The Role of the Community

I live in Anderson. The community seems to be greatly concerned about it's children. The Anderson Center for the Arts has art classes for younger children as well as teens to guide their artistic pursuits. They even offer a class for children with disabilities. The public library offers many educational opportunities for children. They hold parents' reading to their children book nights, science activity days, and other after school programs. The local YMCA offers health classes for families and children. Many of these events are free, which encourages more family involvement. Also, Anderson University has been great at offering programs about international students, encouraging them to bring in ethnic foods and their life stories. Several churches have tutoring and after schools programs for children. 

What I find interesting in Anderson is that the community is interested and active in helping children, but I feel that the schools themselves do very little to reach out to the community. If I were to be an advocate on the inside to work with the community, I would hold tutoring in the schools and invite the community in to help. I would send out fliers to interested organizations asking for classroom volunteers. I love the idea that the community is getting involved with children, but I believe a partnership between the community and schools would boost children's success because all would be on the same page and have similar goals.