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Helping Young People Succeed Strengthening and Sustaining Relationships Between Schools and Youth Development Organizations National Collaboration for Youth Coalition for Community Schools Institute for Educational Leadership A National Conversation Sponsored by

Helping Young People Succeed - Community Schools€¦ · Helping Young People Succeed 5 Helping Young People Succeed T elling this real story of Raymond, Roxanne Spillett, president

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HelpingYoung People

SucceedStrengthening and Sustaining

Relationships Between Schools andYouth Development Organizations

National Collaboration for Youth

Coalition for Community Schools

Institute for Educational Leadership

A National Conversation Sponsored by

About theSponsoring Organizations

The National Collaboration for Youth is an alliance of thenation’s major youth organizations. It focuses on positive youthdevelopment as a holistic and effective approach to ensuring thehealthy development of all youth. The National Collaboration forYouth is the largest affinity group of the National Assembly ofHealth and Human Service Organizations, an association ofnational nonprofit health and human service organizations boundby a common concern for the effective delivery of health andhuman services to the American people, especially those in need.

The Coalition for Community Schools brings togetherleaders in education, youth development, family support, healthand human services, community development government andphilanthropy. The Coalition’s mission is to mobilize the resourcesand capacity of multiple sectors and institutions to create aunited movement for community schools—places that offer arange of education and related supports and opportunities tochildren, youth, families and communities—before, during andafter school, seven days a week.

The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL)—a non-profit, nonpartisan organization based in Washington, DC—hasworked for more than thirty-seven years to achieve better resultsfor children and youth. Today, IEL’s mission is to build the capac-ity of individuals and organizations in education and related fieldsto work together—across policies, programs and sectors. IEL’swork is focused in three areas: Developing and Supporting Lead-ers, Strengthening School-Family-Community Connections andConnecting and Improving Systems that Serve Children and Youth.

■ National Collaboration for Youth1319 F Street, NWSuite 601Washington, DC 20004www.nassembly.orgwww.nydic.org

■ Coalition for Community SchoolsInstitute for EducationalLeadership1001 Connecticut Avenue, NWSuite 310Washington, DC 20036www.communityschools.org

■ Institute for EducationalLeadership1001 Connecticut Avenue, NWSuite 310Washington, DC 20036www.iel.org

Helping Young People Succeed 3

An Invitation

Once, the little, red, spire-topped schoolhouses ofthe frontier did more than teach from McGuffy’sReaders. Generations of children and adolescents

joined adults in the schools for community affairs—this iswhere they celebrated, conducted community business, andexperienced support for one another.

Today, American children and adolescents experience commu-nity in dramatically different and often detrimental ways.Schools and communities largely keep to themselves, and theyare the worse for it. They share the same children and believein creating hopeful futures for them. Adults, even in the mostimpoverished neighborhoods, want youth to develop intowholesome, capable citizens. Because schools and communitieswork in isolation, however, they often do not realize how theycan help each other.

In the spring of 2002, national leadership from K–12 educationand youth development organizations gathered in the sameroom, for the first time, and began a conversation focused onhow to re-establish strong links between schools and communi-ties. Several reasons brought the 80 participants together. As a“text,” they drew upon a just-released report, CommunityPrograms to Promote Youth Development. For two years, theNational Research Council and the Institute of Medicinestudied community-level programs for youth, synthesized theresearch, and reached a consensus about what skills youthshould develop and what environments help youth acquire them.

The report’s conclusions about a good community programcould be applied, as well, to a good school. For over a decade,recognition of the synergy between healthy schools and healthycommunities has been building rapidly, inspired by local needsand resources, informed by examples of what others were doing,and relying on common sense about the supports that should beavailable to children and youth.

The three organizations that sponsored the forum—NationalCollaboration for Youth, Coalition for Community Schools, andthe Institute for Educational Leadership—are experienced atbuilding collaboration. We acknowledge the great loss to

Helping Young People Succeed 4

America’s children when schools and communities go theirseparate ways and we recognized that the report provided theglue for what we saw happening in local communities through-out the country.

Thankfully, in many places the isolation between schools andcommunities is being broken. The positive effect can be seenwhen everyone works in tandem to provide opportunities foryouth to develop intellectually, socially, and with civic purpose.Anecdotes and examples of the retying of schools and commu-nities abound. The National Research Council report provides aknowledge base.

The March 2002 national forum, brief but lively and substan-tive, began a process that we hope will lead to similar forums atstate, regional, and local levels throughout the country. Thissummary of that conversation reveals the thinking of nationalleadership on the challenge to link schools and communities. Itis an invitation for others to join their voices and actions increating better schools tied to better communities.

