Resources
The Promise Neighborhoods Training and Technical Assistance team, the U.S. Department of Education, Promise Neighborhoods grantees, and key technical assistance partners have produced written guidance, tools, and videos about how to launch and manage a successful cradle-to-career pipeline of solutions and strategies for early learners, students, and families in economically distressed communities. Resources appear in the order they were added with the most recent additions first.
Cradle to Career
Find resources related to the four pipeline areas: Early Childhood, Kindergarten to Grade 12, College and Career, and Family and Community Supports
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND WHITE HOUSE WEBINAR SERIES
Understand how to blend and braid federal, state, and local funds to implement whole child approaches to education.
Sustaining a Promise Neighborhood
Learn about sustaining Promise Neighborhoods from grantees and others with expert guidance and reflections.
Results Filtered by: Blending and Braiding Webinar Series (5)
Blending and Braiding Webinar Series Overview
Author: U.S. Department of Education and the White House | Year of Publication: 2024
Blending and Braiding: How to Make it Easier to Use Different Funding Streams to Meet the Needs of the Whole Child, is a webinar series co-hosted by the U.S. Department of Education and the White House, with the goal to increase awareness and understanding of how to blend and braid federal, state, and local funds to implement whole child approaches to education and make it easier for these services to be provided and for students and families to access services. Webinar series objectives include increasing awareness and understanding of how to blend and braid federal, state, and local funds to implement whole child approaches to education and make it easier for these services to be provided and for students and families to access services; identifying and highlighting examples of states, districts, counties, cities, and schools that are blending and braiding funds to provide cradle-to-career supports that make it easy for students and families to access services and help communities thrive; and demonstrating how creating community-driven approaches for schools and the broader whole child work can support increased access to services and supports.
Session 1 - How to Blend and Braid Federal, State, and Local Funds to Provide Easily Accessible Services to Students and Families
Author: Stephen Kostyo, Bernadine Futrell, Jessica Cardichon, Ashley Harris, Dreama Gentry, Abe Fernandez, Shital Shah, Jane Hodgdon, Elson Nash, Oprah Keyes, Kim Mcwilliams | Year of Publication: 2024
In this webinar, held on October 3, 2024, speakers described what blending and braiding means and how to do it in ways that make easier for services to be provided and accessed. Specifically, speakers shared how communities and schools are leveraging diverse funding streams to support the development and implementation of a whole child approach–including targeted efforts to address many of the root causes of chronic absenteeism. For example, many schools are working to provide physical and mental health care, social services, nutrition, tutoring, mentoring and other community-connected programs–connecting students to school. In addition, speakers described how schools are increasingly serving as hubs for integrated and academic student supports by highlighting examples and elevating best practices related to blending and braiding. Finally, speakers acknowledged the challenges related to the sunsetting of ESSER dollars and provide recommendations of how states, districts, and schools can keep crucial student-centered supports in place.
Session 2 - Strategies for Providing and Making it Easier to Access Services Across Federal Agencies
Author: U.S. Department of Education and the White House | Year of Publication: 2024
This webinar, held on October 30, 2024, will feature state, national and local experts who will share examples on how to provide cradle-to-career supports to help students and families access services and create thriving communities. Participants will also learn about federal flexibilities to pursue results-driven community frameworks.
Session 3 - Strategies for Coordinating Services Across State and Local Agencies and Partners
Author: U.S. Department of Education and the White House | Year of Publication: 2024
One of the most effective ways to blend and braid funds is by using state or local coordinating bodies to advance a whole child vision. This is often done through children’s and youth cabinets or strategic task forces to identify a community’s capacity and needs. This webinar, held on November 14, 2024, describes what these coordinating bodies are and how they got started in areas across the country. Speakers will also provide examples of what children’s and youth cabinets look like in practice and how they can make it easier to provide services and for students and families to access these services.
Session 4 - Engaging the Philanthropic Community as a Catalyst for Scaling up Place-Based Whole Child Partnerships
Author: U.S. Department of Education and the White House | Year of Publication: 2024
Philanthropic communities often play a key role in helping place-based programs organize and scale their efforts. This webinar, held on December 5, 2024, features leaders from national philanthropic organizations to discuss how they work with communities to maximize their impact. They will also talk about their role in helping jumpstart and sustain promising cradle-to-career programming. Panelists will share how they think about their role in the context of American Rescue Plan Act funds sunsetting. Specifically, how communities can sustain student and community-centered investments with a blending and braiding approach to funding.