School Community Centers: Guidelines for Interagency Planners

This publication brings together ideas, techniques, and designs that have been encountered by designers of school community centers. It is intended as a guide to creating a school community center that will meet the needs of a particular community and help make it a more vibrant, healthy, desirable place in which to live. Part I (encompassing chapters 1-3) is an overview that discusses the following topics: the evolution of the school community center, changing profiles and challenges of education, and school community centers today--basic characteristics, programs, planning and design considerations, site, security, and examples. Part II focuses on the process. Chapter 4 addresses interagency linkages. Chapter 5 describes the change process--the change agent, decision-making process, cultivating allies, bureaucratic bargaining, political action, and change to a school community center. Chapter 6 looks at planning for change, including planning groups, planning for action, toward consensus, and forming and weighing options. Part III considers potential barriers. Chapter 7 identifies major barriers to change initiatives in educational systems and other concerns; Chapter 8 discusses solving problems. Topics in chapter 8 are as follows: selecting consultants, compromise, legal issues, funding, complexity, and confidentiality. Focus of part IV is on facility operation. Three chapters (9-11) cover the building, managing the center, and key elements for success. Contains 33 references. (YLB)