Irv Katz, National Collaboration For Youth

Elizabeth L. Hale, Institute for Educational Leadership

Martin J. Blank, Coalition for Community Schools

The sponsoring organizations appreciate the support of theCarnegie Corporation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, theEwing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the J.P Morgan ChaseFoundation, Lockheed Martin Corporation, the NationalCollaboration for Youth and the Wallace Readers Digest Fundfor this special initiative.

Helping Young People Succeed 5

Helping Young People Succeed

Telling this real story of Raymond, Roxanne Spillett,president of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America,wonders what would happen if all the young people

who need intentional support like he received could experiencethe force of school, community, and family working together.

In Lawrence, Massachusetts, educators and youth developmentexperts found common ground and worked the ground togetherto help this youngster—and many more—to grow confidently. Ifthe story had been about only one entity—either the school orthe community organization—there probably would have beenlittle about which to talk.

Raymond and the people who supported him know personallywhat the best research on youth development makes clear,as summarized in the Community Programs to PromoteYouth Development.

■ We all need a range of assets to thrive—the more,

the better.

Youth who experience positive development acquireassets in four major areas: physical, intellectual, psy-chological/emotional, and social development. Asexamples, youth with these assets have good healthhabits; they are successful at school, including learn-ing critical thinking and reasoning skills; they feelpositive about themselves and acquire coping andplanning skills; and they have a sense of connected-ness and being valued.

■ Continued exposure to positive experiences, settings,

people, and opportunities to gain and refine life skills

support young people in developing these assets.

Youth build these assets in their homes, in schools, onthe basketball court, in peer groups, and when theyexplore and reflect on their own. No single place orsituation can give it all. Many influences can worktogether, however.

Little Raymond was livingunhappily with relativesbecause his parents hadabandoned him. He spoke onlyhis patois of Spanish from theDominican Republic and hada shaky start in a Lawrence,Massachusetts, elementaryschool. Early on, he seemed tobe one of those destined forconstant failure. But a small,$7 birthday gift from a cousinchanged his life. It was amembership in the local Boysand Girls Club. Staff at theclub realized Raymond was notgoing to make it without help.They worked with the school toget him extra resources, to havemore chances to learn English,and to set goals. Together, theschool and the community clubprovided safe environments forRaymond to learn and to grow.Recently, he was named theBoys and Girls Club NationalYouth of the Year, and he isnow attending Tufts University.

Helping Young People Succeed 6

Moreover, the research in the report describes what theseplaces ought to be like if they are going to promote positiveyouth development (see Table 1). It is eye-opening to realizethat good schools look like good community settings. Positiveenvironments for youth should provide:

■ Physical and psychological safety: safe and health-promoting facilities; practices that increase safe peer-group interaction; and practices that decrease unsafe orconfrontational peer interactions

■ Appropriate structure: limit setting; clear and consistentrules and expectations; firm-enough control; continuityand predictability; clear boundaries; and age-appropriatemonitoring

■ Supportive relationships: warmth; closeness; connect-edness; good communication; caring; support; guidance;secure attachment; and responsiveness

■ Opportunities to belong: opportunities for meaningfulinclusion, regardless of one’s gender, ethnicity, sexualorientation, or disabilities; social inclusion; social engagementand integration; opportunities for socio-cultural identityformation; and support for cultural and bicultural competence

■ Positive social norms: rules of behavior; expectations;injunctions; ways of doing things; values and morals; andobligations for service

■ Support for efficacy and mattering: youth-basedempowerment practices that support autonomy; making areal difference in one’s community; and being taken seriously.Practices that include enabling; responsibility granting; andmeaningful challenge. Practices that focus on improvementrather than on relative, current performance levels.

This list of good environments for youth describes what ought tohappen in schools as well as in communities, according to PaulHouston, executive director of the American Association ofSchool Administrators. The same sense of behavior towardyouth “should be promoted in both places.” Similarly, whatyouth need to build trusting relationships applies to institu-tions, as well. Ronald Ferguson, the member of the committeethat developed the report, who addressed the gathering, citedfour areas where trust is critical (see sidebar).

“Youth development is aboutpromoting developmentbuilding blocks in order topromote successful humanbeings…. It is aligned withprevention, but promotionrequires different strategies…that are about building, aboutgrowing, about pushingforward, about naming andthen creating settings that helpyoung people experience all ofthe supports and opportunitiesthey need to thrive.”

PETER BENSONPresident/CEO, Search Institute

KEYS TO TRUST

■ Motives: “Can I trust mypotential allies to have the rightmotives?”

■ Competence: “Do they havethe competence to play theroles needed for alliances towork?”

■ Dependability: “Will theyfollow through on what they aresupposed to do to play theirroles?”

■ Collegiality: “Will they treatpeople right and with respect?”

