ABSTRACT
Creating the conditions where families have the time, space, and resources to hang out, play, and learn with one another is a big deal. Leveraging the expertise of relevant local partners and maintaining a sustained presence in specific neighborhoods enables the second innovation, a new approach to family learning. In the most recent implementation of the Family & Community Learning with Ruff Ruffman series across all 16 Collaboratives, each site hosted between 4 and 19 families, at locations such as their children's elementary school or a community center in their neighborhood or housing complex. Seven of eight Collaboratives the people contacted about expansion in their communities for this chapter reported receiving requests about the model from more than one other organization in their state. Community Collaboratives are designed to be more intensive and more mutually beneficial partnerships than public media stations had commonly had in the past.
