Experience

Our experience is extensive. The Center has provided assistance to nearly all of this country’s major community school initiatives, including those in Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Portland and St. Paul. Of the six initial awards presented in June 2006 by the Coalition for Community Schools to individual schools and community school initiatives, five went to entities that had received extensive technical assistance from the Center. Similarly, nine of the eleven community school initiatives highlighted in the 2006 publication entitled Growing Community Schools: The Role of Cross-Boundary Leadership benefited from intensive technical assistance from us over the past decade. Visitors from more than 40 countries have come to observe Children’s Aid Society community schools in action, and the Center has provided substantial multi-year consultation to colleagues in England, the Netherlands and other international sites.

Highlights of Our Work

• Hosted over 9,000 national and international visitors, representing all levels of government, education, business, philanthropy, the non-profit sector, the media and the research community
• Responded to over 7,500 technical assistance requests for information, consultation and training
• Presented at over 500 national and international workshops and conferences
• Facilitated the development of over 15,000 adaptations of our model in the US and internationally
• Co-founded the national Coalition for Community Schools, which brings together local, state and national organizations representing those engaged in creating and sustaining community schools
• Launched a public service advertising campaign with the Ad Council and the Coalition for Community Schools that generated 13,000 requests for information about community schools
• Authored a guide for community school development entitled Building a Community School, now in its third edition
• Hosted seven invitational biannual Practicum conferences for community school practitioners from across the country and beyond
• Co-authored, with researcher Joy Dryfoos and editor Carol Barkin, a book entitled Community Schools in Action: Lessons from a Decade of Practice (Oxford University Press, 2005)
• Drafted full-service community schools legislation that is now being considered by the New York State legislature