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Community Partnership Toolkit

The Community Partnership Resources Toolkit can be used to identify, build and sustain community partnerships in the areas represented within Ohio’s Whole Child Framework. These community partnership resources have been attached to the framework tenants, in order for users to access partnership resources aligned with the framework.

The Ohio Department of Education’s Local Stakeholder Engagement Toolkit is a great starting point for developing, sustaining, and engaging local stakeholders and community partners in whole child work.

To access additional community partnership resources, click on the tenant area below for a list of resources that represent that each tenant.

clickable image of Ohio's whole child specific tenants which include healthy, safe, engaged, supported and challenged

Healthy

When students are healthy, feel safe, are supported through strong systems and relationships, are challenged and experience success, and are engaged in learning that is relevant and meaningful, they are more likely to enjoy learning, develop positive social skills and achieve greater success.

Ohio’s Whole Child Framework says each student enters school healthy and learns about and practices a healthy lifestyle.

Below are resources to increase community partnerships in the healthy tenant area.

Behavioral Health and Wellness Resources Toolkit. This toolkit provides statewide and national resources specific to topics focused on behavioral health and wellness, including family and community partnership.
Nationwide Children's Schoolbased Healthcare Resources. Care Connection is a partnership between Nationwide Children’s Hospital, area schools and your child’s doctor to provide additional access to health care at your child’s school.
Ohio School Health Services Association. OSHSA is dedicated to the growth and success of school-based health programs and services that contribute to both the well-being and achievement of their respective student bodies. OSHSA provides a number of services, including information, advocacy, and training.
Wickliffe Family Resource Center. The Wickliffe Family Resource Center (WFRC), operated by the Wickliffe City School District, is an organization that strives to bring together services and activities that educate, develop skills, and promote health and well being in order to improve the outcomes of students, families, and individuals in the community. Partners include Signature Health, the Lake County General Health District, Crossroads Health, American Red Cross, Lifeline 211, WicCloset, College Now, and other local agencies.
School-based Healthcare Support Toolkit. In alignment with Each Child, Our Future, Ohio developed the School-Based Health Care Support Toolkit to support schools and districts as they begin new — or augment existing — school-based physical and mental health partnerships to meet the needs of the whole child. The toolkit provides guidance and resources to excite schools and care providers about school-based physical and mental health services and answers questions school and providers have asked.

Safe

Ohio’s Whole Child Framework says, each student learns in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and adults.

Below are resources to increase community partnerships in the safe tenant area.

Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force. The Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force was formed to marshal the resources of the State of Ohio to coordinate efforts to identify victims, create a coordinated law enforcement system to investigate and prosecute human trafficking crimes and to provide the services and treatment necessary for victims to regain control of their lives.
Services for Schools. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office provides a variety of services and resources for Ohio’s local school districts, education and legal assistance for state colleges and universities, and information and opportunities for students at all levels.
Protective Services Programs for Children and Adults. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Office of Families and Children provides a listing of protective services and programs for children and adults, including young adult services.
School Health Program. The Ohio Department of Health, School Health Program is committed to making all Ohio children healthy, ready to learn and prepared to make lifelong healthy choices.
Safer Ohio School Tipline. The Safer Ohio School Tip Line is a free safety resource available to all Ohio schools. The tip line is an anonymous reporting system that accepts both calls and texts 24 hours a day.
Ohio School Safety Center. The Ohio School Safety Center is responsible for assisting local schools and law enforcement with preventing, preparing for, and responding to threats and acts of violence, including self-harm, through a holistic, solutions-based approach to improving school safety. The Ohio School Safety Center resources to assist schools in planning and preparing for emergency situations.
Trauma-Informed Schools. A trauma-informed school is one in which all students and staff feel safe, welcomed and supported and where the impact of trauma on teaching and learning is addressed at the center of the educational mission. This article defines trauma, discusses the impact of trauma on students, and provides strategies for becoming a trauma-informed school.
Equality Ohio. Equality Ohio identifies and transforms systems and institutions so LGBTQ+ Ohioans can fully access legal and lived equality.
National Center on Safe and Supportive Learning Environments. The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) offers information and technical assistance to States, districts, schools, institutions of higher learning and communities focused on improving school climate and conditions for learning.

