Higher Ground A Resource Center

The Restart S.M.A.R.T. strategy, a local implementation of the community school model by Higher Ground, effectively organizes school and public resources to address specific community needs. By integrating trained staff within the school community, we provide a crucial link between community services and families facing opportunity gaps. Our collaborative approach, partnering with students, their families, and the wider community, promotes individualized success. Restart S.M.A.R.T. emphasizes evidence-based, strategic, mindful, agile, aware, resilient, and trauma-responsive decision-making in every interaction.In the year 2021-2022, we have expanded from 2 to 7 school sites across Tucson, with discussions for an 8th site in Chandler, Arizona. Our work is acknowledged as a full-fidelity implementation model of the community school strategy, with research partnerships demonstrating outcomes beyond mere attendance improvement and negative behavior reduction. In the 2021-2022 academic year, we engaged 2,083 students, collaborated with 124 groups, businesses, and organizations, worked with 300 families, and leveraged resources across our seven school communities.Our impact is evident through a 10% increase in school enrollment, a 6.11% reduction in chronic absenteeism, a 75% improvement in attendance among served students, and up to an 80% reduction in disciplinary incidents at our school sites.