What is a Connected Community School?

A Community School is figuratively or physically hubbing all community services and resources into school buildings. Connected Community Schools’ (CCS) mission is to ensure every student is prepared and able to engage in their education without having their struggles or unmet needs act as a barrier to their academic, social, and emotional success.

The Four Components of a Connected Community School

• After School Activities and Family Engagement

CCS seeks to assist families with creating more positive experiences through fun and engaging activities with their children and their school, facilitating positive interactions with CCS staff and resulting in continued relationships and increased engagement in their children’s education. CCS never charges families and is always conscious of such hurdles as transportation.

• Classroom Programming and Educational Opportunities

CCS is always striving to provide students with the most engaging and creative education. By adding programming from community partners, this brings hands-on learning and experiences straight from the experts of the community. Teachers love the help and students love the experiences.

Through collaboration with community and school partners, kept up through CCS’s constant mining of resources and partnerships, CCS’s site coordinators work together with schools to create, schedule, and facilitate fun and engaging programming for students and families.

• LINK™ is CCS’s single point of access for service delivery that connects students and families to the appropriate resources and services within their community based on identified needs.

If every students’ basic needs were met, they could successfully engage in their academics, and hopefully even enjoy it!

Identified school staff will refer any student, family, or individual that has an identified need, struggle, or worry. CCS’s site coordinators will assess the full household for needs and work with the family to connect them to resources in their community.

• Connected School Hubs

CCS Hubs are physical spaces within Connected Schools that house a variety of tangible items, such as snacks, grocery items, hygiene products, and school supplies, to meet the needs of our students and school community. They also provide a safe and engaging environment for student and community engagement through lunch or afterschool activities, learning opportunities, and the use of games from the CCS Fun Library.

Questions or for more information, contact CCS’s Executive Leadership:

Melissa Roys: melissar@connectedcs.org, 315-269-3444

Danielle Martin: daniellem@connectedcs.org, 315-525-1896