For nearly four decades, Community In Schools have helped students stay in school, achieve and prepare for life, leading to higher graduation rates and improved life outcomes for young people.

The CIS model in Florida has played a key role in addressing the state’s dropout rate.

Among the 43,000 CIS students tracked in 2014-2015, 99 percent remained in school, 92 percent were promoted to the next grade and 91 percent graduated on time.

And that’s precisely the kind of success Pensacola’s first Community In Schools is looking to achieve.

Since January, C.A. Weis Community School has become a catalyst for change at a school and in a community in need of a model of service and intervention programs.

At its best, the community school model puts a premium on mental and physical health, growth and learning, community engagement and safety.

The model places site coordinators inside schools to assess students’ needs and provide resources to help them succeed in the classroom and life.

Leigh Ann South, director of Weis Community School, said an ongoing needs assessment from families and residents in the surrounding community will determine what services will be offered at the school.

“Through the community assessment, one of the first things that came back was health, so we’re addressing the health component first,” South said. “We’ll be looking at other things, like after school services, in the fall and began rolling them out.”

A health clinic under construction on campus is scheduled to open this month. A doctor and a medical assistant will be provided by Escambia Community Clinics to treat students and provide well-care services.

Already in place is a behavioral center that provides a place for students to seek counseling, talk about problems they face at school or at home or to release stress though anger management sessions. The school’s primary sponsor, Children’s Home Society, provide an on-site counselor at Weis three days a week for students to see as needed.

South said the school is taking applications for a health services coordinator to run the medical and mental health clinics.

As the primary context in which children live and learn, community schools are prime settings for increasing access to mental and health care through screening and intervention.

A key component to the Community School’s success, South says, is getting input from residents and families to find out what they need, instead of offering what someone thinks they want.

Last month Weis put the finishing touches on a community playground. There was no place for children to play unless they crossed a four-lane highway, South said. So, community members suggested that a playground on the school grounds that would be open and available for anyone in the community. Escambia Community Clinics and the Children’s Home Society, the school’s primary sponsor, both gave up $106,000 in grants from Impact 100 to pay for the playground project.

It is this kind of input that will determine the needs and drive the success of Weis Community School.

The story of Communities In Schools began in the 1970s, when founder Bill Milliken, then a youth advocate in New York City, came up with the idea of bringing community resources inside public schools —where they are accessible, coordinated and accountable.

“It’s relationships, not programs, that change children,” Milliken said on the Community In Schools webpage. “A great program simply creates the environment for healthy relationships to form between adults and children. Young people thrive when adults care about them on a one-to-one level, and when they also have a sense of belonging to a caring community.”

Since community schools took root in New York City, they have made great strides to remove barriers — from poverty to a lack of healthcare — that can interfere with a child’s achievement in school.

The model has caught hold in districts across the country, including Orange County, where Evans High School became Florida’s first community school.

In Pensacola, members of the village who will be partners in the community school strategy so far include Children’s Home Society, the University of West Florida, Sacred Heart Hospital, Escambia Community Clinics and Escambia County School District Title I representatives.

It is estimated to cost between $300,000 to $500,000 a year to operate the Community School.

Weis Elementary School on the west side of Pensacola on Q Street, and the neighborhood surrounding it between W Street and Pace Boulevard, is teeming for the benefits a community school can bring.

In the school’s ZIP code — 32505 — the median income of the nearly 29,000 residents is $28,489. The Pensacola average is $39,734, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

All of the of nearly 500 pupils qualify for free- and reduced-price meals.

In 2014, Weis ranked worse than more than 97 percent of elementary schools in Florida and ranked 30th among 33 elementary schools in the district.

Only 14 percent of third-graders last year showed proficiency in math, and 14 percent in reading.

By making schools like Weis the hubs of their communities and engaging a range of partners with expertise and resources, community schools have shown to support students’ needs and boost their learning.

Mariah Marshall became immersed in Weis Community School as part of her master’s degree internship in social work at the University of West Florida.

Social work is a perfect match in providing services at a community school, Marshall believes.

“Social work here especially is a catalyst for helping families build an established set of resources,” Marshall said. “There are awesome agencies being implemented, but a social worker would come in to work between the people who need those resources and the people offering those resources.”