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.
The NOW Innovation Forum is an initiative of the Vital Village Networks at Boston Medical Center.
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.
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!
April 25 Webinar: Elevating Power through Healing-Centered Action: Reflections from the Greater Boston Birth Equity Coalition
How can we build community power to achieve equity and justice for birthing families? Join us for the second installment of the 2024 NOW webinar series with a dynamic conversation with members of the Greater Boston Birth Equity Coalition (GBBEC). Launched through a collaborative, cross-sector design process in 2022, the GBBEC focuses on serving families furthest from opportunity as they welcome new children from across the Boston metro region. Learn more about members’ journey in launching the coalition, its process to design a coalition governance and decision making structure that uplifts the dignity of its members, and healing-centered practices and strategies they are leading to advance holistic approaches to prevent maternal morbidity and mortality, and improve maternal and infant health and birth care for families in the Commonwealth.
Coalition Development
& Governance
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 2 BONUS EPISODE - Available now!
We’re excited to share with you a special bonus episode as we reflect on the year and look ahead to 2024. We return again to Vital Village Networks’ annual National Community Leadership Summit, and tune in this time to our 2022 keynote conversation with writer, storyteller, and educator, Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts. She is the award-winning author of Black Joy and shares with us a powerful reflection of what it means to make room for joy -- in all of its forms -- and what it looks like for joy to co-exist in the same vessel as pain, grief, and trauma. She draws upon deeply personal and painful experiences to deepen our understanding of Black joy and what it can offer all of us as a path forward to healing and restoration. We hope you enjoy this conversation and look forward to connecting in the new year.
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.
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.