Community Involvement

At the beginning of this school year, I applied for a position to mentor a student from a school in Chicago.  The program CONNECT is designed to target 7th/8th grade students who have the potential and want to learn about and attend college, but may not know about how to get there.  We traveled to Chicago and met with the students, it started with just sitting and talking about our families and what we like to do in our spare time.  Then each week we skype with students for 20 minutes and throughout that time we develop a deeper connection.  I watched others connect with their mentee and learn so much, while mine was so shy and I felt like I was not good enough, realizing she will only open up if I do.  Slowly we connected and built a great relationship. As she applied for high school, and she needed advice on what to do for her applications and she is worried about making bad choices in high school.  I told her that she has family and friends to help her make good choices, and that she is smart, and that started our bonding.  Ronnie Mackin states "The hard thing is building a place that engages the community and gets parents truly involved.  This work involves many complex systems that must work together in unison.  You have to hire talented and mission-driven staff who believe in the limitless potential of every kid".  I would completely agree with this, but would like to know how to get parents and the community involved.  What are ways to get them involved in the school and the students involved in the community?
This week we had our last visit to see the students, and we have been working up to our community involvement activity.  We talked with students, community, and teachers and decided that on our last trip we would bring Physical Education equipment for the students in the school as well as doing a few learn about bullying activities.  We got active with physical education equipment, and then spent time discussing how bullying, gang violence, etc. has effected everyone.  We completed a truth circle, labeling activity, and then created a wall mural.  The mural had quotes, sayings, and words to represent anti-bullying. What are things that you have done to discuss anti-bullying in your classroom or school?