PTA members can participate in community-based efforts that are aimed at addressing ongoing conditions that affect the health and education of children and youth. As a result of community-based collaboration, likelihood increases that our young people will become independent and productive citizens who are able to meet their own needs. The needs of children, youth, and families can vary dramatically from community to community, and the definition of community itself should not be bound by geography or politics. Similarly, communities have different strengths and resources for meeting their needs. Services and support programs, therefore, serve clients best when they are locally planned, operated, and evaluated with broad public and private community involvement.
Communities can choose to provide services in schools or in community centers outside of the school.
Those services should be available and accessible to all in a variety of settings. The table below provides a sample of service providers PTAs can include in the planning process. Integrated Services should be developed, implemented, and evaluated by individual communities. Community needs and attitudes vary, and no single model is suggested. For more than one hundred years, community agencies have been bringing services into schools to augment whatever the educational system could provide to maintain health standards within the school.