City Connects

An evidence-based approach to addressing the out-of-school factors that can impact student success.

All children deserve a chance to learn, but many face obstacles too steep for them to climb alone. City Connects builds a network of support for students, their families, and the schools that serve them, improving outcomes now — and for years to come.

City Connects at Boston College

What is City Connects?

In 2026, LaunchNW launched City Connects at Greenacres Elementary School, hiring a Site Coordinator to connect students and families with school and community resources. LaunchNW also added a Student and Family Support Specialist at Catholic Charities-Pope Francis Haven to support families, including some with children attending Greenacres, by addressing barriers to student success and promoting long-term stability.

City Connects takes a systemic, high-impact, cost-effective approach to addressing the out-of-school factors that limit learning, including:

Working with every teacher, every year, to review the strengths and needs of every child in the school
Creating, for every student in a school, an individualized support plan
Delivering the right resources to the right child at the right time, over time
Leading to positive outcomes for students and schools

City Connects Outcomes

City Connects increases a student’s chance for success, while they are in a City Connects school and throughout their lives. Since beginning at Boston College in the 1990s, the program’s successful model has been adopted by more than 300 public, charter, and private schools across the U.S., and Dublin, Ireland.

The program has produced long-term, positive impacts for supported students at participating schools:

Effort: Significantly higher scores on academic effort
Attendance: Significantly fewer days absent from school
Chronic absenteeism: Significantly lower rates of being absent
Retention in grade: Lower rates of retention (being held back in grade) than peers never in City Connects
High school dropout: Significantly lower rates of dropout than peers never in City Connects
Postsecondary enrollment: Significantly more likely to enter and complete 2- or 4-year postsecondary programs