A Concerned Citizen's Guide to Community School Centers. #1 in a Series of 6 Booklets.

Community school centers have evolved from many experiments in interagency cooperation and community involvement. A community school center is a place that provides a variety of services that may include health, recreation, day care and after school care for the young, senior citizen programs, job placement, vocational and manpower training, public library, adult education, performing and creative arts, crafts, family and youth counseling, municipal services, and public K-12 education. It is also a forum for focusing community action and improving the quality of life for the residents. This booklet is the first in a series that examines community school centers as a phenomenon of national importance to the coordinated delivery of social services, better use of public resources, and revitalization of community life. The publication is organized as a series of responses to questions about characteristics of centers, how the coordinated services work, shared space, governance, financing, planning, examples of existing centers, declining enrollments, assessing community needs, and how to get started in planning a community school center. (Author/MLF)