[Ailist] Re: school planning

[JSevolve@aol.com]

Sounds like fun! Aside from adapting AI which is always useful to any process 
of this kind, there are great resources available. I suggest that you look at 
Together We Can, a planning process developed by a consortium and distributed 
by the Institute for Educational Leadership (iel.org) and a staff person 
their named Marty Blank (blankm@iel.org), who also staffs the Coalition for 
Community Schools. There is also great material recently published by the 
Annie E.asey Foundation, which may also help with funding (don't quote me!) - 
aecf.org homepage or FrankF@aecf.org. Finally there is a great community 
planning workbook by John McKnight called "Making Communities Work: From the 
Inside Out" or something like that (it's not quite right - I'm on vacation 
away from my bookshelf!) that is very useful and compatible with AI. In 
general the family support movement, which has been touting asset-based 
assessment and service design for decdes, is very compatible with any AI 
approach to planning. You should look at the materials published by Family 
Support America at FSA.org.

I am also going to work for a national organization shortly to help them 
develop TA and training for states and locals to do community/school 
partnership planning. I will keep you informed. We will be starting in their 
8 focus states, so if you tell me where you are located that would help.

I would be glad to continue the dialogue off-list, but wanted to share these 
resources with everyone first.

Good luck!

Jessica Strauss
410-466-1792