City Year Deploys 2,000 Young Adults in Nation's Most Challenged Schools

BOSTON, Oct. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- City Year, a national organization that unites young people for a year of service in high-need urban schools, held Opening Day ceremonies across the country today deploying 2,000 young, energetic corps members to 187 high-poverty schools in 21 U.S. cities.  Corps members commit to one year of full-time service as tutors, mentors and role models in some of the nation's most challenged schools, partnering with teachers, administrators and other educators to keep students in school and on track to graduate.  

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"We are proud to deploy our largest corps ever – 2,000 strong – to help students and schools succeed," said City Year Co-Founder and CEO, Michael Brown. "City Year corps members choose to go where the need is greatest.  They provide critical extra support in the classroom and in the lives of students, directly impacting the nation's high school dropout crisis."  In 2009, with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Brown announced In School & On Track: A National Challenge, a campaign to address the nation's high school dropout crisis and turn around low performing schools by scaling City Year programs nationwide.

In 21 communities across the United States and through two international affiliates in London and Johannesburg, these diverse young leaders help turn around high-need schools and keep students in school and on track to graduation by working to improve their attendance, behavior and course performance.  Last year, 88% of 3rd through 5th grade students tutored by City Year improved raw literacy scores.  As a result of City Year's attendance support initiatives, over half of 6th through 9th grade students who were off track in attendance were back on track in 2010.  And 90 percent of ninth graders working with corps members agreed that City Year helped them understand the class content better.

"City Year provides exactly what schools need: one-on-one and small group tutoring and mentoring that helps at-risk kids improve their grades, behavior and attendance – and helps them graduate from high school," said David Cohen, Comcast Corporation Executive Vice President.  Comcast, a City Year supporter and strategic partner since 2001, proudly sponsors City Year's Opening Day nationally.  "Supporting the work of City Year corps members is a smart investment in our future and our communities.  Comcast is proud to stand next to City Year to keep youth moving forward on the road to graduation, to community service, and to life success."

In total, 2,000 corps members will serve over 100,000 students this year in 187 high-poverty schools in 21 U.S. cities.  Since 1988, City Year's 15,100 corps members have served more than 1.2 million children and completed more than 26 million hours of service. 

Today's events come as City Year, an AmeriCorps organization, closely monitors developments in Congress as lawmakers weigh future funding for the Corporation for National Community Service.  Withdrawing this vital support for 70,000 nonprofit organizations that rely on national service members to fill the gap between the services state and local governments are able to provide and the support citizens require would erase 100,000 jobs nationwide.  National service organizations provide critical, cost-effective solutions to some of the nation's most pressing social challenges.

"In the last year, 80,000 Americans — many of them young — earned a small stipend for a year of hard work tackling some of the very issues that continue to cost the nation in real taxpayer dollars," said AnnMaura Connolly, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of City Year, Inc.  Connolly also serves as President of Voices for National Service, a diverse coalition of national service programs, state commissions, and individual champions committed to expanding opportunities for Americans of all ages to serve and volunteer.  "National service not only accounts for tens of thousands of jobs, it also provides valuable training and creates pathways to careers.  City Year corps members give a year of service, forever changing the lives of the students they serve as well as their own."

City Year AmeriCorps members provide critical student support to the schools disproportionately generating dropouts and to students most at-risk of falling off track to graduate.  City Year is working to address the nation's high school dropout crisis which costs the country on average $300,000 per dropout.  If current dropout rates persist, the economic loss to our nation will total more than $3 trillion over the next decade.  At City Year, the federal support from competitive AmeriCorps grants leverage over $42.5 million in corporation, private and other public sector investments. City Year corps members earn an AmeriCorps living stipend, as well as an education award upon their completion of their service year.

City Year is an education-focused, nonprofit organization founded in 1988 that partners with public schools to provide full-time targeted intervention for students most at risk of dropping out.  In more than 20 communities across the United States and through two international affiliates, our teams of young AmeriCorps leaders support students by focusing on attendance, behavior, and course performance through in-class tutoring, mentoring, and after school programs that keep kids in school and on track to graduate.

SOURCE City Year