Community School Coordinator - Baltimore, United States - Child First Authority

Description

Community School Coordinator

Child First Background
Child First Authority, Inc.

(CFA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing youth and strengthening families by providing high-quality community schools, after-school and summer learning programs that promote academic achievement, social and emotional well-being, and parent leadership.

Established as a direct result of an organizing campaign led by Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development (BUILD), CFA is rooted in racial equity and grounds its work in a model that builds on the assets of each youth and family.

Community organizing and power building is in our DNA


The Community School Strategy

The Community School Strategy is an evidence-based strategy and framework that unite families, educators and community partners to address barriers to student and family success, promote educational excellence for each and every child, and strengthens families and the overall community.

A Community School transforms traditional public schools into neighborhood hubs that mobilize students, staff, families and community members to reimagine education and co-construct a shared vision for their school and community.

Community Schools create the conditions students need to thrive through:

• Integrating student supports
• resources and supports that service the whole child;
• Expanding and enriching learning expanded learning opportunities both during the day and out of school time hours;
• Engaging family and community partnering with families and community members to identify and meet the needs, making everyone feel safe, welcomed and involved in the school;
• Lead in collaboration inclusive decision making and peer learning to build trust amongst stakeholder groups.

The Community School Coordinator (CSC) is a full-time professional employee of Child First Authority working at a partner Community School, to implement the community school strategy.

The CSC facilitates and provides leadership for the collaborative process and development of a continuum of services for children, families, and community members through these buckets of work:
family and community engagement, student and family supports and partnership and resource development.

Together with the school principal and broader school community, the Community School Coordinator (CSC) will assess the needs of the designated school and form strategic partnerships to help eliminate barriers to academic success for students and families.

Successful CSCs come from a variety of professional backgrounds, but possess several key qualities:

• A natural relationship builder with hunger for results.
• A gogetter dedicated to finding solutions to intractable obstacles in order to ensure students and their families are fully supported.
• Flexible in the face of changing community needs and priorities.
• Ability to continuously evaluate and improve their efforts responding to data, feedback from stakeholders, and lessons gathered from their schoolbased and organizational team.

Responsibilities
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Partnership and Relationship Development_

• Creates a comprehensive, participatory needs/assets assessment of the school and community in partnership with the Principal and school and community stakeholders;
• Develops and coordinates new partnerships guided by needs assessment and School Performance Plan;
• Implements approved action plan by establishing and coordinating partnerships, colocating resources (within the school), developing the necessary work plans, agreements, MOUs, schedules and connecting families and community residents to those resources.
• Helps to raise funds and inkind donations to support programming.
• Organizes and staffs regular meetings of the steering committee or appropriate leadership team, comprised of school administrators, School Family Council members, students, community representatives and extended service partners, to identify, coordinate, and broker relationships for service delivery at the school.

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Student and Family Support_

• Serves as a member of the school student support team and attendance team to identify students at risk of chronic absence and disciplinary action, collaborating with the school, families, and community to provide necessary supports;
• Refers students and families to community agencies and organizations to support their health, mental health, and family stability as appropriate.

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Family and Community Engagement_

• Plans highly effective events and activities that respond to the needs and interests of families, and support the achievement of their family goals;
• Organizes, trains, and develops parent leaders to connect to the school, academic achievement and school decisionmaking;
• Recruits, trains and helps to manage volunteers in support of community school efforts;
• Engages with neighborhood associations, residents and community leaders to understand community needs and develop twoway relationships of s