**Community Schools Forward. (2023). Framework: Essentials for community school transformation. https://www.nccs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/CSF_Visual_Framework_Essentials_Community_School.pdf
This resource serves as a comprehensive framework to transform schools into community hubs where educators, local community members, families, and students collaborate to enhance conditions for student learning and healthy development. It offers a way to conceptualize what makes a community school, including the conditions, infrastructure, and people that are needed to create them. This framework appears in the piece below, CS journeys: Garden Grove Builds a Foundation for Growing Their Community Schools Vision, but this version contains more detail.
Knudson, J. & Kimner, H. (2022). A case for coherence: Fulfilling California’s community schools promise. California Collaborative on District Reform. https://cacollaborative.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/CA_Collaborative_Community_Schools.pdf
Recognizing that school district leaders may feel that the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) could add to “initiative fatigue,” the authors of this brief outline key considerations for aligning resources, sustaining long-term efforts, and avoiding fragmented implementation of community schools. Importantly, they argue that schools’ efforts in holistic approaches to learning – regardless of whether or not they are called “community schools” – should enhance system coherence, not detract from it. The authors advocate for multi-sector collaborations that integrate education with social services, healthcare, and community support. Rather than simply providing “nonacademic” services, the authors of this report emphasize systemic change, urging local educators and partners to create equitable learning conditions and sustained student support..
Jordan, D. & Bridgeforth, J. (2025). CS journeys: Garden Grove builds a foundation for growing their community schools vision. Community Schools Learning Exchange. Available on Dropbox.
This report details Garden Grove Unified School District’s (GGUSD) journey to develop community schools. It began with a $12 million dollar grant as part of the CCSPP. This allowed GGUSD to focus on integrating student supports, school-based wellness, and family engagement, particularly in communities with higher populations of English learners and economically disadvantaged students. GGUSD district leaders will share this story during our meeting, but this reading provides deeper insight into how their strategy was tailored to local needs while aligning with the district’s long-term commitment to academic, personal, and lifelong success.
**This document is a priority reading.