1. Family Resources Website
Welcome to the Family Resources website. It was created in response to focus groups and surveys reporting the need for an easy way to find resource information. It is the foundation piece for Family Resources efforts to raise the level of resource awareness in our community, a prerequisite to resource utilization to address family needs. Launched in January 2000, it is available around the clock to the entire community through personal computers or public internet access sites. Because every resource record is updated annually, it is a reliable source of accurate information about more than 600 resources. The ability to search this extensive information in a variety of ways including service descriptions, target groups, key words, and agency names, guarantees easy and flexible retrieval, making it a relevant tool for both users and providers of services.
Using this website, a short list of appropriate resources can be quickly developed from the long list of those available. With this information the user can make a selective number of investigations, ask their own questions, and make choices based on personal preferences. The time and energy saved by using this website can be spent with family and the community. The website supports the work of the Family Resources Ambassadors who take information about resources and appropriate connections to their communities. Ambassadors introduce the website to their communities, providing assistance with the technology if necessary. FR information tools help families become self-reliant in identifying resources that meet their needs.
The resources in our community are organized on this website into eight categories of services:
- Emergency/Crisis
- Basic Needs
- Child Care
- Community Resources
- Disability Resources
- Education
- Health Care
- Mental Health & Counseling
These resource categories are used throughout Family Resources information tools creating a common language and a recognizable organization structure, assisting retrieval and speeding searches. By incorporating the nationally used standards of the Alliance of Information & Referral Systems and Infoline, Los Angeles, the Family Resources database can exchange information with other similarly standardized websites such as Santa Clara County's resource website, HelpSCC.org.
This website is under constant revision. The data is updated annually in quarterly cycles. The information has been gathered from publicly available sources. Family Resources does not guarantee the accuracy of the information nor do we license, endorse, or recommend the providers, services, and programs, represented here. In addition, Family Resources, a non-profit organization, reaps no financial benefit from listing any of the resources you will find on this website. Nor do we have anything to gain by your use of any particular resource listed here. When you leave this website, we offer you the opportunity to submit corrections and give us your feedback. (see comment form, bottom menu)
2. Internet Access Sites
In order that everyone have opportunities to access the Family Resources website, nine collaborating sites offers public internet access. These sites are featured in the Family Resources publicity materials, including a map of their location.
Click to view Map of internet access locations
3. Desktop Kiosks of Information
Family Resources Desktop Kiosks of Information provide an easily viewable hard-copy display of selected resources from the Family Resources website plus maps, brochures and other graphic information. The Desktop Kiosks are sorted by the same color-coded resource categories on the Family Resources website. Repeating that structure across all Family Resources materials, families and service providers can recognize a common language about resources, assisting their retrieval skills and speeding their searches.
The Desktop Kiosks of Information are placed in a variety of locations in the community such as public libraries, schools, resource centers, child care facilities, service organizations, and community centers. Each Desktop Kiosk is supported by a Family Resources Ambassador who is available to assist in the Kiosk usage, answer additional questions, and who takes responsibility for its safekeeping and for incorporating all updated materials supplied by Family Resources.
There are 86 kiosks located throughout town: 8 at affiliate sites where public internet access is also available. The remaining kiosks are located in the communities of Family Resources Ambassadors who support the Kiosk's use. The Kiosk map shows the location of kiosks in Palo Alto. The growing number of Ambassadors and Kiosks, in addition to the website, assures the community of convenient, up-to-date, and easily assessable information about resources to meet the needs of families.
Click to view a map of kiosk locations
4. Ambassador Development Program
The Ambassador Development Program is a person-to-person, information-sharing, and community-building component of Family Resources. It teaches and practices the importance of creating, nurturing, and sustaining connections upon which healthy families and community depend. Trained Ambassadors share information and connections across our community's diverse constituency in meaningful and effective ways through personalization and cultural adaptations. They facilitate family access to resources and increase the likelihood of reaching isolated individuals and those out of the usual loops of information exchange and connections.
Each Ambassador training cohort reflects a cross section of the community's constituency, including all income levels, ages, and ethnicities. They might be neighborhood activists, grass roots organization members, community members at large, service provider, or City officials & staff, for example, all constituents are brought together to illuminate and address common as well as unique needs. By building connections and strengthening family support across the spectrum of community constituency, Family Resources creates opportunities for understanding, appreciating, and learning from one another.
The Ambassador Development training educates Ambassadors about resources, including fees and eligibility requirements; about using Family Resources tools (website & kiosk); about skills for community building; and more. Service professionals and community leaders make presentations and develop connections to the Ambassadors. Ambassador graduates are available to carry their skills for using FR tools, their enhanced resource information, and their resource connections deep within their own individual neighborhood, workplace, childcare, school, faith, and/or other communities as appropriate. Ambassadors bring back to Family Resources enhanced awareness of the needs of particular communities and suggestions for better ways to serve these families
Ambassadors spend one morning a month together for 6 months. Each meeting is rich with resource information and opportunities for trainees and trainers to learn from one another. Snacks, occasional lunches, and interactive learning honor community participants and provide an occasion to develop connections and friendships: among the diverse Ambassador representation, with Family Resources staff, and with the service providers and leaders who make presentations.
Graduates of the training have an in-depth understanding of the community's resource assets and the relationship of those assets to family wellbeing. They have also developed the skills and connections to facilitate links between resources and needs in the community. The Ambassadors may take a Family Resources Desktop Kiosk of Information for use in their own community. These Ambassadors agree to support the Kiosk use, ensure its safekeeping, and take responsibility for incorporating all updated materials supplied by Family Resources.
Independent outside evaluation of the Ambassador Development Program is conducted by Bob Rossi, Ph.D., Ex. Dir., ibuildcommunities.com, formerly of the American Institutes for Research, Center for Community Research. He worked closely with John W. Gardner, Ph.D. to develop expertise in program planning, implementation, and program evaluation, with a particular emphasis on community building. All evaluations are posted at www.ambassadorsR.us
The Family Resources Ambassador Development Program has been named a "Priority Strategy" by the Santa Clara County First 5 Commission and recommended for replication in the other 14 cities of Santa Clara County.
Click to view a sample syllabus
5. Hub Development
The lobby of the City of Palo Alto's Cubberley Community Center serves as the hub for Family Resources. There you can speak to trained resources specialists who are familiar with all aspects of the Family Resources program. You will find a small, comfortable reading and conversation area. You can browse resource materials collected from a variety of sources and sorted into the same eight resource categories found on this website.
