BMO Harris Bank Expands Support to North Lawndale's Collins Academy through City Year Chicago's Team Sponsor Program

CHICAGO, Nov. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- BMO Harris Bank today announced it is expanding its support of City Year Chicago's Team Sponsor Program by contributing $300,000 over a three year period to City Year that will support corps members at North Lawndale's Collins Academy. 

The Team Sponsor Program partnership allows organizations to leverage human and financial resources to impact, engage and invest in their local communities through the sponsorship of a team of eight-to-10 City Year corps members. For one year, the City Year corps members commit to tutoring, mentoring and helping students from high-needs schools get back on track for graduation, raising educational awareness and enthusiasm while encouraging higher attendance throughout Chicago schools.

BMO has been a City Year supporter since 2009 and began a sponsorship at Collins Academy in 2011.  Through this new three-year sponsorship, BMO Harris Bank will join City Year's efforts in serving the neighborhoods of Chicago, addressing key community issues and providing innovative and educational resources to help transform and improve the lives of Chicago students. As a result of the partnership, the BMO Harris corps members at Collins Academy will provide 17,000 hours of service this year to the high school's 9th grade students with an additional 17,000 hours each of the next two years.

"City Year has proven itself an important partner to Chicago's students, their teachers and their communities.  At BMO Harris Bank, we've made education a signature focus of our corporate citizenship program because students who stay in school, learn the skills of the 21^st- century economy and graduate from college are key to keeping our communities strong," said Mark Furlong, President & CEO of BMO Harris Bank.  "We're very proud to deepen our collaboration with both City Year and Collins Academy in the North Lawndale community."   

"Thanks to the continued generous support of corporate partners like BMO Harris Bank, City Year Chicago was able to increase our corps to 188 members who serve in 20 schools, impacting 4,200 Chicago Public School students through academic interventions, mentoring programs, after school enrichment, and parent engagement initiatives," said Lisa Morrison Butler, Executive Director, City Year Chicago.  "Our partnership with BMO Harris Bank helps ensure that corps members have the training and the resources they need to keep kids in school and on track to succeed."

BMO Harris Bank is partnering with and supporting several leading organizations in Chicago including United Way, AUSL, Big Shoulders Fund, Children First Fund, After School Matters, New Schools for Chicago and City Year to help support public, charter, and private school students.  This builds on the Bank's overall efforts in supporting the greater Chicago community through investing over $100 million during the past 10 years to strengthen and enhance the well-being of families across the region.

About BMO Harris Bank
Based in Chicago, BMO Harris Bank N.A. provides a broad range of personal banking products and solutions through over 600 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Nevada, Arizona and Florida. BMO Harris Bank's commercial banking team provides a combination of sector expertise, local knowledge and mid-market focus throughout the U.S. Deposit and loan products and services provided by BMO Harris Bank N.A. Member FDIC. BMO Harris Bank(SM) is a trade name used by BMO Harris Bank N.A. BMO Harris Bank is part of BMO Financial Group, a North American financial organization with 1,600 branches, and a retail deposit base of approximately $180 billion.

SOURCE BMO Harris Bank