Top 5 Reasons to Join City Year New Hampshire

A year of service with City Year is impactful for communities and transformative for the young people who serve. As the students you support every day learn and grow, you do, too, acquiring valuable skills, money for college or graduate school, and time to explore your strengths and interests.

Could a year with City Year New Hampshire be right for you?

Across the country, City Year AmeriCorps members form positive, encouraging relationships with students in systemically under-resourced schools as student success coaches—tutors, mentors and role models. Student success coaches (SSCs) partner with classroom teachers and offer students essential academic and social-emotional skills, whether that’s mastering fractions or learning how to work in teams and communicate.

For City Year AmeriCorps members, the experience is priceless. Along with receiving exclusive benefits and resources, including a bi-weekly stipend to cover living expenses and access to grants for college, grad school or even educational travel, you rise to new challenges, gain perspective, clarify your mission and values, and form lifelong friendships with your teammates.

City Year New Hampshire in Manchester, the state’s largest city, offers in abundance all the qualities that make City Year so impactful and transformative. City Year New Hampshire is in a great location with a strong school district partnership, and it’s a supportive and inclusive site where the well-being of our AmeriCorps members and the students we serve are our top priorities.

Check out these five reasons why you should join our team City Year New Hampshire:

1. Manchester School District’s diversity and partnership

Manchester School District is the largest and most diverse school district in New Hampshire, with over 12,000 students at 21 schools. As a refugee resettlement city, 1 in 6 students is an English language learner, with students speaking Spanish, Arabic, Swahili, Portuguese, and dozens of other languages and dialects.

Manchester classrooms are ethnically and socio-economically diverse—it’s common to have students born on four continents in one class. There is a significant need for the diversity and mentorship City Year student success coaches provide Manchester students. The school district is an eager collaborator, creating new and innovative ways to serve, including a part-time option, CYNH’s unique 900-hour school day learning coach position, if you think a full-time 1,700-hour role isn’t right for you.

CYNH AmeriCorps member Yamah Dolo high-fives a student at McDonough Elementary School’s Math Night.

2. Living in a great place, New Hampshire

Located in the center of New England, New Hampshire is often rated as the best state in which to live. New Hampshire ranks first in the nation for having low crime, high education, and a growing economy. More importantly for young people, Manchester is just an hour from the White Mountains, fantastic beaches on lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, and Boston’s entertainment and history. New Hampshire enjoys four beautiful seasons, including awe-inspiring foliage in fall and skiing and snowboarding in winter.

With 110,000 residents, Manchester is big enough to have everything you need—nightlife, fine arts, movie theaters, shopping—while still being small enough to navigate and stand out. It’s easy to connect with the mayor or effectively advocate for solving a public issue. And you’re likely to see presidential candidates in New Hampshire for its first-in-the-nation primary!

3. Affordable housing and commuting costs

Our country is in a housing affordability crisis, and many major cities are some of the hardest hit. City Year New Hampshire has relationships with landlords who’ve been renting to City Year AmeriCorps members year-after-year, keeping costs low and transitions seamless.

How does $550/month with utilities included sound? At City Year, you rent using your living stipend, but our staff supports your transition after you’re confirmed to join our team.

AmeriCorps members serving in Manchester have a short commute, without a lot of traffic. Days of in-school service are long enough without spending an hour on the bus or subway before dawn and after dark. City Year New Hampshire’s home, the CYNH office, and the schools we serve are all within about 10 minutes of each other, and there’s no bumper-to-bumper traffic.

4. Our record of excellence

City Year New Hampshire has won the internal “Best of City Year” award nine times and is led by one of City Year’s most beloved and longest-serving executive directors. It has a strong, positive culture built on values such as “belief in the power of young people,” “service,” and being a “community of learners.”

CYNH combines high expectations with high support to help you grow and thrive, because your development as a leader and teammate is a key aspect of our mission.

City Year New Hampshire has full days of training every week for most of the year. Besides preparing you for in-school service, CYNH’s “Learning & Development” program offers strong career support, transferrable skills that prepare you for success in any field, and dedicated time for you to get clear about your unique mission and values.

CYNH AmeriCorps member Sinead Gooney and three of her students on Opening Day at McDonough Elementary School in Manchester

5. Join a supportive community

City Year New Hampshire has about 30-50 corps members, a perfect size for receiving personal support and mentorship while still having diversity and new friends. No one falls through the cracks at CYNH; guidance from your team’s manager and support from other staff is readily available.

The CYNH community is well connected, extending to a large, engaged alumni community, which can help you network for a job or receive mentoring. City Year New Hampshire values diversity, inclusion, and equity—a topic of training and a practice within our community—and time is routinely set aside to celebrate cultures and build community.

For these five reasons and many more, consider doing your year of service with City Year New Hampshire in Manchester, New Hampshire!

Apply now