FALL 2024
A Message from COO Dr. John Tupponce
With the fall semester well underway, City Year AmeriCorps members, who serve as student success coaches, have settled into their chosen schools and are putting their training and personal charisma to work. Year after year, we are impressed by the caliber of AmeriCorps members who choose to make their City Year one of growth and accomplishment.
As you will read in this newsletter, City Year student success coaches have a magnetic quality about them. We see a notable increase in student attendance and academic proficiency.
Just as important, the mere presence of these coaches provides a daily dose of infectious positivity and confidence, improving student behavioral and mental growth. A considerable number of alums choose a career in teaching and provide a much-needed boost to the educator workforce.
As schools across the country continue to work to catch up on pandemic learning losses, City Year sites are giving students, teachers and administrators a leg up. The data shows our efforts are having an impact, and we have you to thank for being a generous City Year supporter.
Every contribution makes a difference.
Addressing Absenteeism with Student Success Coaches
While the pandemic adversely affected school attendance and continues to do so, other factors compound the crisis, such as homelessness, poverty and ESL challenges. City Year’s deployment of student success coaches has made a difference in school districts around the country.
City Year has partnered with eight local organizations in California to create the SSC Learning Network, which puts AmeriCorps mentors into schools to help create environments that promote connectedness, caring and listening. Students are more motivated to come to school, improving attendance and increasing the likelihood of graduation.
In one New York City school, student success coaches are credited with increasing attendance from 75% to 85% in one year.
Your Support Is Crucial: #GivingTuesday and at Year’s End
The Season of Giving will soon be upon us, and your gift to City Year will go a long way toward helping students and their success coaches progress throughout the school year.
Think about the organizations you support each year.
We hope you will include City Year in your plans with a tax-deductible gift on #GivingTuesday, December 3, or by making a gift by December 31.
Thank you!
Learning Losses Edging Downward — Slowly
According to the 2024 Harvard-Stanford Education Recovery Scorecard of 30 states, students have recovered one-third of the three-year pandemic loss in math, and one-quarter of reading losses. Those in the most vulnerable student categories tend to be at a disadvantage.
As Kelly Smith, board chair of City Year Jacksonville, points out, the presence of student success coaches in classrooms and after-school programs can be a game-changer. Students receive mentorship and academic support that has been shown to close the gap from pandemic learning losses.
Of course, there’s much more to do, but with your support, City Year will be here for the long haul.
A New Pathway to the Teaching Profession
It’s no accident that many City Year’s student success coaches are interested in the teaching profession.
City Year supports the next generation of educators through formalized teacher pathways. A much-needed boost to the teaching workforce, City Year alums have the advantage of spending a school year (or two) working closely with students, teachers and administrators. While they develop leadership skills through on-the-ground relationship-building, student success coaches also receive training that can often lead to a career in overseeing classrooms of their own. Your support makes all of this possible.
52% percent of City Year alumni work in the education sector. 13% are classroom teachers, and of those:
- 45% are people of color, compared with 21% nationally
- 45% live and work in the same communities where they served
- Of City Year alumni who went into teaching, 86% stay in the profession longer than the national average
City Year continues to be a powerful part of our school programming.
— City Year partner principal
Positive Behavioral Health? Academics? It’s Actually Both
An integrated, holistic approach to student achievement is the key to the work of City Year Little Rock’s partnership with the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and Walton Family Foundation.
This City Year site also engaged the LEGO Foundation to produce a report that found that student success is not an either/or proposition but requires a combination of social-emotional and academic support.
Using that learning, City Year places AmeriCorps student success coaches in classrooms where they focus on whole-child and whole-school support, leading to increases in academic proficiency, increased attendance and personal growth.
Where Are They Now: City Year Alum Dustin LaFont
Who would have thought the road to a life’s work would be filled with thousands of bicycles?
City Year alum Dustin LaFont has gone from helping hundreds of students achieve success in school when he served as an AmeriCorps member, to helping thousands of students through his nonprofit, Front Yard Bikes.
Dustin was honored earlier this year with an Alumni Achievement Award for his workforce development program that helps kids earn their own bicycles by working in FYB’s bike shops.
In addition, FYB offers training in welding, urban gardening and cooking. Dustin humbly gives “credit to so many of the kids who actively show up and make that choice each and every day.”
Do you know a graduating student who would benefit from a “growth year?”
City Year is regularly recruiting dynamic young people who wish to directly impact students
and schools in 29 U.S. cities. Along with professional and personal development, an 11-month commitment to City Year comes with a stipend, health insurance and eligibility for a Segal Education Award ranging from $3,697 to $7,395.
Call City Year and talk to a recruiter: (617) 927-2500. We can’t wait to tell you more.
City Year, Inc. is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization (Tax ID Number: 22-2882549) and your donation is tax deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. To claim a donation as a deduction on your U.S. taxes, we will follow up with a tax receipt shortly which will show your tax-deductible portion according to IRS guidelines.
How can I make a gift of stock/securities? If you would like to make a gift of securities, please contact Andrew Kent at [email protected] or (617) 927-2364.
Can I pay through my donor-advised fund? Yes, we ask that you have your donor-advised fund gift sent to: Bank of America Lockbox Services City Year Inc. 412755, MA527-08-07, 2 Morrissey Blvd., Dorchester, MA 02125
Would you like to donate immediately? Click here to be directed to our donation page.