Engaged

Ohio’s Whole Child Framework says each student is actively engaged in learning and connected to the school and broader community.

Below are resources to increase community partnerships in the engaged tenant area.

21st Century Community Learning Centers. Current and future 21st CCLC afterschool/out-of-school time (OST) programs can use this list to identify potential partnerships to support their programs.
National Network for Partnership Schools (NNPS). The National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS), established at Johns Hopkins University in 1996, provides schools with ideas, support, and suggestions for strengthening the connections between schools, families, and the communities of which they are a part. It was founded by educational researchers at Johns Hopkins, who were looking for a means to share research about how important these connections are to building effective schools and increasing student successes.
Toolkit: How to "reframe" family engagement in your communications. This toolkit helps those working in schools and other organizations to reframe their communications with families.
Find an Ohio Library. The State Library of Ohio website includes a directory of all public and regional library systems in Ohio. Ohio has 251 public library systems with 481 branch locations.
Find an Ohio Museum. This website lists museums throughout Ohio, along with websites and contact information.
OCALI. OCALI inspires change and promotes access to opportunities for people with disabilities. OCALI Centers include the Autism Center, Teaching Diverse Learners Center, Universal Design for Learning Center, Lifespan Transitions Center, Family and Community Outreach Center and the Center for the Young Child.
Ohio Pre-K - 12 Open Space. Open Space, powered by INFOhio, is Ohio’s hub for Open Educational Resources. You can find textbooks, lesson plans, activities, interactive labs, modules, or even full courses on the Open Space platform. This OER repository also includes advanced filter options, such as searching by grade level, subject area, material type, and Ohio’s Learning Standards.
Ohio TESOL. The mission of Ohio TESOL, an affiliate of TESOL, is to develop the professional expertise of its members and others involved in educating those learners for whom English is a non-native language.
Ohio Latino Community Resources. Latino Community Resources connects the diverse Latino communities across the State of Ohio by serving as a hub of information for and about Hispanic Ohioans by hosting meetings, conducting surveys, promoting collaboration, encouraging communication and endeavoring to assure access to decision-making bodies.
National Education Association: Engaged Families and Communities. This resource reviews recent research on school and family collaboration and presents 10 key strategies for creating effective family-school-community partnerships that are focused on advancing student learning. It also includes recommendations for moving this important work forward.
Strategies for Equitable Family Engagement. This resource provides an overview of evidence-based strategies that schools and districts may use to promote equitable family engagement practices. Organized around five categories of equitable family engagement strategies, this resource includes summaries of the research on equitable family engagement as well as examples of school and district practices across the country, linking to publicly available information where possible
Five Principles to Engage Every Family. Dr. Steve Constantino developed the “Five Simple Principles to Engage Every Family” as a way to help every school harness the power of family engagement as a direct conduit to student achievement. The fifth principle highlights examples of community-based schools, wrap around services for students and how schools and community agencies can partner together.
Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center at The Ohio State University. The Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center empowers students, caregivers, & school leaders to develop positive and engaging relationships with each other to support the educational success of K-12 students.
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Supported

Ohio’s Whole Child Framework says each student is actively supported in learning and connected to the school and broader community.

Below are resources to increase community partnerships in the supported tenant area.

Coalition for Community Schools. This website provides resources for supporting the community school model of education, which relies strongly on community partnership.
Advisory Programs. This website provides resources to help schools build holistic Advisory Programs that focus on various aspects of student life and adolescent development.
Ohio Community Action Agencies. The Community Action Agency Network is made up of more than 1,000 local, private, non-profit and public agencies, created through the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Community Action Agencies provide services to more than 15 million low-income people, including 4 million children, annually in 99 percent of the nation’s counties.
Strategy for Equitable Change: Effective Communication. This resource shares a method to establish productive conversation patterns between people who have difficulty communicating due to negative perceptions or stereotypes, polarizing views, and distrust. The method attempts to facilitate conversations that allow the participants to truly understand each other’s values, concerns and motivations rather than those that devolve into reinforcement of negative stereotypes or assumptions.
English Learner Toolkit. The tool kit is designed to help state and local education agencies (SEAs and LEAs) in meeting their legal obligations to ELs and in providing all ELs with the support needed to attain English language proficiency while meeting college- and career-readiness standards.
Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) Youth Initiative. COHHIO’s Youth Housing Initiative seeks to reduce the barriers that prevent Ohio’s homeless youth and young adults from gaining access to housing, services and stability through furthering advocacy, training and education in order to put an end to youth homelessness across our state. The program also aims to provide at-risk and homeless youth with tools and information to assist them as they navigate systems and communities for supports and services.

