First 10 School-Community Partnerships in Action: Maine’s Distinctive Approach to Community Schools

Moderated by Liletta Jenkins with the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education, this session explored the First 10 model in Maine, starting with how state leaders crafted their approach and including district and school leaders in Sanford, Maine, who talked about the exciting strategies they are using to implement First 10 in their community.

David Jacobson, Ph.D., of Education Development Center (EDC) kicked off the session with an overview of the First 10 framework, which is used to bridge silos in a community by collaborating to improve teaching and learning, coordinating comprehensive services, and partnering with families. As Jacobson put it, the idea is that “we are all interdependent and through our collaboration we get better at what we do.” He went on to discuss the First 10 Community School Hub model and shared some of their evaluation study findings.

Lee Anne Larsen of the Maine Department of Education joined the conversation to talk specifically about the First 10 work in Maine. Based in their key goal that young learners are healthy, engaged and successful learners, they were able to leverage a preschool development grant to help ensure that they carefully connected comprehensive services for a “whole child, whole family approach.” Sue Gallant, also with the Maine Department of Education, spoke about ways communities throughout the state are using the First 10 framework to strengthen partnerships, resulting in joint professional learning and creative opportunities for community organizations to support the goals of school districts.

Sanford School District staff, Steve Bussiere, Susan Inman, Ph.D., and Shana Palmer, brought the district- and school-level perspectives to the conversation, giving specific examples of how partnerships have been strengthened, relationships with parents continue to be enhanced, and creative programming is supporting children’s learning both in and out of school. Palmer talked about ways they support and connect with families through their Play & Learn series and bus stop pop-up events.

The conversation wrapped up with panelists addressing challenges they’ve faced and advice they’d give to others seeking to do similar work. Bussiere summarized by emphasizing the importance of “being tenacious….Collaboration with community providers is challenging sometimes with schedules and turnover, but you’ve got to keep at it. If we had stopped every time we hit a roadblock or something didn’t work out, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”

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