Knowledge Center

• Child Welfare / Permanence
• Community Change
• Economic Security
• Education
• Health
• Juvenile Justice
• Special Interest Areas

Our Approach

Our Work

Casey Places

Making Connections Technical Assistance Resource Center Guides

These guides are part of an extensive series from the Technical Assistance Resource Center (TARC). Each guide presents key ideas, effective approaches, and technical assistance resources for critical issues being addressed in the Making Connections communities.

Building Family Assets: A Guide to Key Ideas, Effective Approaches, and Technical Assistance Resources for Making Connections Cities and Site Teams

This resource guide describes ways of enabling low-income, working families to build up assets (such as home and business ownership), through savings and through supplements. It includes asset-building for those receiving very low wages often paid for entry-level jobs. more >>

view pdf

Building More Effective Community Schools

Strong community schools have been found to provide families with economic opportunities, social networks, and access to social services. This document applies the community school approach toward school improvement, and presents practitioners with models of promising practice and assistance as educational-related issues arise. Part of the Technical Assistance Resource Center Resource Guide series.  more >>

view pdf

Child Care for Communities

This document is a guide to key ideas, effective approaches, and technical assistance resources in child care for the Making Connections initiative. It describes some promising approaches to child care that encompass a great variety of arrangements. Programs that care for and educate young children from birth to the age of five, or the start of kindergarten, are highlighted. Part of the TARC Resource Guide series. more >>

view pdf

Community Investments for Family Economic Success

This guide offers strategies that can work to level the economic playing field for low-income families by helping communities plan, secure, and direct new investment. These ideas, approaches, and resources can help Making Connections site teams, neighborhood residents, and community leaders work with businesses and other partners to realize the often untapped market strength of low-income neighborhoods. This document is part of the TARC Resource Guide series. more >>

view pdf

Community Involvement in Schools: A Making Connections Peer Technical Assistance Match between Indianapolis, Indiana and Denver, Colorado

This document summarizes a site-team match that provided the Indianapolis Making Connections team with strategies for engaging parents and community members in the conversion to small schools. This document also details some of the challenges that often occur when converting to small schools and recommends ways to overcome such obstacles.   more >>

view pdf

Community Safety and Justice

Safety is a primary concern for many residents in Making Connections neighborhoods. This technical assistance guide details how residents can address safety and justice issues simultaneously through developing community partnerships and relationships with the justice system. Also included are other strategies for low-income neighborhoods and families to improve their neighborhoods. Part of the TARC Resource Guide series.  more >>

view pdf

Connecting Families to Computers and On-line Networks

Residents in neighborhoods across America are learning to take advantage of opportunities available through technology and on-line networks. This guide tries to anticipate some of the technological questions and concerns that low-income communities may have with setting up new technologies, using the internet, or creating databases. Part of the TARC Resource Guides.  more >>

view pdf

Connecting Families to Jobs

This resource guide provides key ideas, effective approaches and technical assistance for Making Connections cities and site teams. The guide containing information on strategies for connecting low-income residents to jobs. Part of the TARC Resource Guide series. more >>

view pdf

Developing Community Responses to Domestic Violence

This report details approaches, program models, and resources to respond to domestic violence through prevention, education, interventions, advocacy, and other community supports including the police and the courts. Part of the TARC Resource Guide series.  more >>

view pdf

Engaging Resources in Higher Education

This guide describes new and existing partnerships between institutions of higher education and communities. Based on these initiatives, it identifies a set of core results and mechanisms to help evaluate progress, gather data, guide investments, and hold the Foundation accountable for producing  evidence showing how one program makes a lasting difference in the lives of children, families, and neighborhoods. Part of the TARC Resource Guide Series. more >>

view pdf

Meeting the Housing Needs of Families: A Resource Guide

This guide addresses the serious housing problems faced by millions of low-income families across the country and within the 22 Making Connections sites. Part of the TARC Resource Guide series. more >>

view pdf

Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

This guide highlights the fact that fatherhood programs— no matter how effective—are insufficient in and of themselves, and stresses the key is to link fathers and programs that support them to a broad range of family supports and social services. Part of the TARC Resource Guide series. more >>

view pdf

Reentry: Helping Former Prisoners Return to Communities

This guide offers Making Connections site teams and local partners a way to think about and reduce the negative impact of incarceration on their communities. It presents an overview of the issue, describes challenges that sites are likely to face when tackling this work, describes promising approaches, and offers resources for finding further information. Part of the TARC Resource Guide series. more >>

view pdf

Residents Engaged in Strengthening Families and Neighborhoods

This document presents a framework for how to get residents engaged in implementing family strengthening efforts in their neighborhoods. Also included is a resource section that lists organizations that can provide additional information, advice, and direct assistance on how residents can become engaged in a personal and neighborhood transformation agenda. Part of the TARC Resource Guide series. more >>

view pdf

Using Strategic Communication to Support Families

This guide defines the principles and components of effective communication and shows how communicating can be a critical element of success for Making Connections cities. It also presents a framework for thinking strategically about communications. Part of the TARC Resource Guide series.  more >>

view pdf