Challenged

Ohio’s Whole Child Framework says each student is actively challenged in learning and connected to the school and broader community.

Below are resources to increase community partnerships in the challenged tenant area.

Public Libraries Engage Families in STEM. This brief examines how public libraries, with federal and state support, are creating STEM learning that brings together children and families across the K–12 years.
Columbus Council on World Affairs: Global Scholars Diploma. In partnership with school districts from across the region, the Columbus Council on World Affairs delivers an experiential approach to global education via the Global Scholars Diploma program. Throughout the course of the three-year program, high school students communicate and collaborate face-to-face with global community partners, businesses, civic leaders, and people of varying cultural backgrounds.
Case-based Learning. Pioneered at Harvard University, the case-based method is the primary mode of instruction at medical, law, business and engineering schools. Cases present students with open-ended, incomplete scenarios requiring complex solutions. Each case is an account of events and facts particular to the problem, with intriguing decision points designed to encourage critical thinking and student discussion. Cases are solved through the dynamic process of exchanging information, countering and defending varying points of view, and building on the ideas of others.
High-Impact Teaching. Teachers’ expectations of their students’ learning may be more important in influencing student progress than pupils’ abilities. ‘High expectation teachers’ believe that students will learn faster and will improve their level of achievement. They also have more positive attitudes towards learners and more effective teaching practices. This paper outlines the key differences in teaching practices between low expectation and high expectation teachers. It provides helpful, practical teaching strategies to move towards high expectation and better teaching.
Erase the Space. Erase the Space facilitates a year-long writing exchange between our respective classrooms in order to help repair public discourse. Students write letters and opinion pieces, communicate via Twitter and gChat, and ultimately meet in person. Working in teams (two students from each school), students develop an idea to get teenagers from different backgrounds and areas of our city together authentically to have a discourse on problems facing their community. Our focus for the past two years has been the segregation of Columbus.
Ohio History Connection. The Ohio History Connection, formerly the Ohio Historical Society, is a statewide history organization with the mission to spark discovery of Ohio’s stories. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization chartered in 1885, the Ohio History Connection carries out history services for Ohio and its citizens focused on preserving and sharing the state’s history.
The Ohio Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. The Ohio Association for Health Physical Education, Recreation and Dance is committed to keeping Ohioans healthy and active by providing lifelong learning and professional development, leadership, service and advocacy.
Ohio Arts Council. The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically.
Kids Voting Ohio: Teacher Resources. Kids Voting Ohio is a Non-Partisan, non-profit organization that serves Ohio schools through voter education and preparedness, promoting civic engagement, and increased family and community communication about citizenship. Kids Voting Ohio is an affiliate of Kids Voting USA. The Program Curriculum includes lessons and activities for 3rd - 12th grade around voting, civics, government and history. All the provided lessons and activities are aligned with the Ohio's Social Studies Learning Standards and Model Curriculum. The curriculum is FREE to anyone, even if your school is not registered for Kids Voting Ohio.
Ohio Center for Law-Related Education. Today, with participation of teachers and students from more than 70 Ohio counties, and more than 1,500 volunteers annually, OCLRE is among the largest state law-related education programs in the United States, and continues to provide critical programs focused on civics and law-related education. OCLRE is proud to provide unique professional development for educators, hands-on learning programs for students, and statewide opportunities for positive community engagement.

Last Modified: 7/1/2022 3:28:46 PM