Moving Forward Flourishing Series: Community Engagement with Joel Gaines

ACSI: Moving Forward with Lynn Swaner

Today’s podcast features Joel Gaines, Head of School at The City School in Philadelphia. Joel talks with Lynn Swaner about the Flourishing Schools construct of Community Engagement, where “the school engages with the surrounding community and local churches, and regularly taps into community resources, including networking and resource- sharing with other schools.” Joel shares insights on how schools can be a light and a bringer of shalom to their communities and neighborhoods.

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Additional Resources

To go further in learning about this construct, check out these resources:

• The books Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators, and Schools and MindShift: Catalyzing Change in Christian Education both feature The City School and the team’s work there as a case study.
• Blog post Marked Urgent: Unity within Diversity in our Christian Schools by Joel Gaines

To learn more about Flourishing Schools Research, check out the Flourishing Together book by Lynn Swaner and Andy Wolfe (Eerdmans 2021) and this video overview of the research. You can also find out about the related institute for leaders and instrument for schools here.