What is a Community School?

Need in our communities is great – greater than any single agency or school district can handle. Issues of poverty, trauma, and transience create hardships that students and their families find extremely difficult to overcome. Students cannot learn and grow if their most basic needs – food, shelter, personal safety – are not being met. A school cannot even begin to teach skills and academics until our students and families are taken care of. It is unrealistic to expect a school – any school – to provide for every need facing our communities.

Community Schools start with the idea that a school cannot be all things to all people. Services to assist families to overcome their challenges are available throughout our communities. Literacy, mentoring, tutoring, food pantries, mental health services, physical health services, legal services, and financial guidance (just to name a few) are offered by many agencies and organizations. A school cannot and should not recreate and duplicate these services. It is beyond their abilities, skill sets, and finite resources to do so. A community school partners with service providers, welcoming them and weaving them into the fabric of the student’s, family’s, and community’s daily lives.

Major Components of our work include:

Culturally-Responsive

Trauma-Informed

Community Resources

Restorative Practices

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support