Helping Young People Succeed 7

Where Schools and CommunitiesSpeak the Same Language

In what ways do schools and youth developmentorganizations intersect? Obviously, the children andyoung people who spend about six hours a day in school

come from and go back to their homes and neighborhoods.They are students there, too, learning from the peers and adultswho inhabit their world away from school. Wherever they are,youth in America present adults in schools and in communityyouth development settings with similar challenges.

The strong bonds among school, community, and family thatsustained older generations are frayed and disjointed. This is astrue for children of affluent families as for children traditionallyconsidered at-risk. The effects of this dysfunction make the workof education and development much harder. In Houston’s opinion,schools have become uniquely “ill-suited” for students, andAmerican society no longer provides a “village” in which to grow.While much might be happening in both schools and communitiesto support youth, it is not intentionally connected. People doingthe work may not be able to “see the big picture.”

Schools and youth development groups, as disconnected as theymay seem to be, ultimately are committed to a similar vision forchildren and youth. It is one that rarely gets mention in the currentpressure to put testing at the center of students’ schooling. At onetime, the mission of the country’s “common schools” was to teachthe basics of civic virtue. The “r” of responsibility and “s” ofservice played as important a role in education as the ABCs. “Forall of us,” Roxanne Spillett said, “the challenge is not just toincrease grade-point averages or school attendance. We need todo those, but the real challenge is to develop good people…whocan lead this nation and the world where they need to be.”

The daily reality, however, often forces schools to narrow theirpurposes and focus on external accountability. When they doset aside time and energy for partnerships with youth develop-ment agencies, it frequently is because they see the value of acommon effort to improve student achievement. The evidenceof the value of joint efforts for improved results for youngpeople exists in numerous studies and examples. If it were notsubstantial, the current after-school movement would be seen

New ways of talking...

“We are in the same business—making sure that young peopleare prepared to be engagedcitizens of tomorrow…. Wecome at issues from differentvantage points and we oftenuse a very different language.But today’s meeting gives usthe opportunity to write a newchapter. It speaks about a new,common language betweeneducation and youthdevelopment groups.”

STEWART SMITHCamp Fire USAChair, National Collaboration for Youth

Helping Young People Succeed 8

as just a nice thing to do for students. Instead, its growth is dueto its efficacy in helping students to develop academic and non-academic competencies.

The contribution of the youth development field can be to widenand deepen understanding of the different ways youth learn andbecome self-confident. Educators are always looking for successfulways to engage many youth in academic work. These samestudents, with access to creative community centers and programs,willingly spend hours on a project. They develop perseveranceand skills. If strong school-community connections exist, the youngpeople will see the connections to their schoolwork.

What Keeps Schools andCommunities Apart

W hat seems like such a natural partnership stilltends to be the exception in communitiesthroughout the country, although less so as schools

and communities find out they need each other. Educationalleaders admit that schools remain isolated, often even fromtheir neighborhoods. Reaching out to create a shared vision isnot a skill highly valued in most school districts, primarily be-cause few teachers and administrators know how to do it well.Parent and community linkages receive scant attention inteacher and administrator preparation programs. Schools andyouth development agencies rarely find themselves in situa-tions—or create the opportunities—when they can collaborate.

The youth development field has its own challenges. Fewcommunities know how to come together to establish commonstandards that reflect what they value. Harvard University’sRon Ferguson called for consistency across all environments foryouth—from home, to school, to church, to the playground, tothe homes of friends. “That consistency requires some level ofcommunication,” he said. “It requires familiar symbols andnorms across these various settings.”

For both schools and youth development organizations, there arebarriers to the kinds of communication Ferguson supports. Theprofessionals and their institutions develop different perspectivesover time, partly due to their daily work and partly due to their

“We need to broaden ourperspective on what it means tolead a school.... If principalsare truly leaders of learning,then they should be part of theplanning and policies forafterschool, weekend, andsummer education programs.”

VINCE FERRANDINOExecutive Director,National Association ofElementary School Principals

Helping Young People Succeed 9

isolation from each other. Their bureaucracies are dissimilar andare shaped by different funding streams. Saying these are “turf”issues masks a complex situation. A school, for example, mayneed to understand and collaborate with several agencies to getthe support needed for its students. Similarly, youth developmentand other human service agencies may need to work with a multiplicity of schools and school districts. These realities color thedecisions to be made, such as who is to be in charge and whatresources they are willing to “swap.” Moreover, as one participant described the situation, schools and communities “play outadult agendas, leaving children and youth adrift.”

Conversations That Need to Begin

The forum gave national leaders from education andyouth development the opportunity to begin apowerful conversation about overcoming barriers. In a

short time, using the findings of the NRC report, they quicklyfound common ground, started to develop a common language,and provided examples of the collaboration that would weavetheir efforts together. They also reflected on what should hap-pen next—at all levels.

■ Sustain and deepen the collaboration started at the

national level.

Formulate a set of principles that demonstrates thecommitment of education and youth developmentleaders to work together to help young people succeed.

