RECIPES FOR COMMUNITY SUCCESS

Recipes for Community Success: A Guide for Improving the Condition of Children and Families in your Community captures the many lessons learned by successful communities.

Each section describes tools, provides helpful hints, and lists the key ingredients your neighborhood/community will need. You can combine these ingredients with your own enthusiasm, dedication, and leadership to achieve success. Experienced professionals and key community members have volunteered to assist you each step of the way.

Cookbook Cover: cover

We all have things in common. We want our children to be healthy and successful. We want our families to be strong and self-sufficient. We want our neighborhoods -- where we our children attend school, where we work, and where we live -- to be safe places in which we feel we truly belong. We are all too busy for our own good. We are also, each of us, individual and unique. Our differences are the source of our unique talents and resources which are ingredients that, when carefully combined, can make our communities better in the ways we decide are most important.

With the leadership and support of the Kern County Network for Children, people throughout Kern have used their talents, set aside valuable time, experimented with collaborative processes, and have overcome natural power struggles to take effective action to fix the alarming problems facing our neighborhoods. Their most significant successes included increased employment opportunities, increased public transportation for a rural area, and improved school attendance and performance.

To achieve measurable improvements in the lives of their children and families, these communities tried and tested a number of processes and strategies. Most were tremendously successful, a few were disappointing.

Recipes for Community Success: A Guide for Improving the Condition of Children and Families in your Community captures the many lessons learned by successful communities. Each section describes tools, provides helpful hints, and lists the key ingredients your neighborhood/community will need. You can combine these ingredients with your own enthusiasm, dedication, and leadership to achieve success. Experienced professionals and key community members have volunteered to assist you each step of the way.

The strategies are designed to assist you with garnering and maintaining the grassroots support and determination, which your community will need to build its success.

THE STEPS:

*Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these pdf documents. If you do not have it click on the "Get Adobe Reader" logo at the bottom of this page.

purple: squareCOLLABORATE. Begin by getting to know one another; establish a community coordinating council to provide structure and governance; define whom you see as belonging to your community; and support the leadership development of community members.

grey: squareASSESS YOUR COMMUNITY. Before you begin the process, what do you need and what do you have to work with?

lavendar: squareCHOOSE RESULTS. What is your vision and what do you most want to achieve?

purple: squareUSE EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES. Create then use a plan that will enable you to resolve pressing community concerns. Some proven strategies include: Case Management, multi-disciplinary teams, and family resource centers.

grey: squareINTEGRATE & TRACK YOUR WORK. Measure the impacts you've achieved after combining ingredients and using successful strategies.

lavendar: squareEVALUATE RESULTS & MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT YOUR WORK. Have you accomplished what you wanted to? If not, what changes need to be made to do better?

We look forward to assisting with and celebrating your successes.

Section 1 - COLLABORATE
- Community Coordinating Council
- Defining the Community
- Leadership Development

Section 2 - ASSESS YOUR COMMUNITY
- Needs Assessment
- Resource Mapping

Section 3 - CHOOSE RESULTS
Creating a Vision Statement
Priority Results

Section 4 - USE EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES
- Creating an Action Plan
- Case Management
- Multi-Disciplinary Teams
- Family Resource Centers

Section 5 - INTEGRATE & TRACK YOUR WORK Measuring Results


TOOLS
 - Printable forms and documents that may be helpful.

APPENDIX
- Research
- Publications
- Technical Assistance
- Grant Writing
- Testimonials
- Glossary
- Directory

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

border: border

Acrobat:

print:   email: