HOPE Innovation Network and the Importance of Policy [positiveexperience.org/category/blog]

By The HOPE Team, 11/8/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/

In our recent blog, HOPE in Policy, we discussed the work that the HOPE National Resource Center (NRC) will be doing to let policymakers know more about positive childhood experiences (PCEs) and how public policy can support access to the Four Building Blocks of HOPE. Likewise, the HOPE NRC works directly with organizations to make HOPE-informed changes to their internal policies. This work is important for the HOPE NRC because both public policy (“big P”) and organizational policy (“little p”) impact children and families.

One example of this work is the 2022 HOPE Innovation Network (HIN) project. The 2022 HIN organizations worked on changing their intake processes to make them more HOPE-informed. Organizations looked at changes that best suited their organizations, communities, and the children and families they serve. Some ways that organizations thought about making their internal policies more HOPE-informed included: adding open-ended questions for families to prioritize their needs and requested services, requiring HOPE training for all employees, and adding the Four Building Blocks to parent-teacher conferences. These examples demonstrate the diverse ways that organizational policy can support the well-being of children and families.

[Click here to read the full blog post.]