Community Impact Project (CIP)

Community Impact Projects are an opportunity for parents and organization staff to co-create a project at a local, municipal, or state agency. Parents put their leadership skills into practice to increase organizational capacity and represents the voices of other parents in their community. Organizations benefit from increased opportunities for families to shape the agency and become more connected to their communities.

Examples of Past Community Impact Projects

Categories of Projects

Needs Assessment

Assessing needs in a community, for example, via a survey, interviews, conversations with the community, or by reviewing available data from public sources.

Fundraising

Any fundraising activities for the partner organization or a specific cause.

Resource Development

Creating resources to be used in the community, such as resource lists, toolkits, informational materials, and informational videos about a specific topic.

Community Events, Groups, and Services

This category includes events, groups, and services aimed at community members. Examples include events open to the whole community, parent support groups, parent-child playgroups, and a one-on-one support program

Expanding Parent Leadership Opportunities

A project intended to expand parent leadership opportunities. Examples include recruiting parent leaders to facilitate support groups, creating a parent council, and inviting parents to join existing councils.

Marketing and Promotional Activities

This may include reaching out to families to promote the partner organization’s existing programming and services via events, phone calls, flyers, social media, and news media.

Advocacy

Advocating on behalf of a specific issue or group. For example, creating a campaign to raise mental health awareness or supporting the partnering organization in policymaking and planning with parents’ perspectives in mind.