What is Communities In Schools (CIS)?


In 1996, the Community Education Network developed an affiliation with the international organization Communities In Schools, which serves students based on four underlying principles which state that every child needs and deserves:

  • A personal relationship with an adult who cares

  • A safe place to learn and grow

  • A marketable skill to use upon graduation

  • A chance to give back to their peers and community

    • The mission of CIS is to create public/private partnerships designed to coordinate the delivery of appropriate human services to children and youth in need and their families. CIS is a partnership. Its name reflects the belief that the whole community - businesses, corporations, health and social service agencies, schools, families and neighbourhood groups - must work together to help young people deal with their problems, stay in school, and realize their potential.

    CIS is a proven and effective model that brings together programs and community care in support of young people in need through the building of community-based partnerships and community involvement. The model reflects the increasing need to coordinate our programs and pool our resources so that in times of decreasing public capacity a coordinated, cost-effective, community-based service can be available for young people at school sites.


    What are the benefits to the community?

    Our goal is to enrich the fabric of community life. If young people can turn themselves around before they go on to commit crimes, be unemployed or discouraged, the resulting savings to our health and welfare systems will be enormous. Naturally, this impacts all of us - whether as individuals, businesses or members of a community.

    CIS is guided by the following principles which provide enormous benefit to both the students it is trying to serve and the community at large:

  • Community. CIS works at mobilizing the full resources, care and concern of our communities.


  • Partnership. The CIS model promotes and builds community-based public/private/voluntary sector partnerships to bring together new and existing resources and programs.

  • Coordination. CIS works with the local community and serves as a broker and program facilitator by forming public/private partnerships needed to reposition community resources into the school.

  • Personalism. The CIS model delivers a coordinated, personalized service at a single in-school location and promotes one to one relationships between young people and the community volunteers and professionals who provide the individual care needed.

  • Cost Effectiveness. The CIS model pools both existing and new community-based resources and programs. It encourages the use of staff and resources from existing institutions whenever possible to avoid the need for massive injection of new funding to provide better services.

    • Our methodology is "building relationships". Our process is to implement a process, one community at a time, which demonstrates how to organize successful human service delivery systems which meet community needs and increase the individual achievement of young people.

    What are some of the program components?

    CIS reverses the model that demands that young people must seek help outside the school, and instead brings help inside ‹ to where the kids are. With CIS, a young person in trouble can turn to and access a 'one stop shop' of readily available coordinated services of tutors, mentors, social workers, conflict resolution specialists, job skills trainers, substance abuse counsellors and so on. Some of the potential program components may include:

  • one-to-one mentoring (School-based, Community-based and Intergenerational)

  • help with literacy and numeracy (Peer Youth Tutor Clubs and Individual Tutoring)

  • homework help (Homework Havens)

  • vocational guidance (Career days, career fairs and job shadowing)

  • health education (Teen Health Corps)

  • parental advisory/support (Parent Resource Centres, Parent Councils, Parent Volunteers)

  • enterprise education (Fast Track to Entrepreneurship)

  • information and counselling (Just being there for children when they need someone)

    • There is no shortage of skilled individuals and social agencies within our communities. With CIS, these resources are rallied and coordinated locally by a trained, dedicated CIS coordinator. Working with teachers, the CIS coordinator ensures that all students get the attention most beneficial to his or her particular situation. This may include workshops, tutoring, counselling and on-going liaison on issues ranging from drug abuse, career planning and life skills to conflict resolution, health issues and homework. Through this approach, CIS is able to achieve positive changes in student behaviour, academic performance, and attitudes - changes not possible when services are delivered in isolation, uncoordinated and outside the educational setting.

    Conclusion

    By building the self-esteem and relevant work skills in local youth, CIS helps to ensure that young people grow up to be productive and are able to contribute to the well being of their communities. Through mobilizing the entire community, the culture of the community changes. Fragmentation of services and barriers between education, business and the social services and voluntary sectors are reduced and effective partnerships are established - all with the shared vision of helping young people to succeed.

    Where you can reach us...

    Beverley Kirby, CIS Community Animator and Tracy Snow, CIS District Coordinator

    Communities In Schools - NFLD - School District #4, P.O. Box 5600, Stephenville, NF A2N 3P5

    Phone: (709) 643-4891 Fax: (709) 643-9325

    Our website: http://www.glinx.com/users/ryakuga/chat/chat.html



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