Communities in Schools of Northwest Michigan

Communities in Schools of Northwest Michigan

Since 2001, Communities In Schools of Northwest Michigan (CISNWMI) has provided services to students (K-12) and families, with a primary goal of increasing graduation rates. CISNWMI’s mission is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. Their goal is simple. Put students at the center with multiple wrap-around services. Surround them with a caring community of support and create access to critical resources, like food, housing, healthcare, counseling, and technology so they can take charge of the future they want for themselves, their communities, and each other.  

The Community Centers grant will support the CISNWMI’s work of the CIS Model in Kalkaska, East Jordan, and Mancelona.  

With such a significant magnitude of need within each of the school communities, CISNWMI aims to reach, at a minimum, of 75% of the total enrollment of each school through appropriately coordinated services (i.e., whole school supports, targeted, or intensive individualized services with case management services for highly specific needs). Whether a student has immediate needs such as food, clean clothes, help with homework, to more complex, long-term needs like emotional support or counseling to cope with and heal from a traumatic event - the caring Site Coordinators will be in the schools working with their school-based School Support Teams to provide or connect students to the empowering resources they need to achieve in school and graduate on time prepared for adult life. Services include case management, attendance monitoring, home visits, tutoring, mentoring, life skills, job and career readiness, and referrals to other needed services provided by program partners, businesses, volunteer groups, school staff and CIS staff. 

The students and families served by CISNWMI experience a disproportionate number of life barriers. While the schools are working valiantly to address learning loss, they cannot be expected to meet the many needs of students by themselves. The school system was simply never designed or intended to do that. CISNWMI helps teachers teach and students learn by supporting students & their families with these primary goals:

• Goal 1:  Increase student academic achievement
• Goal 2:  Increase social and emotional health and supports for students and families
• Goal 3:  Increase coordination of services for student and families   

CISNWMI will address the needs and make a difference in the community by placing Site Coordinators directly in school buildings to address the needs and support positive economic impact. Trained CIS Site Coordinators serve as pivotal, trusted, and consistent points of contact for students and their families. Parents and caregivers have shared that they see CIS staff as ("go to") critical connectors to vital programming, information/services and school/community resources. CISNWMI works collaboratively with the entire school team (teachers/Student Support Teams/administrators) the district, and other community agencies to address key needs of the students, their families, and the schools with which they partner. Their staff ensures that resources are accessible/coordinated/maximized. CISNWMI’s strategic coordination reduces duplication of limited services and builds on the existing strengths and assets of schools and their surrounding neighborhoods to address the complexity of student and family needs.

CISNWMI’s daily presence in the schools, relationships with school personnel and the students/their families, as well as their collaborative partnerships with other community agencies, sets CIS apart.