Financing Community Schools

Posted by on February 07, 2011

Breaking down silos to serve children, families, communities

A new report from the Coalition of Community Schools looks at how community schools finance their work, describing the resources, partnerships, and activities that these schools generate with the dollars they have; where monies come from; and the mechanisms they use to leverage additional funding and build their capacity to achieve agreed-upon results. The report draws on surveys and case studies from a sample of experienced community schools — individual sites as well as district-sponsored initiatives. Most schools, health and social service providers, youth development organizations, higher education institutions, public and private agencies, and government officials work in isolated “silos,” concentrating on single issues. The report casts community schools as one of the few school-reform strategies specifically designed to address both academic and non-academic issues by integrating and leveraging funds, working across silos, and partnering with local organizations to maximize resources. Many issues overlap, and diverse stakeholders are all, in effect, responsible for the same children, the same families, and the same communities. Outside of community schools, bureaucratic organization and fragmented funding streams make it hard for respective sectors to work together to better meet community and family needs.

See the report: http://www.communityschools.org/resources/default.aspx?F_Category=3&F_LeadershipRole=&F_Title=&F_Keywords=&F_ToDate=&F_FromDate=&F_Organization=&F_ResultType=