■ Start dialogues at other levels.

Bring similar players together, including local govern-ment and civics groups. Help school boards see theirresponsibility to develop policies in conjunction withcommunity organizations. Include youth in the conver-sations and planning.

■ Set a vision for the development of youth.

The forum agreed that the vision ought to recognizethat schools and government provide resources for thepublic good and that youth development organizationsprovide services that support the public good as well.Schools and communities should craft a shared vision

“Can’t we all just get along?We have to see community-based groups and school-basedgroups as not standing on twosides of the Grand Canyon butas standing together andseeing the same problems andsame solutions. Each of us hassolutions that other groupsneed, if we can just find a wayto reach out and join hands.”

PAUL HOUSTONExecutive Director, AmericanAssociation of School Administrators

Helping Young People Succeed 10

that recognizes that they are part of the same move-ment and share the same goals.

■ Build on what already exists.

The relationships between schools and youth develop-ment organizations often begins by learning how toshare space. This has led to requests from schools forsome programs to be held during the school day, suchas mentoring and career exploration. From thesebeginnings, continuous, seamless partnerships areemerging that tap the best of what schools and youthdevelopment organizations have to offer. Othersshould learn from these experiences.

■ Develop a common language between schools and

youth development organizations.

This language should define what positive youthdevelopment means in their settings, and identify thestrengths of each sector in the community and howthey can use them to serve the common goal. To-gether, schools and youth development organizationsought to agree on what it means, for example, toprovide a setting where there is physical and psycho-logical safety and security for youth, the structure isdevelopmentally appropriate, and there are opportuni-ties for skill building and mastery as well as for feelinga sense of belonging and being valued. “The Featuresof Positive Development Settings” outlined in the NRCreport, as well as their list of the “Personal and SocialAssets that Facilitate Positive Youth Development”provide a valuable starting point (see Tables 1 and 2).

■ Identify what should be measured.

To best inform everyone about their shared efforts andto broaden the national debate about goals for youth,youth development and education leaders should definekey measures of young people’s success. Academic andnon-academic competencies should be considered.

■ Trust each other.

Help people develop the skills they need—motivation,competence, dependability, and collegiality—to reachacross great divides and to frame a common effort toinfuse youth development throughout the work ofschools and communities (see Table 3).

Helping Young People Succeed 11

TABLE 1: Features of Positive Developmental Settings

SOURCE: Community Programs to Promote Youth Development, National Academy Press (2002).

FEATURES

Physical and

Psychological

Safety

Appropriate

Structure

Supportive

Relationships

Opportunities

to Belong

Positive

Social Norms

Support for

Efficacy

and Mattering

Opportunities for

Skill Building

Integration of

Family, School, and

Community Efforts

DESCRIPTORS

Safe and health-promoting facilities. Practicethat increases safe peer-group Interaction anddecreases unsafe or confrontational peerinteraction.

Limit setting; clear and consistent rules andexpectations; firm-enough control; continuityand predictability; clear boundaries; and age-appropriate monitoring.

Warmth; closeness; connectedness; goodcommunication; caring; support; guidance;secure attachment; and responsiveness.

Opportunities for meaningful inclusion,regardless of one’s gender, ethnicity, sexualorientation, or disabilities; social inclusion, socialengagement, and integration; opportunities forsocio-cultural identity formation; and support forcultural and bicultural competence.

Rules of behavior; expectations; injunctions;ways of doing things; values and morals; andobligations for services.

Youth-based; empowerment practices thatsupport autonomy; making a real difference inone’s community; and being taken seriously.Practices that include enabling, responsibilitygranting, and meaningful challenge. Practicesthat focus on improvement rather than onrelative or current performance levels.

Opportunities to learn physical, intellectual,psychological, emotional, and social skills;exposure to intentional learning experiences;opportunities to learn cultural literacies, medialiteracy, communication skills, and good habitsof mind; preparation for adult employment; andopportunities to develop social and culturalcapital.

Concordance; coordination; and synergyamong family, school, and community.

OPPOSITE POLES

Physical and health dangers; fear; feeling forinsecurity; sexual and physical harassment;and verbal abuse.

Chaotic; disorganized; laissez-faire; rigid;overcontrolled; and autocratic.

Cold; distant; overcontrolling; ambiguoussupport; untrustworthy; focused on winning;inattentive; unresponsive; and rejecting.

Exclusion; marginalization; and intergroupconflict.

Normlessness; anomie; laissez-fairepractices; antisocial and amoral norms;norms that encourage violence; recklessbehavior; consumerism; poor healthpractices; and conformity.

Unchallenging; overcontrolling;disempowering; and disabling. Practicesthat undermine motivation and desire tolearn, such as excessive focus on currentrelative performance level rather thanimprovement.

