Located on the shores of Lake Erie, the city of Buffalo has the largest school district in the region, serving more than 30,000 students. Together with teachers and community partners, we are supporting student success and working to improve high school graduation rates.
While Buffalo is widely known for being a vibrant center for academia, business, tech and medicine, some students in Buffalo face significant challenges every day. The Buffalo School District serves more than 15,000 students across 125 schools. District-wide, more than 70% of students participate in a state assistance program.
I started my first year of service thinking I needed to help create footsteps that students in my hometown could follow, but coming into Founding Year as a Service Leader, I knew I had to create my own vision and help students find their own way.
Candace Neal City Year Buffalo, '19–'20
Your corps experience
City Year is a key partner to five Buffalo charter schools in creating equitable learning opportunities for all students and develop the city’s future leaders. AmeriCorps members support teachers and staff in delivering instruction that serves the development of the whole child and is responsive to the diverse racial, cultural and linguistic needs of Buffalo youth.
With more than 76% of students tutored by AmeriCorps members last year improving their test scores, AmeriCorps members are truly making an impact. A close-knit community with ample opportunities to develop meaningful personal and professional relationships, Buffalo is an ideal place to serve. By engaging students, families and community organizations, City Year helps the Buffalo community achieve.
Join us in celebrating the incredible hard work and dedication of our Board Chair @abundant_soul. Candace has been an incredible champion of our work over the last 3 years and always puts the wellbeing of our students & @americorps Members first. Candace has long been a champion of #MentalHeath through her work
with www.abundantsoul.org, in addition to being a champion of all things Buffalo, and helped make sure that we don't lose sight of that during our long service days. We are so #Thankful to have your leading our incredible board. #ThankYou #BoardSpotlight #Leadership...
This week our @americorps Members serving at @westbuffalocharterschool have been able to participate in West Buffalo’s #teacherappreciationweek activities! This included lunch from a local Taco Truck on Monday! Thank you to all the teachers and our AmeriCorps Members for all they do for students everyday!...
It’s #teacherappreciationweek and we want to start the week by highlighting one of the many @cityyear alumni who has chosen to continue their service by becoming a teacher. @mike_hogan13 is currently teaching humanities, alongside his former Partner Teacher, at the same school he served as an @americorps member. We are so proud of your hard work and the students of @enterprise_charter_school are lucky to have you! #thankateacher #thankyou #alumni #americorps #cityyear...
Yesterday, we saw something that we don’t often see in America: accountability when Black life is taken at the hands of police.
As we, along with communities across the country, waited for this verdict to be announced, we have grappled with the deeply flawed system in which we live and operate: one where we hope for justice for a murder we all watched happen, but knowing that historically, a guilty verdict has rarely been delivered in similar cases.
This feels like a much-needed step forward, but the work towards justice continues. We continue to stand with the family and friends of George Floyd, with the loved ones of Daunte Wright and countless others who have been killed at the hands of police before and since, and with the Black community.
Above all, we stand with our students, who are both witnessing and participating in this moment. We wrap ourselves in hope and action together with them, with our partners, and with each other in community, until the fact that Black Lives Matter is demonstrated in laws, policies, policing, and in education. We must do this together, in pursuit of a more just and more hopeful future for our students and for all of us.
Art by Thu Anh Nguyen @madebythuanh
[Image description: The words "Black Lives Matter" is surrounded by a wreath of colorful flowers.]...
It’s with a heavy heart that we share that @enterprise_charter_school will be closing at the end of the school year. Enterprise was our Initial Partner School in Buffalo & it is because of their support that we have found such a welcoming home in the Buffalo community. We will be eternally grateful to the amazing educators of Enterprise Charter School for all your hard work and we will keep you and the students of ECS in our hearts forever....
