Ryerson Community School: Where You Belong - This article describes the evolution of Ryerson Community School from a tough inner-city school with a lot of problems to a transformed school that provides unique services to its students and serves the broader community as well. Ryerson Community School is located in a high poverty neighbourhood with many new immigrants in Toronto. The first step to transforming the school was to extend the school day by 30 minutes and teach children their first language: Arabic, Swahili, Vietnamese, etc, thereby improving their language development and developing a sense of pride in their own heritage. The school continued to reach out to the community with breakfast and lunch programs and an after school program for children to play basketball and work on their assignments. In the evenings, the school is open for adult education classes.

Families and Schools Together Canada - Often children are identified as “at risk” but educators don’t always know what to do next. This article describes the Families and Schools Together Program, which gets families of at risk children involved in the school and links them up with a variety of community service workers (family service counselor, mental health professional, addictions counselor, etc.) in a fun and non-threatening way.

The Roots of Empathy - This article describes a unique program that brings community into the classroom and teaches real-life skills to elementary students. Two primary goals for the program are to increase empathy in children and to develop an understanding of human development. These are two key determinants to effective parenting. A local parent with an infant makes monthly visits to a classroom and children learn about the baby’s physical and emotional needs.

Seeds of Promise - The Grandview/?Uuqinak’uuh School in Vancouver is an example of a downtown inner city school that worked with community partners to develop a sense of pride in their school and community. Gradually, with community involvement, the school transformed their concrete yard into a beautiful oasis of trees, flowers and vegetables. The school reached out to the community and listened to their needs. In addition to regular curriculum, they also offer parenting courses, day care for younger children, breakfast and lunch programs, and summer programs. They have improved the feeling of community in the neighbourhood and have helped keep children off the streets by occupying them in positive ways within the school facilities.

Evergreen Canada - The Learning Grounds program brings school communities together to transform typically barren school grounds into healthy, natural and creative "outdoor classrooms".

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