Partnerships are the foundation of Community Learning Centers (CLCs) — a major component of strengthening the relationship between communities and their schools.
As a result of the community engagement process, the School Planning Team identifies services that will enhance students' success. Partnerships support a variety of interests and generally fall into seven major categories:
Models have been developed in some of these categories, bringing partners together to create a collaborative focused on one area of need. This way resources can be pooled and the capacity of services offered to students can be maximized.
For example, the College Access Alliance coordinates programming to prepare graduates for entrance into higher education.
A second example is CincyAfterSchool which is a youth development network that provides after-school academic and enrichment programs for students. Caring adults in organizations such as the YMCA, the Urban League, Families Forward and the Boys and Girls Club are committed to supporting and enhancing the lives of Cincinnati Public Schools' children and families.
Services provided by community learning center partners are structured to best meet the needs of the students and community. Following are some ways that services provided by a partnership are typically accessed:
Co-Located Partner
A co-located partnership is where the partner comes in and uses space in the school. For example, when Riverview East Academy was building its community learning center, the needs assessment showed that a high priority for the community was having an increased police presence in that geographic area. So after the school was built, the police developed programming to help students build a positive relationship with law enforcement. For example, the police give students safety tips on how to deal with strangers and other potentially dangerous situations.
Links
Links occur when a partnership is not located within a community learning center. For example, Ethel M. Taylor Academy partnered with the Cincinnati Recreation Center, located right across the street, to provide space for after-school activities for its students.
Some partners have chosen to link with the district to support the development of community learning centers on a districtwide basis. Some of these partners include:
For example, through a partnership with Growing Well Cincinnati, the school nurses from Cincinnati Health Department and CPS’ Central Office, a system was created to track immunization records of every child in the district. A delivery system was developed to get serum where it was needed, resulting in a jump in the immunization rate at elementary schools from 73.4 percent in October 2006 to 93.5 percent in January 2008. It’s thought to be the highest rate of immunizations among Ohio’s urban districts.
Community learning center partnerships are flexible. They are based on a shared interest and a match between resources and needs. They can take many forms, but they all work toward the goal of developing schools as centers for community life.