Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Connecting Families, Schools and Community Resources
The relationship between schools and families is far much beyond the conventional relations of schools educating the young ones. Through the relation of being educators for families and the society, schools have far reaching opportunities to connect families with the necessary support, resources and services as a way of serving them. This would make schools the school a central hub for supporting the society by offering human services agencies. The review of the policy brief article by the National Human Services Assembly will illustrate the importance of using schools to provide school-linked services that strengthen schools and families in the use of community resources.
The article by the National Human Services Assembly presents the school as a central figure in the development of the community by being at the heart of community resources. According to the National Human Services Assembly (2004), the school promotes family economic success, helps develop social networks and is the main public resource for supporting the community. This is because the school provides a basis for sharing community resources and opportunities because it connects families with support services and support. According to National Human Services Assembly, the reality of the school being central in the community is appreciated and used by the initiatives and projects of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in (National Human Services Assembly, 2004).
National Human Services Assembly cites the relationship between the schools and families as interdependent despite the schools being key influencers in the community. According to National Human Services Assembly (2004), the Annie Casey Foundation found out that the strength of families determines their ability to take and support children in school. Therefore, the stronger the families, the stronger the schools will be. As a result of this distinct relationship, schools have a unique opportunity to partner with families to strengthen the community for the benefit of all. As a result of this relationship, communities will be stronger if the schools within them are strong.
At the same time, communities will benefit more if the school-linked approaches will be used as characterized by their distinct facts. One of the characteristics of the school-linked services is the holistic ecological view that the success of a child is resultant of family self-sufficiency, stability and emotional wellbeing (National Human Services Assembly, 2004). Another characteristic is the coordinated service delivery resulting from linkage between the school, community institutions and agencies of social services. The third characteristic is the focus on child outcomes beyond the academics to include the family well being of the child (National Human Services Assembly, 2004). These characteristics describe the concept that the school is more than just for educational impact on the society, especially in the growth of children.
The policy brief by the National Human Services Assembly (2004) further explores the efforts that would increase the availability of school-linked services to more people in the community. As a result, the article discusses the relevance of the school-linked services to people in the community and the family systems. To further understand the efforts that would improve these services, National Human Services Assembly (2004) explores the challenges that face the availability of the school-linked services and the solutions to them.
The major challenges include the primary focus on the education system to academics rather than aspects of communal importance. The solution to this is to link the social competencies to the overall success of children. Another challenge is limitation of parents to be engaged with schools in community life (National Human Services Assembly, 2004). This can be solved by creating a friendly environment for both schools and parents to engage in community work. Moreover, families have poor access to human services and health amenities, which can only be solved by engaging schools in the provision of these amenities.
Based on my professional experience, I strongly support the efforts that will strengthen the impact of school-linked services to the community. This is because of my agreement to the assertion that the school is a central figure in bringing the community together and providing necessary services. Therefore, schools and families should be bought together through emerging practices like the Families and Schools Together (FAST) and the Communities In Schools (CIS) initiatives (National Human Services Assembly, 2004). To strengthen the importance of the initiatives, National Human Services Assembly (2004) presents the review of evidence-based research that finds schools as a central figure in the growth of children in the community. According to the report, schools using school-linked services reported stronger communities and recorded better teaching practices.
In addition, I support the strengthening of school-linked services and the efforts to make them more available in the modern society. This is because they have proven to be of a better importance to children and overall development of the young people. These services will help families strengthen their support for children, and will be more beneficial for the growing up of children in those families. Moreover, school-linked services are important for the provision of social support for children in the society. This is because schools are the central places where children are raised from. Therefore, school-linked service approaches have a stronger impact on the betterment of the lives of children than any other approaches in the community.
Reference
National Human Services Assembly, 2004. Connecting Families, Schools and Community Resources. National Human Services Assembly, Policy Brief No. 2, 2004