Communities In Schools of Seattle

The mission of Communities In Schools of Seattle is to champion the connection of needed resources with schools to help young people successfully learn, stay in school and prepare for life.

Communities In Schools of Seattle partners with Seattle Public Schools and primarily serves schools in economically disadvantaged areas with a disproportionately high number of ethnic minorities.

CISS has three main components to help students succeed. School-wide prevention activities; Academic Support and Crisis Intervention.

It is far too often the case that students who struggle in school also face struggles at home. Unfortunately schools are not equipped to handle these challenges. CISS places School Success Coordinators in designated schools to manage this gap. Students are connected to resources that help them overcome personal challenges and become fully engaged in school.

Communities In Schools started as a grassroots movement in a few cities led by Bill Milliken. Bill and his colleagues worked with youth throughout the 1960's and 70's and out of his experience developed the "Five Basics" which still form the cornerstone of the CIS philosophy.

CIS understands that children who have access to caring adults, safe places to learn & grow, preventative health care, and opportunity are less likely to engage in risky behavior and are more likely to stay in school and make a positive contribution to their community.

Bill also realized that the so-called "dropout problem" begins long before kids reach age and that we need to get to young people before they give up on school. So he started to show communities how to work with their students inside the schools and coordinate existing community resources to serve kids more directly - inside their schools. Out of this Communities In Schools was born.

Since 1977 across the nation Communities In Schools has successfully lowered high school dropout rates and helped millions of young people choose a better path in life. Today CIS works with more than 2000 schools and provides access to nearly two million kids annually.

School wide prevention events affect the entire school population, for example we host a school supply drive for over 26 schools within Seattle, coordinate Family Fitness Night for multiple schools to raise health awareness, and goal setting programs, to name a few.

Volunteer tutors are utilized in our academic programs for reading, math and general homework help at Elementary, Middle and High schools. These tutors have a direct impact in the lives of the students they serve.  Descriptions of a couple of our academic enrichment programs are as follows:

Math All Stars: Tutors provide math support to students by  playing educational games to build their fundamental math skills with students in grades 2nd to 5th.

Reading Buddy: Tutors are matched with a reading buddy and work one on one with a student that is significantly behind in reading. Tutors use a reading curriculum called Sound Sense Solutions and engage students in reading activites and games.