Community Opportunity Map: Using Data for Engagement & Grants

• How can Family Resource Centers use the latest in geographic analysis and data to support their community engagement and grantwriting?
• How does Virginia’s Family Resource Center network use the Community Opportunity Map and other data tools to support families?

This hands-on workshop will train participants to use Casey’s Community Opportunity Map to support Family Resource Center operations, particularly community engagement and data-driven grantwriting. Participants will be trained on using this tool and will hear examples from Virginia’s Family Resource Center network on how they have leveraged this and other data mapping tools.

There are more than 3,000 Family Resource Centers (FRCs) in 40 states and the District of Columbia working with more than 2 million people annually. Yet because they have emerged organically without dedicated federal funding, they are often described as 'America’s best-kept secret.'

FRCs are community or school-based welcoming hubs of support, services, and opportunities for families that:

• Utilize a multi-generational, strengths-based, and family-centered approach.
• Reflect and are responsive to community needs and interests.
• Provide support at no or low cost for participants.
• Build communities of peer support for families to develop social connections that reduce isolation and stress.

Casey Family Programs is the nation’s largest operating foundation focused on safely reducing the need for foster care in the United States. Casey is committed to Building Communities of Hope, a nationwide effort to prevent the need for foster care by supporting families in raising safe, happy and healthy children. As part of this effort, the foundation created and maintains the Community Opportunity Map, which allows anyone to find child and family well-being data for any neighborhood across this nation. Many organizations across the country, including Family Resource Centers like Families Forward Virginia’s network, leverage this data tool.

Who Should Participate:

National, state/provincial, and local policymakers, public departments, private funders, Family Resource Center Network leaders and representatives, Family Support Program management staff, Family Resource Center staff, and Community Action Agency staff.

Host or Publisher National Family Support Network