Community Schools

What are Community Schools?

Community schools are neighborhood schools that partner with families and community organizations to provide well-rounded educational experiences and supports for students’ school success.

Community schools offer hope, opportunity, and transformation to entire communities. They are built with the understanding that students often come to the classroom with challenges that impact their ability to learn, explore, and develop to their greatest potential.

Because learning never happens in isolation, community schools can provide free healthy meals, health care, tutoring, mental health counseling, and other tailored services before, during, and after school.

The days of attempting to compartmentalize problems that are inextricably linked has failed, and community schools provide an evidence-based pathway to lifting all students and the communities they live within.

What do Community Schools look like?

Community schools are centers of flourishing communities where everyone belongs, works together, and thrives. They become hubs of their neighborhoods and communities, uniting families, educators, and community partners.

In community schools, explicit attention to challenges children face—such as lack of stable housing, inadequate medical and dental care, hunger, trauma, and exposure to violence— helps students to attend school and be ready to learn, setting them up for academic and life success.

For example, a health clinic can deliver medical and psychological treatment, dental care, as well as glasses to nearsighted children, and inhalers for asthma sufferers.

Community schools also can support efforts to improve the neighborhood— for example, by partnering to secure a stop sign or get rid of hazardous waste.

In community schools, educators work with local companies, nonprofits, and higher education institutions to offer students real-world projects that make learning more relevant and engaging. They build connections that can open the door to future opportunities.

In addition to making society more fair by investing in communities that have been marginalized by historical disinvestment, community schools are efficient and cost-effective. They coordinate the delivery of services to avoid duplication and maximize student supports. Studies find that every $1 invested in a community schools strategy results in up to a $15 return* to the community.

7:30am

Start the day with a check-in call with the community task force team to assess new and ongoing community needs

12:15pm

Give a tour of the school to a local business owner to discuss partnership opportunities

9:00am

Visit students and volunteers working in the school’s garden, which provides a learning opportunity for students and fresh produce for families

1:30pm

Help volunteers and staff who are unloading pallets of donated food to stock into school food pantry in preparation for family shopping this weekend

9:45am

Meet individually with student who is struggling to see what supports might be helpful and connect the student with resources

3:15pm

Visit one of our afterschool programs that pairs community mentors with students for STEM learning

11:00am

Mobile medical and vision clinic arrives, and students filter in and out of the clinic throughout the day for check-ups and vision screenings

5:30pm

Set up the cafeteria for family dinner night, where families and staff get together to share a meal and build relationships