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Community Schools Development and Implementation

Helping education leaders work in partnership with schools, districts, and states to create and sustain community schools.

Our team of experts can facilitate and support your implementation efforts related to community schools through communities of practice, content-specific knowledge and capacity building, and creation of high-quality tools and resources.  

How We Help

We know that community schools should be led by the communities they serve. Our work together will help you shape successful partnerships to create learning conditions designed to prioritize agency, self-determination, and liberation. 

We Help You

  • enhance community schools through intentional planning, implementation, and continuous improvement; 
  • strengthen the conditions for systemic youth and family engagement to grow and align community-based partnerships to support the whole person;  
  • work with regional and state agencies to cocreate support systems for community schools;  
  • identify a shared vision for equitable whole-person outcomes around which community schools’ efforts can be united; and 
  • develop and strengthen collaborative leadership approaches, expanded learning opportunities, and program evaluation aligned with a comprehensive community schools framework. 

Thanks to the expertise and guidance from the WestEd team, the Central Valley Regional Transformational Assistance Center is better able to equip educators and community members with the tools they need to lead effective transformation. The resources, professional learning, and strategic insights WestEd shared are invaluable, and the impact on our grantees, non-grantees and community are evident in the work. 

— Director of Community Schools, County Office of Education 

Featured Experts

Rebeca Cerna 

Rebeca Cerna is an expert in school climate, health and wellness, and the strategic use of data and participatory approaches. As Director of the Resilient and Healthy Schools and Communities area at WestEd, Cerna is dedicated to creating and maintaining safe, supportive, and collaborative learning environments that are supportive of children and youth as well as the adults who guide them.
Expert
Ashley Boal

Ashley Boal

Ashley Boal is a Senior Research Associate for the Justice and Prevention Research Center (JPRC). She brings years of experience conducting research and evaluation studies across a diverse range of content areas including education, criminal justice, violence against women, and mental and physical health.
Expert
Amber Valdez

Amber Valdez

Amber Valdez directs a body of work on systems change and leadership with a focus on designing and leading systems for equity. Her expertise includes strategic planning, cross-sector/interagency collaboration, systems of support, continuous improvement, human-centered design, complex systems change, and equity leadership.  
Expert

Connecting Research With Practice

Community schools embody a whole-person approach to education that prioritizes collaboration, community engagement, and equity. WestEd’s support for community schools is grounded in evidence-based practices, including the four pillars of community schools for achieving transformational outcomes and participatory systems change for equity.  

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