Practice that promotes bad physical habitsand habits of mind; and practice thatundermines school and learning.

Discordance; lack of communication; andconflict.

Helping Young People Succeed 12

SOURCE: Community Programs to Promote Youth Development, National Academy Press (2002).

■ Good health habits

■ Good health risk management skills

■ Knowledge of essential life skills

■ Knowledge of essential vocational skills

■ School success

■ Rational habits of mind-critical thinking and reasoning skills

■ In-depth knowledge of more than one culture

■ Good decision-making skills

■ Knowledge of skills needed to navigate through multiplecultural contexts

■ Good mental health including positive self-regard

■ Good emotional self-regulation skills

■ Good coping skills

■ Good conflict resolution skills

■ Mastery motivation and positive achievement motivation

■ Confidence in one’s personal efficacy

■ “Planfulness”—planning for the future and future life events

■ Sense of personal autonomy / responsibility for self

■ Optimism coupled with realism

■ Coherent and positive personal and social identity

■ Prosocial and cultural sensitive values

■ Spirituality or a sense of a “larger” purpose in life

■ Strong moral character

■ A commitment to good use of time

■ Connectedness-perceived good relationships and trust with parents,peers and some other adults

■ Sense of social place / integration –being connected and valued bylarger social networks.

■ Attachment to prosocial /conventional institutions, such as school,church, nonschool youth programs

■ Ability to navigate in multiple cultural contexts

■ Commitment to civic engagement

TABLE 2: Personal and Social Assets That Facilitate Positive Youth Development

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

Helping Young People Succeed 13

TABLE 3: National Assembly Findings: School/Community Collaborations Matrix

Elements of a

Successful Collaboration

(from literature review)

Shared vision anddecision-making

Clear communicationstructure

Key stakeholders involvedfrom the beginning

Strong link betweenacademic and youthdevelopment programs

Clear roles andresponsibilities groundedin the planning process

Obstacles to

Collaboration

(from obstacle survey)

■ Turf issues■ Unclear roles and

responsibilities■ Different perceptions of

accountability■ Different goals and

philosophies

■ Turf issues■ Unclear roles and

responsibilities■ Different perceptions of

accountability■ Different goals and

philosophies

Promising Practices in

Collaboration

(from survey/interviews/sites)

Establish a collaborationgoal of finding commonground that is larger thanany turf issue, whereeveryone’s voice is heard.In after-school collaborationthat goal was most oftenimproving the well-being ofchildren.

Create regular opportunitiesfor open discussion amongcollaborating partners.

Convene planning meetingsbefore any action or decisionsare taken. A lead agencyneeds to call the meeting butshould not make unilateraldecisions, although programfunders may have imposedrequirements.

Decentralize decision-making to individual schoolsabout how to balance afterschool program activitiesbetween academic andyouth development.

Use contracts,subcontracts, and letters ofagreement to structureinter-organizational financialrelationships and to definemutual rights andresponsibilities.

Practical Applications of

the Promising Practice

(from site visits)

The way in which thecollaboration achieves itsgoal is not stagnant. Timeand experience often leadsto a greater understandingof differing approaches andshared decision-making.

Use quarterly meetings,retreats, listservs, advisorycouncils and/or workingcommittee structures.

■ Involvement in theplanning process is morethan a letter of support.

■ All the key players need tobe at the table and valuedfor their uniquecontributions.

■ Create site-basedcommittees to balance theyouth development andacademic activities.

■ Fund a site-basedcoordinator who isresponsible for managingthe day-to-day program andinvolvement of the partners.

School districts (or individualschools) use contracts,subcontracts, open purchaseorders and letters ofagreement to structurefinancial relationships withcommunity agencies, todefine goals, and to specifyagencies’ responsibilities.

continued on the next page

Helping Young People Succeed 14

TABLE 3: National Assembly Findings: School/Community Collaborations Matrix (continued)

Elements of a

Successful Collaboration

(from literature review)

Consensus on clear goal(s)with a method formeasuring success

Realistic timeline toaccomplish goals—takes into account partners’responsibilities outside ofcollaboration.

Funding relationshipsestablished betweenschools, community andfunding institutions

Ongoing staff developmentand other efforts to ensurefocus and avoid burnout

Responsive and active inthe neighborhood andpolitical process

Promising Practices in

Collaboration

(from survey/interviews/sites)

Examine qualitative andquantitative measuresof success, such aschanges in attitude aboutcollaboration.

Develop methods tostrengthen and reinforcerelationships betweenindividual school principalsand the after-schoolprogram (and its partners).

Create an investment bypotential program fundersby including them in allstages of the project fromplanning to implementationand sustainability.

Provide initial and regularongoing training for after-school program staff andcollaboration partners.

Encourage the involvementof children, parents, thecommunity, potentialfunders, elected officialsand the media to supportthe program and itscontinued operation.

