CAM Webinar Series

Presenter: Karen Shanoski, M.Mgt., Family Support and Community Engagement Director, Pennsylvania Parents as Teachers State Leader

Karen Shanoski’s work at Center for Schools and Communities includes multiple responsibilities for family support programs including Parents as Teachers and Children’s Trust Fund. Karen also provides instruction and consultation services in strengths-based family engagement practices. She serves on multiple statewide workgroups. Karen has been a director of a private nonprofit and a planner with a county’s children and youth agency. She is an active community volunteer and has served as a public school board member for the past ten years. Karen holds a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in management, from Pennsylvania State University.

CAM Conversations

In CAM Conversations, Karen Shanoski and Marjorie Anderson discuss the major steps involved with the CAM process based on their understanding of the process and experiences working with several communities with asset mapping.

Marjorie Anderson, Parent Leader, Independent Consultant and Trainer, participates in several statewide committees and family leader workgroups. She has extensive experience in family engagement, strengths-based approaches and culturally responsive practices working with children, families and communities. Marjorie holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish, master’s degree in bilingual studies and has an MSW from University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy and Practice.

CAM Conversations Video Listing

CAM Conversations: Form A Team

CAM Conversations: Gather Data

CAM Conversations: Analyze Data

CAM Conversations: Create an Action Plan

CAM Conversations: Implement the Action Plan

CAM Conversations: Evaluate the Impact

 

Resources for Asset Mapping

Community Asset Mapping: Conversations and Leadership Roles

Community Asset Mapping: Neighborhood Walk

Community Asset Mapping: Purpose and Values

Community Asset Mapping: Stakeholders

Community Story-Mapping: The Pedagogy of the Groit

Ascend, The Aspen Institute

Ascend at The Aspen Institute is the national hub for breakthrough ideas and collaborations that address the needs and strengths of children and parents together. Ascend takes a two generation approach to its work and embraces a commitment to racial equity and to a gender lens in its analysis. The following resources will be informative to the purpose of CAM.

• Early Childhood Education
  Postsecondary and Employment Pathways
• Social Capitol
• Health and Well-being
• Economic Assets

2Gen Toolbox

Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute

Building on the skills of local residents, the power of local associations, and the supportive functions of local institutions, asset-based community development draws upon existing community strengths to build stronger, more sustainable communities for the future. ABCD Institute emphasizes social capital and provides strategies for sustainable community-driven development.

• Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets
• Mapping Community Assets Workbook
• Toolkit

Assets in Action, A Handbook for Making Communities Better Places to Grow Up

One of the most challenging tasks we face in our communities is making positive, long-lasting change. This book by Deborah Fisher (2003. Search Institute.) focuses on establishing change, from the very first steps to the later stages. Accessible and engaging, the book weaves together change theory, research findings from the Search Institute’s National Case Study project, and interviews with asset champions from the United States and Canada. The book uses the 40 Developmental Assets framework from the Search Institute and includes tip sheets.

Center for the Study of Social Policy – Strengthening Families

Children are more likely to thrive when their families have the support they need. By focusing on the five universal family strengths identified in the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework, community leaders and service providers can better engage, support, and partner with parents in order to achieve the best outcomes for kids.

The Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework serves as the foundation for work with families across multiple programs in Pennsylvania. It is not a curriculum, but an approach to working with families that encourages providers to create environments in which families can grow the protective factors.

• Resilience
• Social Connections
• Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development
• Concrete Supports in Times of Need
• Social Competence in Children

Community Heart & Soul

Community Heart & Soul is a four phase, step-by-step process. Developed and field-tested for more than a decade in partnership with small cities and towns (population less than 50,000), Community Heart & Soul has evolved into a proven method for bringing the community together to chart a course forward. For most communities, completing the four phases takes about two years. But the completion of the Community Heart & Soul model is really just the beginning. It launches a new way of doing business that nurtures a more vibrant community far into the future.

Community Tool Box

Take action, teach, and train others in organizing community development. Find resources to help assess community needs, address social determinants of health, engage stakeholders, create an action plan, build leadership, improve cultural competency, plan an evaluation, and sustain your efforts over time.

Harvard Center for the Developing Child – Learning Communities in Action

Rapid, breakthrough change cannot happen in the field of early childhood unless people, organizations, and systems learn from each other’s successes and failures. This requires a platform for asking and answering questions such as: which interventions work for which populations and why? The Center on the Developing Child facilitates the development of learning communities that provide the means for early childhood innovators to set goals, share results, and cultivate not only leaders, but also new ideas.

Three Principles to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families

These principles will be informative to the purpose of CAM.

Healthy City – Community Research Toolbox

This instructional toolkit if for using and applying participatory asset mapping, and provides step-by-step guidance on the CAM process. There are multiple toolkits which community based organizations can use. Though some tools are relevant to California, others may be widely used.