Insights from Experts
Talking Points
Talking Points offers insights from experts on the topics we know are important to organizations working to strengthen communities, including organizational development, childcare, and housing stabilization. Our writers share their knowledge, research, and practical strategies for building the structures and systems you need to promote excellence in service delivery.
Talking Points is published a minimum of monthly. Subscribing also gives you access to our Monthly Round Up, where we highlight blog posts, upcoming events, and newsworthy research and reflections.
Community Assessments Reveal Widespread Affordable Housing Challenges, an Interview with Nicole Lessard
Nicole Lessard shares her insights on the value of community needs assessments and how data can be used for program planning and to meet families’ needs. Ms. Lessard is a consultant with Foundations for Families, specializing in community needs assessments, data research, and grant writing. She is experienced working with Head Start/Early Head Start programs across the country.
New Grant Aims to Improve Housing Stability and Support for Low-Income Families
In many communities, a lack of affordable housing is an ongoing challenge. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, no state in the U.S. has an adequate supply of affordable rental housing for the lowest income renters and rising rental costs often make it difficult to maintain housing. A newly forecasted grant from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Community Services, will help to address these challenges by leveraging the expertise of Community Action Agencies.
Hot Topics (and Resources!) in Community Assessment
Community assessment is foundational to program planning, providing data and information that helps programs to meet children and families’ needs. There are a wide range of resources that programs may tap into to build a comprehensive community assessment or draw from for an annual update.Here, we share three tools that allow users to explore data at the national, state, and local levels. While the content in each tool is different - focusing on housing, food insecurity, and substance misuse - the functionality is very similar. Start broad and drill down to local data that show how needs vary from one community to the next.