To surround students with a community of support, encouraging them to stay in school and achieve in life. What We Do Locally, Communities In Schools of Hampton Roads serves Portsmouth, Norfolk, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and Hampton City Public Schools. We have been working in the elementary, middle, and high schools since November, 2012. Benefits to each district include better coordination of non-academic services for our schools, common accountability measures for current partners, long-term reduction in drop-out rates, and a change in the culture of our partnering schools. Poverty continues to be the nation’s leading non-academic factor in the dropout crisis. Students in the cities served by Communities In Schools of Hampton Roads continue to live below the poverty line and struggle with basic needs including health care and nutrition. Communities in Schools of Hampton Roads helps to address these basic needs as well as academic assistance, family engagement, life skills, behavioral interventions, and college and career preparation. We coordinate at risk students with the resources that they need to succeed by providing true wrap-around services. With the understanding that one of the main reasons kids do not do well in school is because there is something else going on in their lives that is preventing them from learning, Communities In Schools brokers outside services and brings them to the schools to meet the student’s needs. This has resulted in impressive increases in their attendance, behavior, and academics.