A webinar series hosted by Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink, you'll learn about how family and community engagement in education is a shared responsibility in which schools and other community organizations engage families in meaningful ways, and in which families are committed to actively supporting their children’s learning and development is effective when it is continuous from birth to young adulthood, and occurs across multiple settings where children learn.

Host:

• Kay Fernandez Smith, PolicyLink

Guests:

• Sarah Jonas, The Children’s Aid Society National Center for Community Schools
• Marlene Fox, Harlem Children’s Zone
• Kaaryn Nailor, Harlem Children’s Zone

A webinar series hosted by Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink, you'll learn how to to engage residents and develop community leaders, know best what’s needed in the community, lend legitimacy and credibility to local efforts, have staying power, have important strengths to contribute and can help hold parties accountable for results.

Host:

• Cheryl Rogers, Consultant

Guests:

• Nilofer Ahsan, Center for the Study of Social Policy
• Marlene Fox, Harlem Children’s Zone
• Kaaryn Nailor, Harlem Children’s Zone

A webinar series hosted by Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink, you'll learn how to develop a strategic financing plan to sustain your community's work and increase its impact:

• Understanding the array of resources that need to be mobilized for sustainability
• Develop clarity on what you want to sustain and the costs involved
• Mapping and analyzing current funding and identify gaps
• Assessing and prioritizing potential federal, state, local and private funding opportunities

Host:

• Michael McAfee, Promise Neighborhoods Institute

Guests:

• Cheri Hayes, The Finance Project
• Debbie Kim, Harlem Children’s Zone

A webinar series hosted by Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink, you'll learn how to create a strategic business plan that is clear about how many children and families must be served over time to achieve desired results, based on a set of assumptions about how interventions will be expanded over time, estimates naturally escalating and new programs costs for staff and infrastructure, presents costs in different ways (e.g., by result area, intervention, cost per participant, etc.) and estimates short and long term funding gaps

Host:

• Kate Shoemaker, Harlem Children's Zone

Guests:

• Michael Etzel, Bridgespan
• Tracey K. Costello, Harlem Children’s Zone
• Margo Wright, Harlem Children’s Zone
• Lauren Scopaz, Harlem Children’s Zone

A webinar series hosted by Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink, you'll learn about a model to developing a platform for community data sharing and use Strategies for Addressing FERPA and HIPAA when designing a longitudinal data system

Host:

• Victor Rubin, PolicyLink

Guests:

• Vanessa Bekkouche-Samuelson, Information Coordinator, The Providence Plan
• Steve Winnick, Attorney, Education Counsel 

• Jon Neiditz, Partner, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough

A webinar series hosted by Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink, you'll learn about using data for program improvement, building capacity to increase accountability in a diverse community collaborative and results-based accountability that helps leaders and organizations plan; choose realistic, goals; implement effective strategies; and identify clear benchmarks by which to measure success.

Host:

• Betina Jean-Louis, Director, Evaluation, Harlem Children's Zone

Guests:

• Shana Brodnax, Senior Manager, Early Childhood Programs, Harlem Children's Zone
• Sebastian Schreiner, Former Data and Evaluation Coordinator, Making Connections San Antonio

A webinar series hosted by Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink, you'll learn about how schools, school districts and partners.

Host:

• Cheryl Rogers, Consultant

Guests:

• Bill Shepardson, Center for the Study of Social Policy
• Jazmine Lewis, Program Director, The Harlem Children’s Zone

The idea behind evidence-based practice (EBP) is to invest resources and energy in programs, services, and policies that have empirical evidence demonstrating they work. Increasingly, funders are encouraging grantees to use evidence-based approaches. The federal Promise Neighborhoods program exemplifies this shift.

In describing what a planning grant applicant must include in a proposal to develop a continuum of cradle-to-college solutions, the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) makes several references to the evidence base. Applicants must:

• Propose solutions based on the best available evidence including, where available,strong or moderate evidence; and
• Describe the evidence supporting each proposed solution.  

This guide is designed to help applicant organizations and neighborhood coalitions navigate through the guidelines and application or the 2010 Promise Neighborhoods planning grant andunderstand the key elements, priorities, and requirements of this funding opportunity.

What’s your vision of a Promise Neighborhood? What’s your personal promise to make that vision a reality? We asked these questions to people just like you for the "I Promise" Video Campaign. The responses we heard were moving and inspirational. Listen to the promises they shared -- and consider what you can do to help make your community a Promise Neighborhood.