Practical Applications of

the Promising Practice

(from site visits)

Include an evaluation of thecollaboration in the overallprogram evaluation.

Create site-based problemsolving committees withrepresentation from allpartners.

Develop a community-levelgoverning or advisorycommittee to discussprogram issues andmobilize support related tosustainability issues.

Use regular meetings,retreats, and electroniccommunications to fosterongoing dialogue about theproject vision, goals,alternative philosophies onhow children learn anddevelop, and relationship toproject activities.

Use a community-wideVisioning Day to develop theprogram and CommunityNights to engage the largercommunity in the project.

SOURCE: Dimensions of School/Community Collaboration: What It Takes to Makes Collaboration Work, National Assembly of Healthand Human Service Organizations (2002).

Obstacles to

Collaboration

(from obstacle survey)

Helping Young People Succeed 15

■ Beacons Technical Assistance CenterFund for the City of New York121 Avenue of the AmericasNew York, NY 10013T: 212.925.6675F: 212.925.5675e-mail: [email protected] site: www.fcny.org

■ Bridges to SuccessUnited Way of America701 North Fairfax StreetAlexandria, VA 22314T: 703.836.7112 ext. 250F: 703.683.7840e-mail: [email protected] site: www.unitedway.org

■ Children’s Aid Society CommunitySchool Technical Assistance CenterSalome Urena Middle AcademiesIS 2184600 Broadway at 196th StreetNew York, NY 10040T: 212.569.2866 / 212.569.2882e-mail: [email protected] site: www.childrensaidsociety.org

■ Coalition for Community SchoolsInstitute for Educational Leadership1001 Connecticut Avenue, NWSuite 310Washington, DC 20036T: 202.822.8405F: 202.872.4050e-mail: [email protected] site: www.communityschools.org

■ Communities in Schools277 South Washington StreetSuite 210Alexandria, VA 22314T:703.519.8999F: 703.519.7213Web site: www.cisnet.org

■ Forum for Youth Investment7064 Eastern Avenue NWWashington, DC 20012T:202.207.3333F: 202.723.0774e-mail: [email protected] site:www.forumforyouthinvestment.org/

■ Institute for Educational Leadership1001 Connecticut Ave. NWSuite 310Washington, DC 20036T: 202.822.8405F: 202.872.4050Email: [email protected]: www.iel.org

■ Learning First Alliance1001 Connecticut Ave, NWSuite 335Washington, DC 20036T: 202.296.5220F: 202.296.3246e-mail: [email protected] site: www.learningfirst.org

■ National Center for CommunityEducation1017 Avon StreetFlint, MI 48503T: 810.238.0463F: 810.238.9211email: [email protected] site: www.nccenet.org

■ National Collaboration for Youth1319 F Street NWSuite 601Washington, DC 20004T: 202.347.2080F: 202.393.4517email: nassembly@nassembly .orgweb site: www.nassembly.org

■ National League of Cities1301 Pennsylvania Ave, NWSuite 550Washington, DC 20004T: 202.626.3057F: 202.626.3043email: [email protected] site: www.nlc.org

Resources to Start the Conversations

Helping Young People Succeed 16

Community Programs to Promote Youth Development: This publication ofthe National Academy Press examines the role of community programs inmeeting young people’s developmental needs. It focuses on elements ofadolescent well being and offers recommendations for policy, practice andresearch to ensure that programs are well-designed to meet the needs ofyoung people. To obtain a copy, visit www.nap.edu.

Community Schools: Partnerships for Excellence: This Coalition publicationdescribes what a community school is and offers portraits of several communityschool models. Download from www.communityschools.org/pubs.coal.html oremail [email protected].

Dimensions of School Community Collaboration: This National Assemblypublication identifies the most promising practices in school/communitycollaborations and the challenges, strategies and practices that successfulcollaborations use to overcome obstacles. To obtain a copy, visit www.nydic.org.

Education and Community Building: The focus of this publication isunderstanding the different cultures of education and community organizers/developers/builders. It discusses the challenges that each “constituency” facesas they try to work with the other group. It offers four success stories whereschools and community building groups cooperated to accomplish a commonmission/goal. Visit www.communityschools.org/pubs.partners.html to read the pdfversion or contact [email protected] to request a copy.

Inside Full Service Community Schools: This publication by Joy Dryfoos is astep-by-step practitioner’s guide to integrating health, family support, youthdevelopment and other community services to support student learning. Itoffers the perspectives of a local school principal and a national expert oncommunity schools. To order, send send a check for $26.50 to the Coalition forCommunity Schools. See www.communityschools.org/insideschools.htmlfor more information.

Learning Together: This publication describes and analyzes the community-school movement as an emerging field of practice through looking at national,state and local school-community initiatives. Copies of this report and theexecutive summary can be obtained free of charge by calling 1-800-645-1766.

