Nonprofit Communities and Schools of Hampton Roads asks Portsmouth to consider matching $200,000 school funding

Ann Wilbur, development director for Communities and Schools of Hampton Roads, and Dr. Hope Sinclair, the affiliate’s executive director, asked Portsmouth city leaders to consider a municipal contribution to sustain and expand the program’s school-based site coordinator model.

Wilbur described the nonprofit as the local affiliate of Communities In Schools, explaining site coordinators provide integrated student supports—individualized case management plus whole-school programs designed to reduce barriers caused by poverty. She cited local indicators of need: United Way data showing 11.62% of Portsmouth families with children live below the poverty level and the affiliate’s own Portsmouth poverty-study finding that one in three children lives in families below the poverty line.

For the city, the presenters said Communities and Schools is in eight Portsmouth schools (Manor High, Norcom High, Craddock Middle, Waters Middle, Craddock Elementary, Douglas Park Elementary, Simonsdale Elementary, Victory Elementary). In 2023–24 (affiliate data) their Portsmouth work touched 5,076 students via whole-school supports; 559 students received individualized case-management supports and these students together received 4,199 discrete supports. City-specific outcomes cited in the presentation included: 71% of case-managed students improved attendance, 56% improved behavior, 68% improved course performance, 95% of K–11 case-managed students were promoted, and 100% of case-managed seniors in Portsmouth graduated on time.

Wilbur outlined the affiliate budget: last year’s affiliate budget was $2,800,000 and this year’s is $3,050,000; per-school operating cost reported as $78,100. The affiliate said it invests about $624,800 annually into the eight Portsmouth schools and that Portsmouth Public Schools provides $200,000 for the current year. Wilbur asked the city to consider contributing to sustain and expand programming and noted that many external funders have facilitated growth in past years (examples noted in the presentation included AbbVie, Hampton Roads Community Foundation, Truist, Virginia Department of Education Community Schools Fund, United Way, Port of Virginia, Portsmouth Service League).

Council members asked clarifying questions. Councilman Hugo asked what “whole-school supports” means; Wilbur said those initiatives are tier-1 activities that reach at least 75% of a school’s population (back-to-school events, financial-literacy programs, partner-led services). Wilbur said one site coordinator can case-manage roughly 63 students and that the program “turns no one away” for basic supports, although intensive one-on-one case management is limited by staffing capacity. She said Communities and Schools has limited direct federal funding and that some one-time federal dollars (in 2023–24) were not renewed.

Wilbur and Sinclair supplied citations of external research the affiliate uses to support the model’s long-term benefit, including an affiliate-cited national return-on-investment figure that for every $1 invested the program generates $11.60 in community benefits over time, and a newer Harvard-linked finding cited by the national office that four years of exposure was associated with higher lifetime earnings and additional tax contributions. The presenters requested the council consider a city contribution (Wilbur said Portsmouth Public Schools contributes $200,000 and “we would ask the city to consider matching that amount,” but noted the affiliate would accept other amounts).