Community of Practice

Our Approach to Communities of Practice

Connecting California Families (CCF) provides training and support to Regional Leads on implementing the Communities of Practice (CoP) model to convene collaborative learning sessions with local agencies in their region. Since Fall 2021, CCF has used a “train the trainer” structure for CoP tools and protocols to facilitate partnership building within regional communities that is uniform across the state.

The goal of CoP sessions is to build community and enhance practice through purposeful conversation. Sessions allow experts in-field to learn from one another through sharing successes and challenges. This model facilitates peer support in planning, problem solving, and relationship development.

“Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.”
‍ - Etienne Wenger Trayner

Once learned, the CoP model can be applied to various contexts and scopes of work. CCF refers to Dr. Raquel Diaz’ extensive research as a guide and foundation for the CoP philosophy. To learn more, see Dr. Diaz’s article
'The Cookie’: a recipe for effective collaboration through communities of practice.