Community Schools: Understanding How They Can Work In Your Community 

Community school models are place-based strategies that focus on schools as hubs for their surrounding communities. If well-structured, these models can increase educational attainment while strengthening schools’ roles as centers for their surrounding neighborhoods. The coordinators of the New Jersey Community Schools Coalition will outline why community school models are important vehicles for promoting greater equity and educational and community development in New Jersey. They will highlight current examples of how community development organizations already are partnering with community schools and will engage listeners on how to leverage and scale community schools to help overcome poverty, underfunding, and demographic changes that currently challenge so many of our neighborhoods.