Communities In Schools Gulf South

Communities In Schools is the nation's largest dropout prevention organization. CIS Greater New Orleans is the Louisiana affiliate. The mission of Communities In Schools is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. By bringing caring adults into the schools to address children’s unmet needs, Communities In Schools provides the link between educators and the community. The result: teachers are free to teach, and students – many in jeopardy of dropping out – have the opportunity to focus on learning. CIS of Greater New Orleans serves 12 charter schools in Orleans Parish with market expansion opportunities in Jefferson, St. Tammany, St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes. Our core service is the CASE MANAGEMENT of students who need a coordinated, strategic approach to accessing services of any type in the community. In addition, we bring numerous services that benefit the majority of students in CIS schools. We make available to our CIS Schools a number of programs which provide ourselves, including CIS CHAMP CAMP (afterschool programming for 300 students at 3 schools), CIS AMERICORPS MEMBERS ( intensive academic and behavior support for 550 students in 4 schools), and CIS MENTORING for middle and high school students in all CIS schools. We also operate the CIS CHAMPS CHOICE STORE, a place where in-kind donations from conventions and community members are sorted and ANY teacher in our service area can come shop "for free". Because of the expertise of our staff, we participate as thought partners in numerous New Orleans initiatives including NOLA for LIFE, the Children and Youth Planning Board's strategic work, YouthSHIFT, and we are a contractual partner with the Recovery School District in its reformation of truancy reduction strategies, including staffing the New Orleans Truancy Center with a CIS Social Worker. #ChangeThePicture