors Framework in their community-level approach and their viewpoints on community conditions that support child and family outcomes.
Parent Engagement
Offered by FRIENDS - National Center for Community-Based Prevention
Free
Meaningful Parent Leadership Guide: Building Effective Parent/Practioner Collaboration
Elevating Family Voice
Offered by FRIENDS
https://friendsnrc.org/parent-leadership/parent-and-practitioner-newsletter/
Free
Parent and Practitioner Newsletter in English and Spanish.
Books & Articles
Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaboration with Families and Communities
Ann Ishimaru
Paperback - $34.86 | $34.95 Kindle - $19.22
Just Schools examines the challenges and possibilities for building more equitable forms of collaboration among nondominant families, communities, and schools. The text explores how equitable collaboration entails ongoing processes that begin with families and communities, transform power, build reciprocity and agency, and foster collective capacity through collective inquiry. These processes offer promising possibilities for improving student learning, transforming educational systems, and developing robust partnerships that build on the resources, expertise, and cultural practices of nondominant families.
Bridges Out of Poverty
Ruby K. Payne
https://www.amazon.com/Bridges-Out-Poverty-Professionals-Communities/dp/0964743795
Paperback - $5.59
Bridges Out of Poverty takes the concepts of hidden rules of economic class and uses them to educate social workers, employers and community organizations about hte unique and sometimes hidden obstacles that individuals from poverty face. Strategies help improve services for clients, raise retention rates for new hires from poverty, and increase understanding of the differences in economic cultures and how those differences affect opportunities for success.
A Guide to Assessing Needs
Ryan Watkins, Maurya West Meiers, Yusra Laila Visser
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/2231/663920PUB0EPI00essing09780821388686.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Free PDF link
Essential Tools for Collecting Information, Making Decisions, and Achieving Development Results
System Transformation through Community Leadership
Chapin Hall
https://www.chapinhall.org/project/system-transformation-through-community-leadership/
Free article
Strategies for building effective partnerships with Black and Brown communities.
Other
Issue Brief
Offered by Child Welfare Information Gateway
https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/responding/reporting/mandated/
Free
Mandated Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect
Podcast: The New Neighborhood
Offered by Center for the Study of Social Policy
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1671499
Free
The New Neighborhood is a limited series podcast that explores some of the dramatic changes taking place across the country as people work to reinforce a sense of community, support young children and families, and work to build equity within communities. Each episode features emerging innovations that will create a society where all children and their families can thrive.