• Child Welfare / Permanence
• Community Change
• Center for Family Economic Success
• Education
• Health
• Juvenile Justice
• Special Interest Areas
• Digital Stories

• Providing Direct Services
• Reforming Public Systems
• Providing Strategic Consulting
• Transforming Neighborhoods
• Strengthening Families
• Building Economic Success
• Using Data & Evaluation
• Ensuring Racial & Ethnic Equity

• Child Welfare / Permanence
• Community Change
• Economic Security
• Education
• Juvenile Justice

Making Connections Peer Match Reports

Peer Matches are very structured informal meetings between colleagues from different Making Connections cities to exchange practical knowledge on shared problems. The people best able to provide hands-on help are the "doers" themselves. These reports detail how and why each exchange was set up, the process involved and the solutions presented.

Building Neighborhood Capacity for Strong Families and Safe Children: A Making Connections Peer Technical Assistance Match

This report summarizes the learnings of a technical assistance peer match between two Making Connections sites—Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Louisville, Kentucky. Key staff members were brought together to discuss building neighborhood capacity for strong families and safe children.  more >>

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Blending Community Service Funds To Achieve Measurable Results

Through the Making Connections initiative, a team from San Antonio, Texas, traveled to Fairfax County, Virginia. The goal was to learn more about the history and operation of the Fairfax County Consolidated Community Funding Pool and to determine if aspects of this award-winning program could be implemented in San Antonio. This report summarizes the results of that peer consultation and highlights the lessons learned by the San Antonio team.  Part of the Peer Match series. more >>

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Building an Integrated Services Model

This report summarizes the information exchange from a meeting of two Making Connections sites--Indianapolis, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky--where key staff came together in a peer technical assistance match to exchange ideas about family strengthening efforts around integrating direct services at the neighborhood level. Part of the TARC Peer Match series.    more >>

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Building Community Ownership In Neighborhood Revitalization

This report summarizes the information exchange during a meeting of Making Connections site members from Atlanta, Louisville, Oakland, and San Diego when these teams came together to exchange information, experience, and ideas about community ownership in neighborhood revitalization projects. Part of the TARC Peer Match series.  more >>

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Building Community with Time Dollars

This report highlights the learnings from a gathering of Making Connections sites—Des Moines, Iowa; Indianapolis, Indiana; San Antonio and El Paso, Texas; and Washington, D.C. The use of time dollars in community-building efforts was discussed.  Part of the TARC Peer Match series.  more >>

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Building Community/University Partnerships: Drake University and Trinity College

This report, based on a Making Connections peer technical assistance match, describes the learnings from a gathering between Iowa’s Drake University and Connecticut’s Trinity College on how to improve university-community partnerships.  more >>

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Building Social and Economic Support Networks with Time Dollars

Time Dollars are a community building tool that builds on the strengths, talents, and skills of residents. Members of the Hartford, Connecticut Making Connections team met with teams from San Diego, California and Portland, Maine to 1) understand what it takes to run a successful Time Dollar program; 2) learn about the results other programs have had, and 3) put together a Time Dollar model for Hartford. This report summarizes the results of that peer consultation, highlighting lessons learned and next steps for the Hartford team. Part of the TARC Peer Match series.   more >>

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Community Outcomes: Creating Powerful and Engaging Report Cards

This report describes peer technical assistance given to the Philadelphia Coalition for Kids, whose mission is to champion the health and safety of all of Philadelphia’s children, regardless of race, creed or socio-economic standing. The information exchange included San Diego, California and the state of Vermont. Part of the TARC Peer Match series. more >>

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Connecting Residents to Integrated Neighborhood Services: A Making Connections Peer Technical Assistance Match

This report summarizes the results of a peer consultation between two Making Connections sites - the Human Services Agency in San Mateo County and the Fremont Family Resource Center in Alameda County, both in Claifornia, with White Center/Seattle, Washington. It highlights the main lessons learned and next steps the White Center/Seattle team should take towards promoting the development of a resident-friendly, integrated neighborhood model of providing direct services.  more >>

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Creating a Neighborhood Design Center

