A school-community-university partnership linking the Cluster Five Boston Public Elementary Schools, the YMCA and other community partners, and Boston College to coordinate resources to serve over 3,200 school children and families

Boston Connects recognizes that academic success in urban schools requires integrated and comprehensive student and family support to address needs from outside the classroom in order to improve educational outcomes. In response, this experimental model links the efforts and leverages the resources of its broad-based partners in a coordinated plan to deliver support and enrichment services to students both in school and in community. The initiative focuses on elementary schools within Cluster 5 of the Boston Public Schools system. Boston Connects serves more than 3,200 elementary school children annually, most of whom face considerable poverty and significant barriers to learning.

This initiative builds upon the success of the Gardner Extended Services School in Allston, where the partners have successfully applied the Children's Aid Society community school model — providing integrated support services to children and families — since 1997. With Boston Connects the same proven collaboration now takes the model to scale across multiple schools in a coordinated manner, thereby benefiting a much larger group of children in ten elementary schools in Allston-Brighton and Mission Hill-Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston. This systemic model serves as a blueprint for meeting the comprehensive needs of students across Boston and in other urban school systems.

Based on the premise of a direct relationship between the effects of poverty and the likelihood of poor academic performance and behavioral problems, Boston Connects posits that addressing children's broader context and service needs will support students' in-school learning. By providing sustainable, coordinated and integrated educational supports — from after-school tutors to museum visits, health education to family counseling, nutritional meals to family legal services — Boston Connects creates a school-based “connection” for students to improve their academic performance while linking them with community resources that encourage health, well being, and appropriate social behaviors.

The Charles Hayden Foundation provides lead funding to implement the $3.1 million initiative over its first three years. The partnership has received local and regional corporate and foundation support to achieve full implementation. The New Balance Foundation supports and evaluates the health education component that is focusing initially on nutrition, physical activity and fitness, disease prevention, and healthy relationships. A local foundation funds the comprehensive evaluation of Boston Connects.