Safe and Supportive Learning Environments: This Learning First Alliancepublication highlights many of the challenges facing our society, and in particularour school communities. It emphasizes that safe schools are more than schoolsthat are free from violent incidents and urges principals, as school leaders, toensure a positive school climate, in which each student is engaged and inspiredto achieve to the highest academic levels. To download a copy, visitwww.learningfirst.org.

School-Community Partnerships in Support of Student Learning:This IEL publication is a four-part examination of four of the 21st CCLC sites twoyears after inception. The report is directed at policymakers, funders, practitioners,advocates, parents, and community members and helps them begin tounderstand and strengthen their own current efforts at creating communitylearning centers. Contact [email protected] to get a copy of this publication.

Publications

Helping Young People Succeed 17

Participant List

Note: To locate websites for youth development and education organizations go to the following web sites:Youth Development: www.nydic.org/nydic/ncy.html or Education: www.learningfirst.org

Alliance for Children andFamiliesCarmen Delgado Votaw

American Association of SchoolAdministratorsDr. Paul HoustonExecutive Director

American Association of SchoolAdministratorsDr. Anne LockwoodIssues Analysis Director

American Camping AssociationDanielle RingwoodLegislative Strategist

American Camping AssociationPeg L. SmithExecutive Director

American Youth Policy ForumGlenda ParteeCo-Director

America’s PromiseKris A. MinorVice President, Youth and YouthServing Partnerships

America’s PromiseJessica Reinis

Austin Westwood High SchoolCristine Pineda

Boy Scouts of AmericaJohn AnthonyDirector, Learning for Life

Boys and Girls Clubs ofAmericaRoxanne SpillettPresident

Camp Fire USAPhillip LovellDirector of Public Policy

Camp Fire USAStewart J. SmithNational Chief Executive Officer

Center for Youth as ResourcesGeorge RiceExecutive Director

Center for Youth Developmentand PolicyDr. Suzanne Le MenestrelSenior Program Officer

Children’s Aid SocietyJane QuinnAssistant Executive Director forNational Community Schools

Citizens’ ScholarshipFoundation of AmericaDr. William C. Nelsen,President

Coalition for CommunitySchools, Institute forEducational LeadershipWill BlackwellProgram Assistant

Coalition for CommunitySchools, Institute forEducational LeadershipMartin BlankStaff Director

Coalition for CommunitySchools, Institute forEducational LeadershipSheri DeBoe JohnsonSenior Associate

Coalition for CommunitySchools, Institute forEducational LeadershipChris PinedaCongressional Hispanic CaucusInstitute Fellow

Coalition for CommunitySchools, Institute forEducational LeadershipBela ShahResearch Associate

Committee for EconomicDevelopment (CED)Janet Hansen

Communities in SchoolsRobert SeidelDirector, Basics Integration

Communities in SchoolsMarilyn SmithExecutive Director

Council of Chief State SchoolOfficersAyeola FortuneProject for Extended Learningand Development Initiatives

Council of Chief State SchoolOfficersDr. G. Thomas HoulihanExecutive Director

Edna McConnell ClarkFoundationJacquelyn C. Kay

Families, 4-H & NutritionAlma HobbsDeputy Administrator

Freelance ConsulantJeanne Jehl

Girl Scouts of the USASharon HusseyNational Director, Membership,Program & Diversity

Girl Scouts of the USACarmel OwenSenior Director, National FundDevelopment

Helping Young People Succeed 18

Girls IncorporatedAnita Nabha

Girls IncorporatedApril Osajima

Girls IncorporatedJoyce RochePresident

Harvard UniversityJohn F. Kennedy School ofGovernmentDr. Ronald Ferguson

Institute for EducationalLeadershipElizabeth L. HalePresident

Institute for EducationalLeadershipMichael UsdanSenior Fellow

Joint Action in CommunityServiceHarvey WiseExecutive Director

KaBOOM!Darell HammondPresident/CEO

National 4-H CouncilDonald T. FloydPresident/CEO

National Assembly of Healthand Human ServiceOrganizations,NationalCollaboration for YouthCheryl HolmesProgram Manager

National Assembly of Healthand Human ServiceOrganizations,NationalCollaboration for YouthIrv KatzPresident and CEO

National Assembly of Healthand Human ServiceOrganizations, NationalCollaboration for YouthMs. Renee WoodworthVice President

National Association ofElementary School PrincipalsFred BrownAssociate Executive Director

National Association ofElementary School PrincipalsMargaret EvansExecutive Director, Communityand Student Services

National Association ofElementary School PrincipalsVince FerrandinoExecutive Director

National Association ofSecondary School PrincipalsRocco MaranoDirector-Department of StudentAffairs

