All children deserve a safe place to live, support and opportunity to learn, and encouragement to lead ethically.
Research has shown that Community Schools is a local engagement strategy that creates and coordinates opportunities with its public school to accelerate student success. It serves as a vehicle for hyper-local decision-making that responds to the unique needs of each community.
By bringing together the relationships and assets of a neighborhood, Community Schools can efficiently and effectively utilize resources to advance the well-being of children and their families now and for future generations.
At Communities In Schools® (CIS™), we believe that every student, regardless of race, gender, ability, zip code, or socioeconomic background has what they need to realize their full potential in school and beyond. We walk by their side, in their communities, to challenge the systems and barriers that stand between them and their success in life.
Our National Center for Community Schools is a technical assistance organization that builds the capacity of schools, school districts, and community partners to organize around student success.
Our Mission: Supporting development of community schools by fostering collaborative partnerships to connect communities, families, schools, youth, and higher education.
The University-Assisted Community School (UACS) partners universities alongside community resources and the school system focusing on academics, social support and civic engagement.
A major component of the Netter Center's work is mobilizing the vast resources of the University to help traditional public schools become innovative University-Assisted Community Schools (UACS) that educate, engage, empower, and serve public school students, families, and community members. UACS focus on schools as core institutions for community engagement and democratic development, as well as link school day and after school curricula to solve locally identified, real-world, community problems. For neighborhood schools to function as genuine community centers, however, they need additional human resources and support. The Netter Center emphasizes "university-assisted" because universities, indeed higher educational institutions in general, can constitute the strategic sources of broadly based, comprehensive, sustained support for community schools. UACS engage universities as lead partners in providing academic, human, and material resources. This mutually beneficial partnership improves the quality of life and learning in local schools and communities while simultaneously advancing university research, teaching, learning, and service.
Full Service Community Schools - Elev8 Baltimore believes that it is important to reinforce the learning that goes on in classrooms with opportunities to learn during after- and summer-school programs. In addition, many young people need social services and other community resources.
We integrate all those services into one dynamic program inside the school building, where many young people spend a considerable amount of time.
By coordinating the delivery of learning, health and family engagement services students and families receive, we are more likely to foster lasting change in the lives of young people, and the systems that support them, than if we provided any one service in isolation.