City Year
Program Spotlight: City Year
By
Natalya Twohill, ICP
Intern
City
Year unites
young people of all backgrounds for a year of
full-time service, giving them
the skills and opportunities to change the
world. As tutors, mentors, and
role models, these idealistic leaders make a
difference in the lives of
children, and transform schools and
neighborhoods in 17 U.S. locations and
Johannesburg, South Africa. Just as
importantly, during their year of
service corps members develop civic leadership
skills they can use throughout a
lifetime of community
service.
Twenty
years ago,
City Year was founded by Michael Brown and
Alan Khazei, then-roommates at
Harvard Law School, on the belief that young
people can change the world. By
giving corps members the skills and
opportunities to serve in schools and
neighborhoods across the country, City Year
seeks to, help children succeed,
build stronger communities, break down social
barriers, develop young leaders
and foster active
citizenship.
At
City Year,
idealism is defined as "the belief that you
can change the world, and the
passion, skills, and courage to do it."
Everything done at City Year is
grounded in this concept and the idea that
each of us can make a difference. At
City Year's locations across the United States
and in South Africa, young
people – called "corps members" – serve
full time for 10 months. These young
leaders put their idealism to work for the
children and communities they serve
in the programs. There are three main types of
programs run by City Group:
1)
School-Based
Service, where corps members are based in
local schools as mentors, tutors and
leaders in after school programs;
2)
Youth
Leadership Program,
where corps members share their belief in
service and aid in instilling within
program participants their own ability to
create the change they want to see in
this world;
3)
Community
Transformation,
where corps members aid in transforming their
site communities through physical
service, such as beautifying public spaces
through litter clean-up and public
art creation.
Since
1988, City
Year's more than 10,400 corps members
have "served 1,060,000 children,
completed
16 million hours of service, partnered with
more than 1050 corporations and
3,100 service organizations and engaged more
than 1,015,000 citizens in service."[i]
The
uniqueness of City Year is the
age and diversity of the City Year corps,
which allows members to connect better than
with the children they serve,
helping them make good life choices and
encouraging them to come to school,
stay in school, and thrive. Rarely do students
have access to constant
mentoring and support throughout the day. City
Year corps members address that
need and provide a unique value-add to schools
because they are with students
from the beginning of the day until the close
of after-school
programs.