A team from the Making Connections site in Hartford, Connecticut, traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, to meet with a group of “peer consultants” from the Neighborhood Design Center in Baltimore and Lawrence CommunityWorks in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The information exchange focused on creating a neighborhood design center as part of a broader strategy for increasing the homeownership rates in Hartford. This report summarizes the results and main lessons learned from that meeting, as well as the next steps for Hartford. Part of the TARC Peer Match series.   more >>

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Creating a Resident-led Community Development Corporation

This report summarizes what was learned at a meeting of Making Connections members from San Diego, California, Boston, Massachusetts and Newark, New Jersey when the three teams came together to exchange ideas about creating resident-led community development corporations (CDCs). Part of the TARC Peer Match series. more >>

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Creating a Resident-Led Community Development Corporation: A Making Connections Peer Technical Assistance Match Between San Diego, California, Boston, Massachusetts, and Newark, New Jersey

This report summarizes the results of a peer match to exchange ideas about creating resident-led community development corporations. more >>

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Creating and Sustaining Community-Based Cultural Arts Centers of Color

This document details the peer technical assistance match between two Making Connections sites—the EastSide Arts Alliance in Oakland, California and the Ashe Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Through this information exchange, the role of arts and cultural programs in promoting neighborhood revitalization was explored. Part of the TARC Peer Match series.  more >>

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Creating Resident-Led Governance Structures

This document summarizes the outcomes from a peer technical assistance match in which original Making Connections sites—Boston, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, came together to exchange ideas about creating resident-led governance structures in Boston. Part of the TARC Peer Match series.  more >>

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EITC and IDA Programs: Learning with Peers

In 2002, staff from the San Antonio, Texas' Department of Community Initiatives participated in a peer match with Tulsa, Oklahoma's Community Action Project. This organization and their EITC/IDA campaign had been showcased at an earlier Casey Family Economic Success Institute as an example of how a community can harness energy and passion around innovative strategies to make a significant difference for their own neighborhoods and residents. more >>

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Engaging Youth in Community Change

This Making Connections Peer Technical Assistance Match report summarizes the learnings from a meeting of two Making Connections sites -- Hartford, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island -- when key members from the communities came together to exchange ideas and experiences about engaging youth in community change.  more >>

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Establishing a Multilingual Homeownership Center

This report describes a peer technical assistance match between two Making Connections sites—Oakland, California and Seattle, Washington. It focuses on advice provided by the Seattle site on how to run a successful homeownership program serving a low-income community. Part of the TARC Peer Match series.  more >>

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Measuring Performance and Managing for Results

This paper summarizes a peer technical assistance match between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Montgomery County, Maryland during which participants exchanged ideas about how to use a results-based accountability framework to achieve better outcomes for families and children. Part of the TARC Peer Match series.  more >>

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Moving Families Toward Self-Sufficiency: Effective Case Management Strategies- A Making Connections Peer Technical Assistance Match Between Louisville, Kentucky and Chicago Illinois

This report is a Making Connections Peer Technical Assistance Match between Louisville, Kentucky and Chicago Illinois. The focus of this match was the relocation and return of residents after the completion of Louisville’s HOPE IV revitalization efforts. more >>

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Operationalizing Youth Opportunities: Hartford, Connecticut and San Diego, California

This report summarizes the process and outcomes of a Making Connections initiative peer-to-peer exchange involing key personnel from the Hartford Youth Opportunity Coalition with the San Diego Youth at Work component of the San Diego Workforce Partnership. Part of the TARC Peer Match series.  more >>

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Strengthening Kindergarten Transition for Children in Tough Neighborhoods

This report describes some of the topics discussed during a Making Connections team visit between Des Moines, Iowa and Vancouver, Washington conevened to share experiences about connecting  school readiness efforts with public school kindergarten programs. It summarizes lessons learned and next steps that participants committed to take as they progress in their work. more >>

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Trusted Advocates: A Multicultural Approach to Building and Sustaining Resident Involvement

This report summarizes the learning of a technical assistance peer match between two of the Casey Foundation's Making Connections sites -- White Center, Washington and Oakland, California. Key staff and community members came together to discuss building and sustaining resident involvement. more >>

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