National Association ofSecondary School PrincipalsMs. Anne MillerDirector of Development andStrategic Alliances

National Association of StateBoards of EducationLori MeyerSenior Project Associate

National Association of StateUniversities and Land-GrantCollegesLinda BenningAssociate Director

National Clearinghouse onComprehensive School Reform,Institute for EducationalLeadershipMonica MartinezDirector for Outreach

National Council of La RazaStephanie CabreraCongressional Hispanic CaucusInstitute Fellow

National Council of La RazaMarco DavisDirector, LeadershipDevelopment

National Council of La RazaZoaima DiazCongressional Hispanic CaucusInstitute Fellow, LeadershipDevelopment

National Crime PreventionCouncilMarilyn Bassett-LanceSection Leader, Youth Services

National Crime PreventionCouncilLori JacksonProgram Director, Youth Services

National Crime PreventionCouncilNicole LesterProgram Director, Youth Services

National Education AssociationWarlene Gary

National Education KnowledgeIndustry AssociationJames KohlmoosPresident

National Network for YouthGretchen Noll

National Network for YouthMr. Bob ReegSenior Director, NonprofitPartnerships

National Network for YouthBrenda RussellPresident/ CEO

National Parent TeachersAssociationMaribeth OakesDirector of Legislation

National School BoardsAssociationMike WesselyManager, Extended Day LearningOpportunities

Public Education NetworkAmanda BrounVice President

Helping Young People Succeed 19

Public Education NetworkWendy PureifoyPresident

Public Education NetworkMarcia Davis TaylorProgram Associate, Schools andCommunity

RAND CorporationP. Michael TimpaneSenior Advisor for EducationPolicy

Save the ChildrenCatherine MiltonExecutive Director

Search InstituteDr. Peter BensonPresident/CEO

Systems Improvement Trainingand Technical AssistanceProject, Institute forEducational LeadershipKwesi RollinsProject Director

The Forum for YouthInvestmentVirginia EbbertInformation Specialist

The Greystone Group, Inc.Steve Gunderson

The National AcademiesAmy GawadResearch Associate, Board onChildren, Youth and Families

The Salvation ArmyLisa Thompson

U.S. Department of EducationEric AndellSenior Advisor to the Secretary

United Neighborhood Centersof AmericaMarc MaxeyYouth/ Social Policy Committee

Volunteers of AmericaMr. Charles GouldPresident/CEO

Volunteers of AmericaBeth PoffenbergerPolicy Analyst

Women in CommunityServiceCarole GerlachVice President, Youth Programs

Women in CommunityServiceTessa HaleManager, Youth Programs

Women in CommunityServiceJacquelyn C. LendseyPresident/ CEO

YWCA of the USAGabrielle GallucciYouth Development Program

YWCA of the USAJo Uehara

National Collaboration for Youth

Irv Katz, President and CEO1319 F Street NW, Suite 601Washington, DC 2004www.nassembly.orgwww.nydic.org

Coalition for Community Schools

Martin J. Blank, Staff Directorc/o Institute for Educational Leadership1001 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 310Washington, DC 20036www.communityschools.org

Institute for Educational Leadership

Elizabeth L. Hale, President1001 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 310Washington, DC 20036www.iel.org

National Collaboration for YouthIrv Katz, President and CEO1319 F Street, NW, Suite 601Washington, DC 2004www.nassembly.orgwww.nydic.org

The National Collaboration for Youth is an alliance of thenation’s major youth organizations. It focuses on positive youthdevelopment as a holistic and effective approach to ensuring thehealthy development of all youth. The National Collaboration forYouth is the largest affinity group of the National Assembly ofHealth and Human Service Organizations, an association ofnational nonprofit health and human service organizations boundby a common concern for the effective delivery of health andhuman services to the American people, especially those in need.

Coalition for Community SchoolsMartin J. Blank, Staff Directorc/o Institute for Educational Leadership1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 310Washington, DC 20036www.communityschools.org

The Coalition for Community Schools brings together leaders ineducation, youth development, family support, health andhuman services, community development government andphilanthropy. The Coalition’s mission is to mobilize the resourcesand capacity of multiple sectors and institutions to create aunited movement for community schools—places that offer arange of education and related supports and opportunities tochildren, youth, families and communities—before, during andafter school, seven days a week.

Institute for Educational LeadershipElizabeth L. Hale, President1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 310Washington, DC 20036www.iel.org

The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL)—a non-profit,nonpartisan organization based in Washington, DC—hasworked for more than thirty-seven years to achieve better resultsfor children and youth. Today, IEL’s mission is to build the capac-ity of individuals and organizations in education and related fieldsto work together—across policies, programs and sectors. IEL’swork is focused in three areas: Developing and Supporting Lead-ers, Strengthening School-Family-Community Connections andConnecting and Improving Systems that Serve Children and Youth.