Communities In Schools

Communities In Schools

Communities In Schools, one of the nation’s leading dropout prevention programs, offers and integrates community services that help economically disadvantaged students, grades K–12, stay in school and graduate on time.

A Communities In Schools (CIS) site coordinator at each school assesses students’ needs and then identifies and connects students to resources that meet these needs. Through strategic partnerships with local providers, CIS site coordinators blend various community supports to provide integrated student services benefiting an entire student body.

Coordinators also provide more intensive and individualized case management support for the 10 to 15 percent of students with special behavioral, mental health, or academic needs and identified as most likely to fall behind academically or drop out.

In 2012, the economic modeling firm EMSI calculated that every dollar invested in CIS creates $11.60 in economic benefits.

Making a Difference

Learn more about how CIS helps at-risk students succeed in school and in life.

EMCF has committed $33.5 million to CIS since 2011, when it received a three-year, $6 million Social Innovation Fund award from the Foundation to expand in California, North Carolina and South Carolina, and became a True North Fund grantee. EMCF has followed that up with two investments, most recently a four-year, $17 million investment in 2018 to support implementation of CIS’s FY18-FY22 business plan.

COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS IN ACTION

At 19, Roger Thompson was still in high school and already father of a one-year-old daughter. Communities In Schools and the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina’s Wise Guys program helped him not only to graduate and go to college, but also to learn what it takes to become a real man. Read Roger's story.