ABOUT NSBN: Mission
"If the state of California would make
it easier - nay, even mandatory - for school districts, libraries,
and parks and recreation departments to work together to build
new facilities in older communities, then one of the strongest
motives for urban sprawl would be reduced."
Charles Nathanson, Ph.D.
Executive Director, San Diego Dialogue
NSBN was formed both to advocate for a vision of public facilities,
most especially schools, as vital community centers, and to assist
families and neighborhoods in creating built models of community
centered learning centers. NSBN has emerged as California's
independent, neighborhood-led master planner, committed to reforming
existing approaches to siting and designing family resource centers,
public schools, parks, libraries & housing. NSBN has established key
relationships with state and local policymakers, educators,
regulatory agencies, business leaders, architects, planners, and
community-based organizations to define and promote a 21st century
vision for California's urban neighborhoods and school districts: New
schools should be centers of neighborhood vitality; likewise,
neighborhoods and communities should serve as healthy centers of
learning for families and children. NSBN is a project of Community
Partners, a 501(c)3 Calif. Public Benefit Corporation.
Goals of NSBN
- Create a strategy for including community dialogue in determining
the siting and design of public facilities - schools., parks, pre-K,
etc.
- Move from the outmoded "factory model" that has defined public
school buildings to a model of community-focused schools that anchor
increasingly diverse, family-centered neighborhoods.
- Understand how joint ventures between schools, family resource
centers, & other services (health, recreational, libraries) can
leverage scarce assets and help make schools the centers of
community.
- Promote changes in statutes, regulations, and/or decision-making
processes necessary to implement this vision.
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