Steward Stories: CommunityShare Proves That the Community Is the Curriculum

By: Karen Pittman and Merita Irby

Our “Steward Stories” series captures lessons learned from interviews with leaders of mature, purpose-built ecosystem intermediaries. An ecosystem steward is a boundary-spanning leader who goes beyond traditional out-of-school time (OST) system building to weave together the diverse people, places, and possibilities that shape a young person’s daily life. Rather than managing a single isolated network, stewards collaborate across K-12 schools, youth development programs, and workforce systems to build vibrant, equitable learning ecosystems. They drive systemic change from practice to policy by creating purpose-built intermediaries, developing scalable cross-system training tools, and championing “Future Features” of learning. These core priorities include promoting learner agency, institutionalizing “unwalled” schools that connect community resources to formal education, broadening the definition of educators to include informal mentors, and normalizing pathways for students to receive school credit or credentials for out-of-school learning.

 The starting points, paths, and targets set by these stewards are as varied as the conditions and opportunities present within their communities. But they share similarities in vision and approach. Learn More Here.

Founded in 2015 in Tucson, Arizona, CommunityShare is a nimble nonprofit organization that connects students and educators to the skills, knowledge, and lived experiences of people in their own communities by asking everyone to imagine their community as a “human library.” CommunityShare optimizes connections between people, places, and possibilities throughout the learning ecosystem that make learning more relevant, relational, and rooted in place, addressing all four of the Future Features.

Developed by teachers for teachers, CommunityShare was built to address findings from their field research: educators who understand the value of real-world learning for their students find community engagement daunting for three reasons: time, trust, and training.

CommunityShare has developed and continues to improve an innovative Online Platform that serves as a one-stop “human library” to quickly match educators with community members who bring specific expertise and life experiences to contribute to real-world projects. And they have responded to suggestions and start-up challenges with a range of Capacity-Building Services that include personalized coaching and professional learning opportunities for educators and community stewards based on decades of experience supporting organizations as they weave together their unique community assets to support real-world learning.

To date, CommunityShare has connected more than 85,000 students and their educators with community partners to co-create meaningful, real-world learning experiences across 12 states — with more in the wings.

Their model is delivering measurable impact against traditional measures of student readiness:

• 98% of educators reported an increase in student engagement and social emotional skills
• 96% of students developed critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration skills
• 87% of students showed increased career and college readiness

Equally important, they have demonstrated the power of connections. In Pima County, Arizona, where the work began, CommunityShare’s thriving regional ecosystem has connected 23,000 learners with community partners and real-world learning experiences since its inception. In the 2024-2025 school year alone, over 7,000 learners were connected to community partners. Educators at 316 schools/learning sites were signed up on the CommunityShare platform, as well as 408 individual community partners representing nearly 600 organizations.

These top notes provide an introduction to what CommunityShare does. But the takeaway lessons to be learned are found in the stories of how it began, how it evolved and how it has increased the confidence, competence and connections of the youth and adults in the human library, starting with the following narrative timeline.

Tackling Real World Challenges with Real World Experts

At Billy L. Lauffer Middle School in Tucson, teacher Jackie Nichols wanted her students to see themselves in STEM fields. “95% of my students are members of the BIPOC community. I teach in a Title I district. Many of my students’ families don’t have scientists, researchers, or engineers in them – yet – but one of my goals has been to shift that picture,” shared Nichols.

Through CommunityShare, she connected with engineers, landscape architects, artists, and even Senator Mark Kelly to help students design “cities of the future.” In a later project, she partnered with University of Arizona researcher Dr. Adriana Zuniga-Teran, to lead a multigenerational mentoring project where university faculty and graduate students mentored high schoolers, who in turn mentored middle schoolers to use geospatial technology to map access to parks and green spaces.

By the end of the program, over 80% of participants reported feeling confident about pursuing higher education. According to Lexana, a former student of Nichols and participant in CommunityShare projects: “I used to think that engineering, science, and research were for smart people. Then I discovered that I’m ‘smart people.'” Lexana is now on a full scholarship studying engineering at Arizona State University.

Learn more about the project in Mapping a Path to Equity published by Getting Smart.

Josh Schachter — Local Ecosystem Steward and Storyteller

Long before CommunityShare, founder Josh Schachter was exploring ecosystems. Trained in ecosystem management and social ecology, Josh learned early that living systems depend on relationships, adaptation and resilience.

As a young field researcher studying lemur behavior, he saw how small disruptions in one part of an ecosystem could ripple through the whole. But he also understood the ecological values of interdependence, reciprocity, and the collective well-being of the whole.

Later, as an educator, he noticed similar patterns in schools: connections between students, teachers, and communities that thrived with nurturing but easily broke down when shifts occurred. This observation grew into a passion that became CommunityShare, an organization that now supports a network of regional learning ecosystem stewards.

CommunityShare Timeline

Forging Connections

2006 — Josh and Julie Kasper, an ELL instructor, invite students to explore the “Meaning of Home” through writing and photos, which reveal isolation and disconnection from community. They ask students to design community projects based on their life experiences and interests. Over eight years, students connect with nearly 100 community partners that support dozens of student-designed projects. But Josh is the main connector. When Josh leaves the high school, the partner connections soon disappear.

Strengthening Connections

2012 — Seeking a more permanent and more democratic way to connect students and educators with the people in the community, Josh gathers a small circle of artists, educators, graduate students, technology thinkers and others to brainstorm ideas for creating “a human library.”

2012-13 — Are spent conducting hands-on workshops, listening sessions and surveys with over 7,000 educators and community members to identify challenges and opportunities. The group works to develop solutions to address them.

2013 — CommunityShare pilots its match-making concept of connecting educators and community members with a low-tech Google Doc in a single school. In the same year, an Educator Advisory Council is created with a small group of educators to inform direction of CommunityShare.

Sustaining Connections

2014 — A beta version of the unique two-way digital platform is built that makes it easy for educators and community members to find each other based on interests, learning goals and project ideas. The platform became known as “match.com for learning.” Uptake continues to grow organically, especially in two Tucson champion districts. CommunityShare decides not to pursue top-down expansion after a district’s decision to implement CommunityShare in 4 schools in 2014 had mixed results — reinforcing the need for a ground up approach and greater clarity of what needs to be in place at the school level. The renamed Educator Action Council evolves into a formal community of practice called a fellowship — led by and providing grants to educators.

2015 — CommunityShare is founded and operated as a fiscally sponsored project under CITY Center for Collaborative Learning.

Scaling Connections

2020 — CommunityShare adds a third pillar to the model, developing an ecosystem stewardship toolkit and professional learning to enable the work to grow to multiple places across the country. CommunityShare is invited to expand outside of Tucson and launches in Las Cruces, NM with a local nonprofit. CommunityShare and the local nonprofit learn together how to grow the work outside of Tucson.

2021 — Educators participating in the fellowship decide to lead, launch and facilitate CommunityShare Educator fellowships in partnership with their district education foundations.

2022 — CommunityShare launches a national fellowship so educators can develop their practice in community-engaged learning.

2023 — CommunityShare transfers stewardship of the Tucson work to the Pima County School Superintendent’s Office to increase local ownership and sustainability. CommunityShare begins operating as its own nonprofit.

2026 — CommunityShare scales to work with communities across 12 states.

Karen Pittman and Merita Irby are co-founders of Knowledge to Power Catalysts and managing partners of the Alliance for Youth Thriving. This post draws from Learning Ecosystem Intermediaries: Cultivating Connections Across Systems & Ecosystems to Help Youth Thrive*, co-authored with Merita Irby and commissioned by Remake Learning (January 2026).*