United Way’s Community Schools initiative transforms public schools into neighborhood hubs that bring healthcare, food pantries, after-school programs, family engagement and parent education classes directly to school campuses.  This is a two-generation approach to cutting poverty, and has a positive impact on academic achievement, attendance rates, and parental participation.  When kids do better in school, they can get better jobs, are less likely to use taxpayer-funded services, and spend more money in our communities.

There are 7 United Way Community Schools throughout the Bay Area, serving 9,586 families.  Each Community School offers services tailored to their community. A white paper, Leveling the Playing Field, co-authored by United Way of the Bay Area and the Partnership for Children and Youth, is available to learn more about the strategies of community schools. UWBA’s report on its community schools initiative is available here.

UWBA’s 7 community schools provide relevant case studies for city, county and school officials:

• Beacon case study
• Belle Haven case study
• Elsa Widenmann case study
• Marylin Ave case study
• McPherson case study
• Redwood City case study
• Urban Promise case study