History of City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley
City Year became a part of San Jose/Silicon Valley under the leadership of Mayor Susan Hammer in 1994. Since then, more than 900 young people have served for a year of full-time community service. The 2004 final evaluation report of the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force ranked City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley as the city’s highest-rated service provider, fulfilling 118% of contracted services. The report praised City Year as “a national model for how to use AmeriCorps members to serve youth and their communities.”
City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley has been and continues to be a leader in the City Year network helping to establish some of City Year’s best service programs such as Starfish Corps and our school partnership model, Whole School, Whole Child.
About the Yellow Jacket
City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley corps members wear the City Year yellow jacket instead of the signature red jacket due to gang associations with the color red in our communities.