Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support

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Where Should You Begin?

If you are not sure where to begin and have specific questions, please review the following to determine which section of the Resource Kit to visit.

Join a CoP
Start a CoP
Sustain your CoP
Evolve your CoP
Evaluate your CoP

Join a CoP

If you want to learn about Communities of Practice and are interested in getting involved, you can do that easily!

To find out what a CoP is, check out the Introduction to Communities of Practice section.
To jump right in and sign up for a CoP, look for existing CoPs within your field of interest on phConnect.org, a site that some CoPs use to collaborate. See the Join a CoP section to learn more.

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Start a CoP

Do you have an idea for a new CoP? Visit the following sections to learn how to plan and launch a community.

To gain knowledge of CoPs, check out the Introduction to Communities of Practice section.
To begin laying the groundwork for a CoP, visit the Launch a Community of Practice – Plan and Prepare section.
To kickoff your CoP, head to Launch a Community of Practice – Launch Your Community section.

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Sustain your CoP

If your CoP is already in place and you would like ideas on how to sustain your community over time, this is the area for you!

To learn about encouraging participation, check out the Develop Membership section.
To learn about how different types of members might participate, visit Build Community.
To learn about how to create a variety of environments in which members can participate, review Foster Engagement.

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Evolve your CoP

If your CoP has been in place for some time and you would like some ideas about how to keep members engaged, foster innovation, and share your success with others, review the material in this section.

To learn about the Storytelling process, check out the Share Success Stories section.
To learn about how your community can improve products, methods, processes, or thinking, visit the Foster Innovation section.

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Evaluate your CoP

Learn how to use evaluation measures to help assess how effectively your CoP is working and to determine its impact on your community members, your organization, and the domain.