Why School-Community Partnerships?

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Margaret Mead

Schools today play important and varied roles in children's lives. In addition to fostering the development of academic skills, schools also equip students with the skills needed to lead safe and healthy lives. Yet schools cannot and should not be the sole source of solutions to the varied social and health problems of students, nor can they work in isolation. Schools require the investment, support, and commitment of community stakeholders to achieve their multifaceted goals.

As a middle school coordinator, you are charged with building school-community partnerships comprised of these community stakeholders to guide and support your prevention initiative. Many of you have already begun this process; you have discovered the benefits of building partnerships to enhance both the planning and implementation of your prevention initiative, and have found that school-community partnerships are an effective strategy for preventing high-risk behaviors and promoting academic achievement.

Partnering to Plan Prevention Programming

A collaborative prevention planning process that includes key school and community members will improve your prevention efforts. Specific benefits include the following:

• School and community members provide varied perspectives on community problems and populations at risk. They can play key roles in helping you conceptualize your needs assessment, they can provide a context for understanding the information you collect, and they may be able to direct you toward other assessment efforts that have already been undertaken in your community. In addition, partners can help you determine whether your community is ready to address a given problem or likely to support a particular type of program.

• Participation in a successful, multifaceted group often produces increased involvement and commitment. People who are engaged in a collaborative process will feel a greater sense of "ownership" of the prevention plan and will be more invested in obtaining positive outcomes. They will also be motivated and better prepared to make decisions about which prevention strategies or programs should be selected to meet identified needs.

• Partners bring a variety of complementary skills to support prevention efforts. A well-selected group of partners can provide you with access to many systems and resources that can help you get things done. For example, elected officials can host town meetings that allow you to share assessment findings; local artisans can help you design a newsletter; school committee members have the "know how" to influence policy change; area businesses can donate goods and services not allowable under your grant; and local graduate students can help you develop your evaluation plan. Ultimately, the more involvement school and community members have in the design and implementation of your prevention plan, the greater the likelihood that the research-based strategies you and your team select will be effective.

• Activities that are initiated and maintained through a deliberate planning effort are of higher quality than programs that are simply "installed" in the organization. Well-planned activities tend to possess many of the characteristics associated with higher-quality programming. These include a high level of local staff participation, more and better training, greater standardization, and a higher degree of supervision. They are also more likely to be research-based.

Click on the icon for some concluding remarks about the benefits of partnering to support prevention planning. (Click here to read these comments.)

Partnering as an Effective Prevention Strategy

In our second online event, Identifying Prevention Priorities and Strategies for Success, we emphasized the importance of coordinating school-based prevention with broader, "environmental" strategies that address change not only at the individual, classroom, and school levels, but also at the family, community, and society levels. To implement an environmental approach, schools must partner with families and a range of community groups and agencies.

School-community partnerships will enhance your ability to do the following:

• Influence the larger social and legal context that shapes attitudes and
  beliefs regarding substance abuse and violence (e.g., increasing support for prevention activities by educating the public, policymakers, and media about drug- and violence-related problems)
• Create or enforce existing laws and regulations designed to limit or
  prohibit substance abuse and violent behavior (e.g., enforcing age 21 drinking laws)
• Provide alternatives to substance abuse and violence through social and recreational activities and mentoring

The effectiveness of school-community partnerships to improve substance use and violence prevention outcomes is supported by research. Just recently, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention released findings from a 48-community study -- the largest community-based substance abuse prevention and health promotion trial ever conducted -- that showed that community partnerships can be a viable strategy for prevention and are ultimately more effective than traditional, more fragmented approaches.

Partnering to Promote Academic Achievement

Click on the icon for some introductory comments about the importance of connecting prevention efforts to academic achievement. (Click here to read these comments.)

Schools gain more public support and are more effective when they coordinate with community resources and involve parents and community members in school planning and decision-making.

• When school personnel are involved in the planning process, prevention activities are more likely to be successfully integrated within the academic curriculum and the overall context of the school day.

• Teachers and administrators gain knowledge of community resources, which they can us to classroom instruction.

• Parents and community members are more likely to take action to make basic school improvements.

• Students can gain skills and talents, develop positive relationships with adults other than their parents, and feel a sense of belonging to the community.

Students who are healthy and safe are better able to learn. Partnerships that support safe and drug-free schools and communities enhance the ability of children to achieve both emotionally and academically.

What Are School-Community Partnerships?

There is no single formula for creating good partnerships. People -- and the situation -- determine how partnerships come about, who will participate, the actions participants will take, and the process they will go through to take those actions. In fact, the types of partnerships you forge as a MSC will depend largely on where you are in your prevention planning process and the tasks that you have identified. But here are some working definitions:

• Partnerships can be relationships between two or more people or groups. Partners engage in side-by-side efforts to solve mutual problems, reconcile conflicting interests, and advance shared interests. The best partnerships are mutually beneficial, structured to connect individuals -- not just their institutions or groups -- and built to last.

• As defined by your grant, schools means "middle schools." According to the National Council on Education Statistics, middle school can include grades 5 through 9, though most begin with grade 6. If you are located in a separate middle school, you may want to include representatives from "feeder" elementary schools in your partnership.

• Community can be loosely defined as a group of people residing in a specific geographic area who are bound together by political, economic, and social interests. For this event, we will narrow this definition to the range of systems (e.g., organizations, institutions, offices, and groups) dedicated to increasing the health and well-being of local youth. The figure below includes a sampling of systems with which you may want to partner:

As a MSC, your challenge is to determine what each system can contribute to your prevention initiative and the best ways to tap into their resources. The people you choose to include in your partnership(s) will depend on a variety of factors, including what teams are already in place, the priorities you plan to address, the activities you select, and even your geographic location.

Click on the icon for some final remarks about the value of partnering with different stakeholders before you begin the activity for this section of the event. (Click here to read these comments.)

References

Center for Mental Health in Schools (2001). School-Community Partnerships: A Guide. Los Angeles, CA: Author.

Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (2000). Prevention Works Through Community Partnerships: Findings from SAMHSA/CSAP's National Evaluation. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (in press). Collaboration Training Manual, Working Draft. Developed for CSAP's Northeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies. Newton, MA: Education Development Center, Inc.

Gottfredson, G.D., Gottfredson, D.C., Czeh, E.R., Cantor, D., Crosse, S.B., & Hantman, I. (2000, July). National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools. Ellicott City, MD: Gottfredson Associates, Inc.

Hatch, T. (1998). How Community Action Contributes to Achievement. Educational Leadership, 55, 16-19.

National PTA (1998). National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs. Chicago: Author.

National PTA (2000). Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide for Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service.