One of the most rewarding and challenging parts of my life for the past couple of years has been as Chair of The Board of Trustees to the International Centre of Excellence for Community Schools (ICECS).
ICECS is a registered charity that has been around for ten years now. It has evolved over time and has addressed new areas of focus and concern as they have arisen and become more important. In the early days the focus was very much on School Standards, and Health and Education, more recently the focus has been on Enterprise, Community Resilience, and developing the intellectual capital of ICECS.
We have had a very strong track record over the last decade having made real policy impacts both nationally and internationally with successful programs in places such as Romania, the USA, and South Sudan
In South Sudan we have been working in areas with high levels of inter-communal violence, and we have supported the IBBA Girls Community School, a unique girls boarding school for 250 girls. It is the only school in South Sudan with 100% pass rate in national primary school certificate. ICECS has continued to offer support for the Minister of Education’s decision to replicate this model across the country.
In Romania, the Government has directed all Romanian Schools will become Community Schools. ICECS will continue to support overall development, in particular the leadership, parental education and social inclusion programs.
In the USA our global evidence base enabled us to support a bid to the Florida state legislature which resulted in the biggest increase in state funds for Community schools. Signing into law a bill that allocates $7.1m and additional resources to increase CPS from 15 to 27 in 2021
In other places our Girls Enterprise Programme pilot in Zimbabwe has now been adopted by NGO’s in six African Countries (Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe). Collaboration with local organisations has enabled ICECS to secure incremental funding for key programs, such as Joint Bids with IBBA Trust secured, with Children in Wilderness securing funding from The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for Girls Enterprise Work, CLAYYS secured 8250 euro to support Standards, £10k from British Foreign Schools Society to support the retention of Girls in Botswanan Community Schools , £50,000 over 5 years in partnership with Transformation Unlimited to improve teaching and learning in African Schools
Our Community School Standards and self-evaluation tools have already been tested in three continents, by over 100 NGO’s and across 1000 schools.
All of this has given ICECS considerable credibility as an impactful organisation in the field. So much has been done, and so much more work is underway.
Work is underway to produce and publish a definitive history of Community Schools . This unique body of work will outline the historical development of Community Schools in Europe, Africa and the USA . It will outline the propositions and policies that drove the development and examine the relevance to-day, of particular strands of thought – empowerment & participation, positive action & equality, community development & civil society.
ICECS now has over 5500 skilled and dedicated education experts in membership, creating thought leadership, collateral and thinking which we can build upon. Our objective is to deliver 3 new knowledge assets per annum, and to create our own communication network to facilitate global education advancement with quarterly outputs. Using our Partners network we can extend the existing leading edge standards to create additional framework tools and development assets
The Board of ICECS has a clear vision for ICECS. We want ICECS to be:
- The trusted source who move and inspire Community Schools with innovative ideas; who help turn ideas into reality, and who know and to support schools to replicate their success.
- A beacon for Community schools interested to improve standards. We will be prominent in providing, inspiration, support and encouragement particular in settings where quality frameworks are absent or weak.
- Synonymous with best practice. ICECS will focus on school and community Leadership, health and enterprise Partnerships and Community engagement and development. We will provide the latest evidence-based information and support you in implementing good practice.
- An advocate for empowerment through education, we will prioritise work with girls and young women not only on moral and ethical grounds but because we understand that educating girls is the key to tackling global poverty and improved prosperity
Our focus and activities will centre around the following guiding principles:
- Maintaining our GLOBAL position and impact as thought leaders through harnessing the reach and power of social media and adoption of new technologies
- Working in COLLABORATION with our partners to deliver more impactful outcomes
- Using our HERITAGE to drive empowerment and participation, action and community development
- ADOPTION of the DNA of a successful community school and evolution of best practice
ICECS is a tiny organisation that has been able to punch well above its weight for a number of years. The reality is that the environment in which we are working, driven in part by the impact of Covid19, has become increasingly difficult. Some programs have had to be delayed due to local conditions, finding the funds and other resources to support our work has also become much more challenging. To achieve our ambitious aims we will need partners to work with us, in the UK and abroad.
The work we have done in the past and plan to do in the future is so important. We have the structures, work programs, and culture in place to continuing making a real impact on community schooling and development. I hope partners and supporters will get in touch and work with us as we go forward into the new decade.
Chris Bain
Chris Bain 