Download our guide to media and communications, with helpful talking points for talking to funders, the media, residents, and community groups about your Promise Neighborhood effort.

Use this toolkit to develop a strategic plan to tell compelling stories, engage with media, incorporate results-based accountability, write op-eds, letters to the editor, and blog posts, and create a social media plan.

Created by the Harlem Children’s Zone, PolicyLink, and the Center for the Study of Social Policy, with contributions by Child Trends, this document was released at the “Changing the Odds” conference in 2009 to advance the discussion about how a focus on results would contribute to the federal initiative.

The Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink commissioned these tools from the Finance Project in order to provide communities building Promise Neighborhoods with assistance in creating budgets and finance plans.

The Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink commissioned these tools from the Finance Project in order to provide communities building Promise Neighborhoods with assistance in creating budgets and finance plans.

This white paper by Robert Bleisch, M.A., Principal of Castle Park Middle School, explores the Granger Turnaround Model—a school-wide, research-based, data driven Response-to-Intervention model built on four very specific principles of intervention (Timely, Targeted, Directive, and Systematic) and three core systems of academic excellence (Mandatory Attendance System, Mandatory Behavior System, and Mandatory Academic Support System). These three systems of academic excellence are greater than the sum of their parts and together, synergistically, help neutralize many of the poverty related barriers that affect school campuses and prevent academic success.

This guide contains a set of suggested critical criteria, functions, and guiding questions to use in order to review potential database vendors. These guidelines are intended to be a starting point for community discussions about data systems, and can be altered to reflect the specific needs of a Promise Neighborhood.

Created on behalf of the Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink by Frontline Solutions and BCT Partners, this tool is specifically designed for organizations in Promise Neighborhoods to help craft realistic visions and budgets for the back-office needs of managing their work. This tool provides adaptable guidance to better estimate staffing and financial needs during the three- to five-year implementation grant period and beyond.

This paper describes the early childhood solutions that the five 2011 Promise Neighborhoods implementation sites put in place in the first year of their five-year grants. This brief is part of a series, Building the Pipeline: Effective Practice Briefs, which provides guidance on aspects of Promise Neighborhoods.

This brief is based on the notion that college is possible not only for students who attend excellent primary and secondary schools but also those who struggle in under-­‐performing public schools. Using the Harlem Children’s Zone® (HCZ®) as a case study, it explores the theory and practice behind this approach; summarizes results, challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations for other communities interested in this approach; and offers examples of three students whose lives changed because of HCZ’s student support strategy. This brief is part of a series, Building the Pipeline: Effective Practice Briefs, which provides guidance on aspects of Promise Neighborhoods.