CommunityShare: Bridging Classrooms and Communities Through Real-World Learning

Since its founding in 2015, CommunityShare has been transforming education by connecting educators and students with community members to create hands-on, real-world learning experiences. What started in Tucson, AZ, has grown into a national movement – equipping over 85,000 students with the skills and connections they need to succeed in school, life, and work, including critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and civic-mindedness. CommunityShare has been featured in publications ranging from Forbes to the Christian Science Monitor to the George Lucas Education Foundation’s Edutopia publication.

Real-world learning experiences are powerful opportunities for students to explore their interests; build critical problem-solving, collaboration, and critical thinking skills; and gain exposure to possible college and career paths. Research shows that students learn more when they apply learning to relevant, real-world situations.

At its core, CommunityShare exists to answer a powerful question: What if every learner had access to the expertise, wisdom, and experiences of their community?

A Holistic Approach to Educational Engagement

CommunityShare’s impact is built around three key strategies:

1. Professional Learning for Educators
   Teachers participate in fellowships and workshops to learn how to co-design meaningful, real-world learning projects with students and community partners.
2. CommunityShare’s Digital Platform – The “Human Library”
   Through CommunityShare’s digital matching platform, individuals create profiles highlighting their expertise, hobbies, and lived experiences, and are matched to educators and projects looking for partners with those experiences. Educators can also search the platform for professionals, artists, scientists, and others to collaborate on projects tailored to students’ interests and curriculum needs.
3. Capacity Building with Regional Partners
   CommunityShare works with school districts, nonprofit organizations, and educational networks to build strategies and infrastructure that embed community-engaged learning into the fabric of education systems.

This tripod of support, professional development, digital connection, and systemic capacity building ensures a sustainable and scalable model for educational transformation.

Real Stories, Real Impact

The magic of CommunityShare is best seen through its stories. In Tucson’s Sunnyside Unified School District, teacher Mercedes Pemberton-Negrete was searching for ways to engage her students and build the literacy skills many of her students were struggling with. Looking for support, she shared her project with CommunityShare and was connected to Navajo author Daniel Vandever, who shared his book Herizon, captivating students who could see themselves reflected in the story. Students were engaged in reading, retelling stories, and writing their own stories. The students also worked with local Fox Theater’s Outreach Director, Jordan Wiley-Hill, a professional storyteller, exposing them to diverse forms of storytelling and storytellers. The impact for her students was transformative, as Pemberton-Negrete shared, “Students were very motivated with the CommunityShare project in ways that extended to all reading activities and academic achievement. At the start of the school year, 12% of my students were performing above grade level, but by the end, 94% were performing above grade level.”

In another series of projects, middle school teacher Jackie Nichols shared, “Many of my students’ families don’t have scientists, researchers, or engineers in them – yet. One of my goals has been to shift that picture.” Through CommunityShare, Nichols has connected with several partners to co-create STEM projects that challenge students to design cities of the future. The project has given students the opportunity to collaborate with landscape architects, engineers, artists, and more.

In a project focused on designing cities on the moon, astronaut and Senator Mark Kelly joined to hear about students’ projects and provide feedback directly. Most recently, through CommunityShare, Nichols connected with Dr. Adriana Zuniga-Teran, assistant professor at the University of Arizona, and launched a year-long multigenerational mentoring project with two fellow educators. In this multi-tiered mentoring project, university faculty and graduate students mentored high schools who then mentored 80 middle school students to use geospatial technology to map access to parks and green infrastructure in southside neighborhoods compared to more affluent areas. Students then presented their findings to local leaders and even received awards at the state level. The impact of the project was highlighted in the Journal of STEM Outreach.

For students in Title I districts, these experiences are more than just fun; they’re life-changing. Two of her students, once unfamiliar with engineering, have received full-ride scholarships to Arizona State University to study engineering. One student, Lexana, said, “I used to think that engineering, science, and research were for smart people. Then I discovered ‘I’m smart people’.”

The Power of Partnership: Support from the Ellis Center for Educational Excellence

CommunityShare’s growth has been made possible in part through generous support from the Ellis Center for Educational Excellence, whose mission aligns perfectly with CommunityShare’s goals. The Center’s backing, through the John and Delys Ellis Fund, is dedicated to funding innovative education initiatives.

Lorenzo Chavez, Executive Director, Education & Scholarships, serves as the Arizona Community Foundation representative on the Ellis Center board. Thanks to this partnership, CommunityShare has been able to:

• Connect 35,000+ students in Arizona to real-world learning experiences and community mentors
• Expand its digital platform to support national usage
• Scale its teacher fellowship program with plans for further growth
• Build a data dashboard to track partnerships and inform strategic growth
• Support work in Pima County and Flagstaff and explore expansion in Cochise, Yavapai, Pinal, Maricopa, Navajo, and Coconino counties

What’s Next for CommunityShare?

As of today, CommunityShare operates in 11 states, including Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Tennessee, and Massachusetts. But the goal is much bigger–to develop a statewide “human library” in Arizona, and beyond, so that every educator and student has access to community assets that enrich learning.

To make this vision a reality, CommunityShare continues to seek:

• Funding to grow its capacity to serve more districts, schools, educators, and students
• Seed grants for educators to implement community-engaged projects
• Corporate and individual partners willing to share their expertise with students, especially in rural and underserved areas

From the classroom to the boardroom, from STEM labs to art studios, CommunityShare invites everyone to play a part in shaping the future of education.