By Lisa Iwaki and David Burns, USCM Interns
October 9, 2006

Mayors are always seeking ways to enhance the education experiences and opportunities for their cities- children. Many mayors are working with their school systems to add social and human services in schools. These services include youth development programs, health services, early childhood education, and family resource centers. To be successful requires: collaboration of city government; the public school system; businesses and community; and non-profit organizations. The strategy demonstrates a new approach towards improving education and offering easier access to services for the city’s citizens.

Canton (OH) Mayor Janet W. Creighton has installed a community worker in each of the city’s elementary and middle schools to act as a liaison between families and various agencies, organizations, businesses, and churches for services that include housing, medical care, truancy mediation, and counseling. The partnership between schools and various other social service providers varies depending on the networks the individual community worker has established.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom with the County of San Francisco has one of the most comprehensive and proactive programs to assist students with social services. Every school in the city has a city'sponsored program. The average school will have some sort of after school program, cultural enrichment initiative, health and mental health services, recreation, professional training opportunities and a school resource officer. One strategy has been the creation of Beacon Centers in middle schools that assist students with access to social services. Other mental health and social service work services are available in 70 per cent of the city’s schools. Together the city and county spend about $50 million per year on social services in the San Francisco Unified School District.

Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson has taken the approach of consolidating all the social service providers into one system entitled Neighborhood Place. This has evolved as a result of the mayor’s over 16 years in office. The program offers “one'stop” health, education, workforce and human services. It is unique in the nation in that it consolidates all the Metro social service and education providers. The system is also linked to family resource and youth service centers, and the truancy courts. Louisville Metro’s Every1Reads, which calls for every child to be reading at grade level by 2008, is also tied into the system. Several other campaigns included in this effort are dropout prevention, education and workforce development, youth opportunities for remedial education, and an innovative college work'study program with local employers that includes free tuition and housing subsidies.

Many mayors have exercised their leadership roles in education and made it a priority to initiate education and social service programs or expand existing ones with new initiatives. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels continued the legacy of mayoral involvement in education with social services first initiated in 1990 by then Mayor Norman Rice. Nickels was the champion for the passage of the Families and Education Levy in 2004. This is the third levy of its kind in Seattle since 1990. Funds from the levy are used for early learning program, especially minority and immigrant children; student health services through primary care services and school nurses; mental health screening and assessment; tutoring programs for those not passing the state test; out of school time for special education students and English language learners; and a drop out prevention program focused at middle and high school students.

Recently elected St. Paul Mayor Christopher B. Coleman is working with long established tradition of programs. He is trying to expand the existing initiatives in the areas of early childhood screenings, food nutrition, immigrant integration into schools, after school, senior citizen programs using multipurpose facilities, and volunteer mobilization. These efforts are being aligned with another new initiative entitled “Second Shift,” a program that focuses on out of school time and education. The mayor has also included new efforts for college readiness, workforce investment and quality and accessibility to early education.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has established Beacons Schools – school-based community centers – in all five boroughs. These centers are managed by community-based organizations that work together with the school system and neighborhood groups. The schools offer a mix of services, recreation, academic preparation, cultural activities, family support, health services, employment preparation and in some instances on'site college credit classes. Another model being implemented is the Children’s Aid Society Community Schools which emphasizes collaboration between the Society, the school system, the local district and community based partners.

Fresno Mayor Alan Autry serves as the convener of the K-12 Education Workgroup for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley.” Its focus is to work on improving education performance and exploring other services that cities and the partnership can provide to its communities. The city of Fresno does provide Family Resource Centers at various school sites which were established based on the Partnerships recommendation.

Mayors are recognizing the importance of connecting education and human and social services. Each city will take a slightly different approach based on its needs and how best to provide the services. The end goal is the same of expanding access and improving the chances of success in school for many more students.