Beacons Schools - Youth Development Institute
New York City, New York
The Children's Aid Society Community Schools
New York City, New York
Communities In Schools, Inc.
Alexandria, Virginia
Center for Mental Health in Schools: An Enabling Component to Address Barriers to Learning
Los Angeles, California
University Assisted Community Schools
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Schools of the 21st Century
New Haven, Connecticut
New York, New York
Beacons are school-based community centers located throughout all five boroughs of New York City. Beacons emphasize the view that positive outcomes for youth result from opportunities to develop their talents and potential. In combination with community wide support services and closer connections between home and school, these opportunities are intended to improve the learning and development of young people. Beacons have been replicated in San Francisco, Minnesota, Savannah, and Philadelphia.
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New York, New York
The Children's Aid Society (CAS) currently operates 21 community schools in New York City. These community schools are the result of partnerships between CAS, the New York City Board of Education, the school district and community based partners. The aim is to develop a model of public schools that combines teaching and learning with the delivery of an array of social, health, child and youth development services, while emphasizing community and parental involvement.
A CAS Community School is a public school that combines best educational practices with in-house youth development, health and social services to ensure that children are physically, emotionally and socially prepared to learn.CAS, through its National Technical Assistance Center, also offers training and guidance in all aspects of designing and implementing the CAS community school model to suit the unique needs and strengths of individual communities.
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Alexandria, Virginia
Communities In Schools, Inc. (CIS) is a national organization, with more than 181 local CIS initiatives, that provides a flexible approach/process for states and localities interested in building school-community partnerships. CIS offers information, training, technical support and linkages to a national network of local, independent CIS sites and affiliates across the country. CIS encourages innovation and the sharing of best practices and awards, special grants and nationally leveraged resources to members of its network.
Supported by both public and private dollars, CIS awarded more than $3.3 million to state and local programs participating in time-limited national initiatives in 1996. Grants were targeted at seeding local sites, developing programmatic initiatives and building self-sufficiency at CIS initiatives. The shared mission is to bring services into schools; connect young people to caring adults; and see to it that young people stay in school, develop skills and contribute to their communities. Sixteen state CIS organizations also operate to replicate the CIS stay-in-school approach and secure state support for local programs. CIS partnerships, operating in more than 1,500 school sites, serve more than 350,000 children and their families.
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Los Angeles, California
Addressing barriers to learning should not be seen as being at odds with the "paradigm shift" that emphasizes strengths, resilience, assets, and protective factors. Efforts to enhance positive development and improve instruction clearly can improve readiness to learn. Based particularly on the work of several comprehensive initiatives, it is becoming increasingly evident that there is a need to expand school reform. Several of these initiatives are restructuring education support programs under the umbrella of a newly conceived reform component that focuses directly on addressing barriers to learning and development. This component is to be fully integrated with the others and assigned equal priority in policy and practice.
The concept of an enabling component embraces a focus on healthy development, prevention, and addressing barriers. In addressing barriers to student learning, pioneering initiatives are beginning to improve school and classroom environments to prevent problems and enhance youngsters' strengths. At the same time, for those who need something more, school and community, working separately and together, provide essential supports and assistance.
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Netter Center for Community Partnerships, based out of the University of Pennsylvania, is a national partner in the community schools movement. Their University-Assisted Community School Program engages students (K-16+) in real world, community problem solving that is integrated into the school curriculum as well as through extended day programs. The Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships functions as the integrating vehicle to effectively align Penn’s numerous schools and departments in order to help develop and maintain university-assisted community schools and bring about mutually beneficial collaboration.
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New Haven, Connecticut
The School of the 21st Century (21C) is a model for school-based child care and family support services. 21C was conceptualized at the Yale University Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy by Professor Edward Zigler, one of the architects of the federal Head Start program. Professor Zigler recognized that the changes in patterns of work and family life in recent decades require schools to assume an expanded role in the delivery of child care and family support programs to ensure that children arrive at school ready to learn and that they receive the support necessary for academic success.
The 21C model transforms the traditional school into a year-round, multi-service center providing high-quality, accessible services from early morning to early evening. It also eliminates the distinction between child care and education, recognizing that learning begins at birth and occurs in all settings. Children will not succeed academically or socially unless their parents have the supports they need to be their first and best teachers. Young children need to be in caring and enriching settings long before kindergarten. Once in school, children need safe and enriching environments during non-school hours. In addition, children’s basic needs, such as nutrition and health, must be met in order for children to develop properly and succeed academically. The ultimate goal of the School of the 21st Century is to help provide affordable, accessible and high-quality services for all families, regardless of income level, to ensure the optimal development of children.
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