ABOUT NSBN: Mission

"If the state of California would make it easier - nay, even mandatory - for school districts, libraries, and parks and recreation departments to work together to build new facilities in older communities, then one of the strongest motives for urban sprawl would be reduced."

Charles Nathanson, Ph.D.
Executive Director, San Diego Dialogue

NSBN was formed both to advocate for a vision of public facilities, most especially schools, as vital community centers, and to assist families and neighborhoods in creating built models of community centered learning centers. NSBN has emerged as California's independent, neighborhood-led master planner, committed to reforming existing approaches to siting and designing family resource centers, public schools, parks, libraries & housing. NSBN has established key relationships with state and local policymakers, educators, regulatory agencies, business leaders, architects, planners, and community-based organizations to define and promote a 21st century vision for California's urban neighborhoods and school districts: New schools should be centers of neighborhood vitality; likewise, neighborhoods and communities should serve as healthy centers of learning for families and children. NSBN is a project of Community Partners, a 501(c)3 Calif. Public Benefit Corporation.

Goals of NSBN

• Create a strategy for including community dialogue in determining the siting and design of public facilities - schools., parks, pre-K, etc.
• Move from the outmoded "factory model" that has defined public school buildings to a model of community-focused schools that anchor increasingly diverse, family-centered neighborhoods.
• Understand how joint ventures between schools, family resource centers, & other services (health, recreational, libraries) can leverage scarce assets and help make schools the centers of community.
• Promote changes in statutes, regulations, and/or decision-making processes necessary to implement this vision.