Promising Practices:
Innovative Strategies for Engaging Our Communities

About the Book

CEP is pleased to offer you a free copy of the 150 page bilingual (Spanish/English) guidebook Promising Practices: Innovative Strategies for Engaging Our Communities (Prácticas Prometedoras: Estrategias innovadoras para motivar la participación de nuestras comunidades). Based on the practical experiences of our eight partner counties, the book highlights strategies, challenges, and lessons learned for optimal community involvement in First 5 work, and potentially other policy arenas.

The Promising Practices guidebook contains:

• What Is Civic Engagement? Definition of civic engagement, examples, obstacles, setting the stage for successful community participation
• What Is the Civic Engagement Project for Children & Families (CEP)? CEP’s purpose, funding agencies, guiding principles, major goals of the project
• Setting the Context: Goals for sharing CEP’s “promising practices,” the CEP evaluation team, how the promising practices were identified, suggestions for using the practices
• Detailed Descriptions of the 6 Promising Practices, including tips and pointers for using them in your community engagement activities:
  1. Targeted Outreach
  2. Community-Oriented Skills Building
  3. Meaningful Community Participation
  4. Small-Scale Grants Program
  5. Collaboration with Existing Organizations
  6. Integration of Civic Engagement Practices into Commission’s Work
  Each Promising Practice description starts with an explanation of how that specific practice helps to achieve the goal of civic engagement. The section then describes who is involved in conducting the work — from Commissions, to Commission staff, to community members. Following that is a brief outline of the activities recommended to implement a specific promising practice. Next are local examples of how this practice is being used in the CEP partner counties. The final section is a summary of lessons learned from the field, and includes recommendations for using these promising practices to promote sustained community involvement.
• Next Steps: Practical ideas for promoting community conversations, dialogue and participation in your local First 5 Commission or organization.
• Resources & Bibliography: Points of contract from which you can go deeper and get more information about civic engagement and community participation.

Download the Book

Order the Book

To receive a FREE copy of the CEP Promising Practices guidebook (while supplies last), please fill out an order form and email, mail, or fax it to the FIRST 5 Association of California at:

FIRST 5 Association of California
Attention: CEP Promising Practices Request
719 El Cerrito Plaza
El Cerrito, CA 94530
fax: (510) 526-4999
email: info@ccafa.org