Integrated Services

Integrated services is a coordinated, holistic approach to addressing the needs of children--particularly the complex, interrelated problems of at-risk children--by providing a comprehensive range of educational, health and social services. LA's Promise schools are the hub of a coordinated network of service providers and the link between these service providers and children and their families. Integrated services focus on prevention, promoting health and wellness for children and their families, and providing services that overcome barriers to school readiness and academic success. These services include gang-diversion programs, health care, counseling, tutoring and remedial education, mentoring, literacy training, parent education, mental health services, child abuse programs, recreation, programs to reduce intergroup tensions and student conflict, and programs for students in foster care. Integrated services are school based to ensure use of the long-term contact with the majority of students.

7 to 7

LA's Promise schools are open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm and beyond, utilizing the services of partners and structuring those services into special classes and programs that are intertwined into the regular school day. 7 to 7 classes are offered in multiple areas, from tutoring programs to fitness classes to financial counseling. 7 to 7 courses are provided by dozens of LA's Promise partners, including Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), Get Fit Go, Children's Bureau, Street Poets, Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic, St. John's Well Child and Family Center and many others. In its first full year, 7 to 7 attracted more than 1,400 West Adams students. By 2010, the 7 to 7 program provided students and families with over 90 different course offerings and activities, including filmmaking, kickboxing, swimming, remedial support and a variety of parent classes.

7 to 7 has been a huge success among students and their families, making the school the focal point of resources and activity for the whole community. The program significantly extends the school day to provide extra educational and enrichment programs. LA's Promise's 7 to 7 program invites students and families to participate in meaningful activities through an extended, engaging and holistic school day.

Health & Wellness

Mental, physical and emotional well being is the focus of a large scale initiative to ensure students are well nourished, active, and supported. LA's Promise believes that an effective education means paying attention to the full spectrum of a child's development. LA's Promise's Health and Wellness program empowers students to evaluate their current habits and make informed choices through a holistic approach.

LA's Promise and its partners are developing three primary activities that ensure access to fundamental health services for every student at an LA's Promise school: (1) universal health screenings (2) restructuring of health and PE courses and (3) utilizing an advisory program to triage student needs.

Universal Health Screenings
Through a strategic partnership with St. John's Well Child & Family Center, LA's Promise will radically shift the health outcomes for thousands of students in LA's Promise Neighborhood. St. Johns currently operates a school based clinic at Manual Arts High School. The clinic integrates three critical activities into the school day to ensure the healthy development of every child: (1) health screenings (2) a health insurance enrollment program and (3) a health intervention class for students with the highest health needs.

Health and PE Course Restructuring
LA's Promise and its partners will leverage and restructure existing health and PE classes to ensure that they provide meaningful and rigorous educational opportunities for students. This will include the creation of relevant curriculum and professional development (that matches with current programming), as well as reduction in the size of some classes (e.g., PE). The new curriculum and professional development program will be aligned to California State standards and will address the unique needs of the LA's Promise school community.

Advisory
Through the Advisory course, LA's Promise and its administration will triage student and family needs and route them to relevant resources.

Resource Management

Most distressed schools have numerous partners taking on uncoordinated services and attempting to support school improvement. At one school that LA's Promise assessed, more than 50 different community organizations operated programs on campus. However, like most distressed schools, these services were inefficient, redundant and not accountable to any one entity.

• Inefficiency means programs that are under-utilized by students and other potential recipients. At one 4,000-student school LA's Promise studied, more than three dozen organizations collectively reached only 300 students.
• Redundancy refers to the problem of the same students participating multiple times in similar programs. At the same 4,000 student school, one student was enrolled in six different college preparatory programs, while hundreds of other students lacked access to even one program.
• A lack of accountability results from unclear agreements or contracts, and misalignment to important targets.

LA's Promise pioneered its Resource Management System (RMS), a coordinated method for weaving together external partners to public schools and communities. Our RMS mitigates the common problems of community-school partnerships by establishing service agreements, performing screens for program quality, and using a sophisticated web-based database to increase access to services.

Partners

LA's Promise partners with over 50 nonprofit organizations who collectively provide over 200 services to students and families in LA's Promise Neighborhood. LA's Promise rigorously screens all potential partners and manages partners to clear service agreements. Each partner must sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). As a result, partners deliver the highest quality programs to students and families in LA's Promise Neighborhood.

LA's Promise organizes its partners into four categories: Mental and Physical Health, Child and Teen Programs, School Help and Family Support Services. Each partner is screened for quality (this includes a review of the organization’s mission, program and financial statements, and a site visit) and managed according to a clear agreement. LA's Promise manages relationships with these partners, seeking to enhance services for students.

To ensure that students and families are aware of and access valuable resources, LA's Promise has developed a bilingual, easy-to-use online directory —the LA's Promise Online Directory.

The LA's Promise Online Directory is a web-based portal of services that connects students and families in LA's Promise Neighborhood to all resources including tutoring, health screenings, legal services and employment support. The online directory also features a universal referral system that enables LA's Promise Neighborhood residents to easily connect to service providers partnering with LA's Promise. The directory can be viewed at laspromisedirectory.org.

Parental Engagement

Promise Partners was created to implement three key engagement activities:

LA's Promise believes that parents, families, guardians and other school stakeholders are key partners in achieving a school’s vision. Because of the importance of parent engagement in our schools' success, LA's Promise staffs every school with a full time Associate Director of Parent and Community Engagement. This position works closely with community representatives and parent volunteers.

LA's Promise understands that families sometimes have priorities that present barriers to a child's education. We work with parents to ensure they are aware of their child's education each step of the way and that they have the resources necessary to address these barriers.

Promise Parents

Promise Partners was created to implement three key engagement activities:

• Ongoing Parent Support Courses. Through key partnerships, LA's Promise empowers parents through ongoing support and education courses. For example, the Mexican American Legal Defense Education Fund provides parent leadership workshops that focus on preparing their child for college. Get Fit Go Play offers yoga courses, and Community Services Unlimited provides a healthy cooking class. Additionally, parents are offered courses to increase their knowledge of student testing, education rights and financial literacy.
• Volunteer and Leadership Opportunities. Parents at LA's Promise schools are key partners in the school's daily operations. Parents support our schools by chaperoning field trips, providing clerical support, leading a school valet service, assisting with uniform sales, providing support during testing and supervising safety. For example, Manual Arts parent volunteers were critical in the success of the school's new uniform policy. Parents organized and developed a volunteer group called the "Parent Patrol." Parents who completed extensive training received walkie-talkies, a safety team uniform and assisted with supervision.
• Consistent and Ongoing Parent Communication. LA's Promise works closely with faculty members and administrators to develop a system for consistent and ongoing parent communication. LA's Promise mandates that teachers communicate with parents on a regular basis, using various tools such as Connect-Ed messages, personal phone calls, mailings, emails and one-on-one conferences. Special attention and more frequent communications will occur for students who are high risk. Additionally, to ensure that parents and community members are informed about the school's challenges, successes and overall progress, LA's Promise and school administrators hold monthly "town hall" meetings, Coffee with the Principal, with parents and community members.