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Standards Resource Guide

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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

https://in.accessgov.com/dcs/Forms/Page/dcs/indiana-s-supportive-communities-resilient-families-thriving-children/0

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

https://ctb.ku.edu/e

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

https://friendsnrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Parent-Leadership-Guidebook-FINAL-web-version-2.pdf

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

https://a.co/d/1P1ejIw

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.

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