Chapter 11: Important Qualities in a School–Community Partnership: Focus on Refugee and Immigrant Families

This chapter describes a partnership that encompasses the important qualities that promote a healthy and sustainable school—community partnership for new refugee and immigrant families in an inner city and the positive impact of such a partnership. This chapter will present the development and implementation of a positive working relationship among a school district, a community agency, and a university. The authors of this chapter respectively represent these three entities. The chapter will commence with a description of the locality for background understanding followed by the concerns of the three entities in the partnership. The program is described under important elements of their partnership, namely: a shared purpose, program champions, respect for organizational differences, cultural brokers, shared staff development, parental involvement, targeted goals and activities with specified responsibilities, and program evaluation of partnership activities. The chapter concludes with implications for successful partnerships.