Across the United States, communities are thinking differently about how to transform their schools and neighborhoods. There is tremendous excitement about strategies that weave together resources in a clearly defined "place" to collectively improve outcomes for children, youth, families, and communities. The paper explores the relationship between various place-based strategies and the potential associated with the alignment of these strategies operating within the same geographic areas. The paper demonstrates that community schools offer a powerful vision and strategy for what schools should look like within broader place based initiatives and how community schools can benefit from alignment with other efforts. [The paper was also co-published by PolicyLink and the West Coast Collaborative.]