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The underlying purpose of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model is to establish greater alignment, integration, and collaboration between health and education across the school setting to improve each child's cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development. This means aligning and integrating not just policies, but processes and practices that serve each child.

Start the WSCC implementation process by considering the following key questions:

• Is your school leadership ready?
• Is your school ready?
• Is your community ready?
• Does your school and community have the capacity to use the model?
• Where do I start?

Is your school leadership ready?

If your school has an active school improvement or school health team or a school health council, then you are close to being ready. The next step is to ensure that these teams understand the benefits for teaching and learning that come out of a connected, healthy, and supportive school environment. These benefits can be educational, physical, and financial. Taking the time to get yourself and your leadership teams organized could be the most important step you take.

What You Can Do

• Convene a meeting with these teams.
• Outline the rationale behind the WSCC model.
  • Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child: A Collaborative Approach to Learning and Health (PDF)
• Provide evidence for alignment.
  • Making the Case for Educating the Whole Child (PDF)
  • Healthier Students Are Better Learners: A Missing Link in School Reforms to Close the Achievement Gap(PDF)
  • Health and Academic Achievement (PDF)
• Develop an initial steering committee with school-based personnel from both current school improvement and school health teams. This is the first step in integrating these two groups and sectors.

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Is your school ready?

Getting the support and buy-in of the school leadership is key, but the next step is to make sure that the school staff is also aware of the rationale and approach. All stakeholders in the school community need to be aware of the model and expected outcomes.

What You Can Do

• Have the steering committee host a staff meeting to outline the rationale and ask for input. Staff voice is one of the keys to success.
• Have the steering committee and school leadership hold informational meetings with other school-based groups and committees.

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Is your community ready?

If you already have strong school–community partnerships, your school can build on these relationships and connections. The school is a reflection of its community and should strive to be the hub of activity and learning; engaging with the community creates partnerships, key allies, diverse resources, and a common goal.

What You Can Do

• Develop list of key community members to invite in for a discussion.
• Host a meeting and present the rationale and evidence for alignment.
• Invite community and local agency members to join the steering committee.

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Does your school and community have the capacity to use the model?

Too many initiatives and reworkings of processes fail because sites do not spend the time to ensure they have the capacity to make the change. In these situations, the actions become the responsibility of one person or one part of the school community. The steering committee must identify the allies and recruit the volunteers needed for sustainable change. Try to include community volunteers with expertise in a given area, for example it would be advantageous to engage the support and involvement of a local public health officer, pediatrician, or pediatric nurse practitioner.

What You Can Do

• Host a school–community meeting to discuss the model and rationale.
  • ASCD Whole Child Community Conversations (PDF)
• Use the meeting to raise awareness and get buy-in.

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Where do I start?

Once the steering committee is in place, then it's time to get a better understanding of where your school and community are with regard to the model and the alignment of learning and health. This can most easily be done by a simple needs assessment.

What You Can Do

• Take the free ASCD School Improvement Tool needs assessment survey.
• Compare results with other tools used to assess progress across the components of coordinated school health.
• Decide where the strengths and gaps are. As a team, identify areas of potential alignment, integration, and coordination across the tenets of a whole child approach and the components of school improvement and school health.
  • Whole Child Tenets, Indicators, and Components (PDF)

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