City Year AmeriCorps members support students during key academic and developmental transitions throughout elementary, middle and high school.
City Year and our partners commit to multiple years of service in systemically under-resourced schools so that students “grow up with City Year”—our seven-year promise to students. Deep and lasting change doesn’t happen in a single day or month or year. Transformational change requires consistent effort, trust and resiliency, relentless optimism and multiple years of commitment. It requires time—to form relationships, identify challenges, analyze data and show up for students, every day.
City Year has been in my school for the last three years. In third grade...they always answered my questions in class and helped me finish my homework after school. In fourth grade I got even more involved and really loved my corps members.
Fifth-grade student Student
Continuity and consistency
By serving from third through ninth grades, we ensure students have City Year AmeriCorps members throughout key transition periods in their lives, when research shows that students are more likely to experience increased levels of stress and more difficulties in and out of school.
City Year identifies and places teams of AmeriCorps members in the high schools with the lowest graduation rates, along with the elementary and middle schools that feed into them. Many things will change for students—teacher, classrooms, life circumstances—but City Year is committed to serving students year after year, forging consistent relationships built on trust and ensuring that they have the extra support they need to thrive, in school and in life. City Year AmeriCorps members are an integral part of students’ school experience, supporting them as they master academic concepts and make sense of themselves and the world around them.
Ultimately, City Year seeks to significantly increase the number of students who are on track to graduate from high school in the communities we serve. Because when our students and schools succeed, we all prosper.
My team is the first team to serve at Rogers Middle, but my students knew these red jackets from years of City Year service at other schools in the community. One look at the jackets on the first day of school, and students were instantly ready to connect with us.
City Year AmeriCorps member Americorps Member
How students learn
Learning is a process of weaving together different skills. City Year helps students strengthen the skills essential for success in and out of school—social, emotional and academic.
Our AmeriCorps members build strong relationships with students and partner with teachers and principals to help create school environments where students feel safe, connected and welcomed.
