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Building community capacity to promote child wellbeing and achieve equity.

¡Ya está en marcha una versión en español de nuestro sitio web! Estamos muy emocionados de practicar la justicia del idioma, mientras tanto, le agradecemos su paciencia. ¡Gracias! 

What would it look like if communities ensured every child, parent, resident, and family equitable access to critical resources and opportunities to lead healthy, thriving lives — and a seat at the table to drive the solutions?

Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) is a national initiative to improve the capacity of local communities and coalitions to advance equity. The NOW Innovation Forum is a national network of peer communities working to promote child wellbeing and prevent early childhood adversities.

 

Launched in 2016, Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) aims to build the capacity of local communities and coalitions working to promote child wellbeing and align early childhood systems of care and education by using a trauma-informed lens to advance equity.

The NOW Innovation Forum brings together resources, stories, discussions, and other interactive tools in a central hub, to promote shared learning and networking among communities across the country that are working ensure all children and their families achieve optimal health and wellbeing. Learn more about the history of NOW, our vision and approach, and partners.

View the recording and slides from our virtual tour of the NOW Innovation Forum.

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The NOW Innovation Forum is an initiative of the Vital Village Networks at Boston Medical Center.

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We’re excited to share a new reflection guide developed by members of the NOW Cooperative Design Lab series. This reflection guide encourages funders and their potential partners to think intentionally about the goals and outcomes of their relationship, focused on a set of key Guiding Principles and Practices that build on elements of successful cooperative and collaborative structures.

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Download the NOW Playbook: Transformative Community Capacity to Advance Equity

Between 2018 and 2020, multi-sector leadership teams from 10 peer communities across the US engaged in the Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) Learning Community. Drawing upon these learnings, the NOW Playbook is a resource guide designed to provide tools for local leaders, community coalitions and networks, educators, practitioners, and policymakers working to promote the wellbeing of children and families, advance equity, and align systems of care and education in early childhood.  Download this new resource today! 

FEATURED STORIES

Upcoming Webinar: Building Community Power through Food and Education Systems Transformation

Throughout the year, we’ve explored the critical question: What does it look like to harness, activate and build community power? What can we learn from resident-led advocacy movements and their strategies toward self-advocacy, collective action, and legislative change? Join us on Thursday, December 5 at 1:00 pm ET for our closing webinar of the year to learn from local leaders who are centering healing and community power sharing by transforming food and education systems. Featured speakers include Ashely Rouse, Executive Director at The Edible Schoolyard Project, and Tailor Coble, Food Access and Community Education Manager at FRESHFARM.

Learn more about NOW's levers of community change — components we believe are critical to ensure the equitable transformation and alignment of community systems to move those most impacted by inequity from margin to center. Read more to find resources and tools designed to build capacity around these fundamental areas.

LEVERS OF COMMUNITY CHANGE

BECOME A FREE MEMBER

NOW Innovation Forum members can network with peer communities, share best practices, contribute resources to the repository, and access learning tools, webinars, podcasts, and monthly communications. Check out the Member FAQ Guide for more information about member benefits - it's free to sign up!

Season 3 Episode 2 Now Available

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In episode two, we continue our conversation with Josette Williams, long-time Vital Village Networks leader and Director of Boston Public Schools’ Countdown to Kindergarten. We delve deeper into what shared power and agency looks like in practice through building parent partnerships at Boston Public Schools and the city’s Office of Early Childhood. We learn about critical strategies to engage parents in processes to develop city priorities and embed restorative justice practices within family-facing systems and institutions. Josette highlights the important roles that we all play in the movement to transform systems and build collective community care, reminding us of our shared “responsibility…to work together and support one another” to change the decision making tables that impact how communities grow and thrive. 

FEATURED RESOURCE

COVID-19 Resource Page by Vital Village Networks

This page shares COVID-19 related resources in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The resources accessed by in-person visit can be found in the map. The information comes from local community members and partners who are sharing in a collective effort designed through the Wellness Ideas Bank, as well as the city of Boston. Information may change rapidly. Please contact each location before visiting and be sure to check back for updates.

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NOW LEARNING COMMUNITY

NOW is working with 10 community coalitions to the essential knowledge, skills, and tools to scale and sustain equitable transformation of early childhood, education, and health systems in their regions through the NOW Learning Community. Learning Community members can access a separate portal with information and resources to support their work over the next 18 months.

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