Building community capacity to promote child wellbeing and achieve equity.
¡Ya está en marcha una versión en español de nuestro sitio web! Estamos muy emocionados de practicar la justicia del idioma, mientras tanto, le agradecemos su paciencia. ¡Gracias!
What would it look like if communities ensured every child, parent, resident, and family equitable access to critical resources and opportunities to lead healthy, thriving lives — and a seat at the table to drive the solutions?
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Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) is a national initiative to improve the capacity of local communities and coalitions to advance equity. The NOW Innovation Forum is a national network of peer communities working to promote child wellbeing and prevent early childhood adversities.
Launched in 2016, Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) aims to build the capacity of local communities and coalitions working to promote child wellbeing and align early childhood systems of care and education by using a trauma-informed lens to advance equity.
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The NOW Innovation Forum brings together resources, stories, discussions, and other interactive tools in a central hub, to promote shared learning and networking among communities across the country that are working ensure all children and their families achieve optimal health and wellbeing. Learn more about the history of NOW, our vision and approach, and partners.
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View the recording and slides from our virtual tour of the NOW Innovation Forum.
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The NOW Innovation Forum is an initiative of the Vital Village Networks at Boston Medical Center.
We’re excited to share a new reflection guide developed by members of the NOW Cooperative Design Lab series. This reflection guide encourages funders and their potential partners to think intentionally about the goals and outcomes of their relationship, focused on a set of key Guiding Principles and Practices that build on elements of successful cooperative and collaborative structures.
Download the NOW Playbook: Transformative Community Capacity to Advance Equity
Between 2018 and 2020, multi-sector leadership teams from 10 peer communities across the US engaged in the Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) Learning Community. Drawing upon these learnings, the NOW Playbook is a resource guide designed to provide tools for local leaders, community coalitions and networks, educators, practitioners, and policymakers working to promote the wellbeing of children and families, advance equity, and align systems of care and education in early childhood. Download this new resource today!
Upcoming Webinar: Centering Ancestral Wisdom through the Hogan Dialogue: Reflections on Community Engagement and Data Sovereignty
Join us for the launch of Vital Village Networks' 2025 NOW webinar series, featuring a dynamic conversation with Roberto Nutlouis (Navajo), Executive Director of Nihikeya and 2024 VVN Community Food Systems Fellow. Through Nihikeya's efforts to center Dine knowledge and traditions to build regenerative ecological, food, and water lifeways, Roberto will share about his work to center ancestral wisdom through community engagement processes using the Hogan Dialogue process. Learn more about Roberto's and Nihikeya's reflections, learnings, and actions needed to transform community data processes and systems towards greater data sovereignty and community healing.
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Featured Speakers:
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Roberto Nutlouis, Executive Director, Nihikeya
Coalition Development
& Governance
Learn more about NOW's levers of community change — components we believe are critical to ensure the equitable transformation and alignment of community systems to move those most impacted by inequity from margin to center. Read more to find resources and tools designed to build capacity around these fundamental areas.
LEVERS OF COMMUNITY CHANGE
BECOME A FREE MEMBER
NOW Innovation Forum members can network with peer communities, share best practices, contribute resources to the repository, and access learning tools, webinars, podcasts, and monthly communications. Check out the Member FAQ Guide for more information about member benefits - it's free to sign up!
Season 3 Episode 7 Now Available
In episode seven, we visit the community of Travis County, Texas and speak with Dr. Michelle Gallas, a pediatrician who has worked for the last decade caring for children and families facing complex medical and social challenges that impact their health and wellbeing. Dr. Gallas reflects on her own personal journey that transformed her care approach away from an “illness” model toward a “health promotion” model. Serving as the lead pediatrician for the Centering Parenting program, she evokes the power of convivencia - “coexistence” or “coliving”- outside the home, an important perspective learned from her patients. She shares more about how this innovative group-based model of care brings together children and families for group well child visits, peer learning, and meaningful connections across critical life stages in a child’s first three years. Dr. Gallas highlights the power that’s generated when you find people who share your passion, and reflects on how healthcare workers are uniquely positioned to honor the full spectrum of human connection - from pain to joy - through their work.
FEATURED RESOURCE
COVID-19 Resource Page by Vital Village Networks
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This page shares COVID-19 related resources in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The resources accessed by in-person visit can be found in the map. The information comes from local community members and partners who are sharing in a collective effort designed through the Wellness Ideas Bank, as well as the city of Boston. Information may change rapidly. Please contact each location before visiting and be sure to check back for updates.
NOW LEARNING COMMUNITY
NOW is working with 10 community coalitions to the essential knowledge, skills, and tools to scale and sustain equitable transformation of early childhood, education, and health systems in their regions through the NOW Learning Community. Learning Community members can access a separate portal with information and resources to support their work over the next 18 months.