Community Partners for Student Success (COMPASS) Overview...

United Way's Community Building Partnerships serve to convene "community tables" for problem-solving and to activate multiple partners to demonstrate comprehensive model strategies, focus on long-term systemic change, and expand public will and resources to change headlines.

In 2005, the United Way launched Community Partners for Student Success (COMPASS) as an ambitious two-county collaborative with a vision to identify, strengthen, and promote community-connected schools so that all Lehigh Valley students succeed and graduate from high school ready to lead meaningful and productive lives. At the center of a national "movement" to improve academic achievement by removing all barriers to learning, Community Schools are designed to transform schools into the hub of their neighborhood by organizing a wide array of programs and services in the school so that students and families can get their needs met in one place.

United Way's commitment to volunteer-driven endeavors means that all Community-building partnerships receive the active commitment of a diverse mix of community partners. United Way's Community School movement receives oversight, support, and vision from a volunteer body called the COMPASS Council. These volunteers bring representation from corporate, higher education, government, and community partners, and parents, and are committed to ensuring the broad-based support COMPASS needs to fulfill its mission.