Happy New Year from the Federation 

Happy New Year!  We hope you all had a nice holiday season and are settling into a good 2013 so far. 2013 is going to be a year of growth for the Federation for Community Schools and, we hope, for community school work throughout the state. First, this year we are evolving how we provide professional development. We are in the process of conducting a training / professional development needs assessment (share your thoughts here).  We'll be connecting members with an interest in developing areas of their community school practice with experts in those elements of the work - with colleagues doing the work well, with content experts from partner organizations, and with content area experts from the broader fields of education and community development.

Building off of the 2012 Community Schools Forum, this year we will hold quarterly symposia that take a deeper dive into the ways that the community school strategy can be used to address complex challenges.  The first session will be on community school / workforce development linkages, and the ways in which community schools can tap into and create channels of access to workforce development supports for students and adults. Each session will feature a panel of experts sharing best practices and strategies for using the community school model to address a challenge or to create opportunities and opportunities to explore different concepts in more detail (have an idea for a symposium? Tell us about it!). We hope these sessions will provide you all with strategies, tools and ideas you can use to deepen and expand your community school efforts.

With the start of a new year comes the start of a new session of the state's General Assembly. We look forward to working with you all to showcase your community school efforts through direct connections with elected officials and policy makers. We also know there are many threats to our community school work (click here to tell us about the challenges you're facing in your schools and communities) - and we'll spend time this year working together to address these challenges, and to uncover opportunities to grow and sustain community school work throughout Illinois.

Some things aren't going to change this year. We'll still provide Community School 101 trainings, and orientations to the community school model for new resource coordinators /community school managers, and convene Resource Coordinator Luncheons. This year we've added a High School Resource Coordinator Network, and plan to expand these resource coordinator networks to other communities around the state. We'll still rely on our members - community school practitioners in the field - to advise us and guide our work. We'll still make connections among practitioners in Illinois, and between work here and work in other parts of the country so that you all can learn from colleagues doing this work well, and so that your work can inform practice in communities across the state and country. And we'll be convening the 9th Annual Community Schools Forum in the fall (have some ideas for the Forum? Let us know!).

We look forward to working with you, learning from you, and supporting your community school efforts in 2013. Thank you for all you do on behalf of the children and families in your communities.

Melissa Mitchell, Executive Director 

Community Schools & Workforce Development: Building Connections to Support Youth & Adult Work Readiness

Friday, January 25, 2013

8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. 

Quality workforce development initiatives take a holistic - and often community level - approach to ensuring youth and adults have access to the skills and resources they need to build pathways to employment.  Community schools, with their emphasis on offering wrap-around supports, meaningfully engaging parents, coordinating community resources, and enhancing the overall vitality of the community, are a natural place to build intentional workforce development strategies that serve youth and adults.  Some community schools are already working to ensure youth are prepared for life beyond the classroom by implementing or connecting to workforce development programs that empower youth with the skills and resources they need to find employment.  Other community schools offer adult workforce development programs that serve parents and community members and also provide a natural point of entry upon which strong school-family connections can be built.  

We invite you to join us on Friday, January 25 from 8:30 am - 12:00 pm for an exploration of the ways in which the community schools can integrate workforce development programs and strategies into their work to ensure both youth and adults can access the supports they need to attain employment. 

This symposium will provide participants with:

• An overview of the workforce development program landscape in Chicago;
• Examples of how community schools are connecting to youth- and adult-facing workforce development programs; and,
• Strategies for connecting to or implementing a school-based workforce development programs, including a discussion of common barriers and potential solutions.

The session will provide community school practitioners and work development professionals with opportunities to explore the linkages that are possible between their efforts, and how collaboration can strengthen everyone's work. Time will be reserved for a deeper exploration of youth-facing workforce development programs (typically implemented at high schools) and adult-facing workforce development programs (typically implemented at the elementary schools).