5. Schools were
designed to have
additional supports
for only 15% OF
STUDENTS.
In high-poverty communities,
50% OR MORE OF
STUDENTS NEED
ADDITIONAL
SUPPORTS.
The unique needs of all students cannot be met by even the best teachers and administrators,
because a lot of these kids need more than just a good lesson every day
6. Every day a different
5 students are absent
8 students have been
suspended
20 students are
below proficient
Imagine you’re a teacherwith 30 students4 students require
case managed supports
7. Only 63% of children in the urban communities
City Year serves reach 10th grade on track and on time
This gap drives significant challenges
We all pay the high cost:
6x 3x $1m
$292,000 EACH in increased social service costs and lost earning and taxes
over the course of their lifetimes
more likely to end
up in prison
more likely to
be unemployed
in reduced earnings compared
with high school graduates
11. which students are most at risk of
dropping outWE KNOW
This is a solvable problem
12. This is a solvable problem
which students are most at risk of
dropping outWE KNOW
13. But if they get to 10th grade
on track and on time they have a
75% chance of graduating.
14.
15. How do City Year
AmeriCorps
members influence
the graduation rate?
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22. How does City Year know they’re making a
difference?
23. What do corps members say about their
experience?
“You’re going to be working more hours than you think. You’re going to lose more
sleep than you think. But the impact that you’re going to make is going to be a lot
more than you think, too.”
“City Year changed my life while changing the lives of others!”
“Working with the students and seeing their faces as they succeed is priceless.”
“My students have changed me for the better and have made a HUGE impact on
my life and I feel I have impacted them as well.”
25. 315 of the highest need urban schools
28 cities across the country
26. Who will I be working with?
With students exhibiting early warning indicators
of poor attendance, disruptive behavior and
course failure in math or English
On a team of 8-15 diverse AmeriCorps members
Collaborating closely with teachers and school
administrators
Supported by a City Year Impact Manager and
Team Leader invested in your success
28. • Start the day with a team meeting
• Greet students in the morning and check on with students with attendance warning
indicators
• Much of the day is spent in the classroom working with students on academics and
modeling behavior, tutoring individually or in small groups.
How will I spend my time as a corps member?
• Most of the day is spent in the classroom working with focus list students on
academics and modeling behavior
• Start the day with a team meeting
• Greet students in the morning and check in with students on attendance
focus lists
• Work with students on math and English focus lists in the classroom
29. • Mentor students through learning groups where you will set behavior goals together
• Meet with teachers to plan for the day
• Lesson and event planning during free periods or in the morning
• Act as team point person for one area of service expertise such as math or English
• Run after school homework and extracurricular clubs
How will I spend my time as a corps member?
• Mentor students through learning groups where you will set behavior goals together
• Tutor individual and groups of students
• Meet with teachers, lesson and event planning during free periods or in the morning
• Act as team point person for one area of service expertise such as math or English
• Run after school homework and extracurricular clubs
30. What can I expect to
gain out of the
experience?
31. Recognized as a top employer and for
providing valuable skills
32. BUILD RESUME SKILLS
• Interpersonal and intercultural communication
• Adaptability-managing through difficult or ambiguous situations
• Collaboration
• Accountability
• Team leadership
• Initiative
Professional Development: Skill Building
33. CITY YEAR CAREER CENTER
• Connects skills developed through service to diverse career paths
• Job listings from corporations, partner organizations, teaching residencies and City Year
• Educational opportunities with top universities
• Access to alumni career mentors and networking opportunities
• Resume writing resources
EMPLOYERS OF NATIONAL SERVICE
Launched by President Obama to recognize the valuable skills gained by the 900,000
AmeriCorps members since 1994.
Professional Development: Career Resources
34. NETWORK OF OVER 25,000 CITY YEAR ALUMNI
Professional Development: Grow your network
BE A PART OF THE LARGER AMERICORPS ALUMS
NETWORK, NEARLY 1 MILLION STRONG
Robust resource for career development and civic
engagement.
64% of AmeriCorps Alums strongly agree that their service
taught them skills that make them better employees.
36. Matthew Tow Attorney Advisor at Social Security Administration
“City Year is great at putting its members in a position to succeed. While in the
corps I was invited to work at a networking event that put me in front of hiring
managers at major law firms and was able to establish some important
connections.”
Lindsay Trapp Social Worker/Case Planner at New Alternatives for Children
“I felt that City Year was the absolute best way to not only put my degree to
work, but broaden my horizons personally and professionally.”
Nosa Osai Partnership Development Strategist at Chicago Public Schools
“While in City Year, I had the opportunity to network with politicians, business
leaders and develop my professional communication skills. I was able to
improve my public speaking and group leadership through the opportunities
that I would have never thought were available to someone in their early
twenties.”
Voices of City Year alumni
37. What do corps members say they gained?
You develop perseverance. Things don't seem as hard after this. You learn to
communicate in a professional setting.
This organization has such a positive and powerful impact on you. It teaches you
to be a leader and give back to others.
I feel like my future is a lot more promising having served with City Year.
Prepares you for any challenging situation in your personal and professional
development.
It's a huge opportunity to learn about your career goals, give back to youth, and gain
a ton of leadership experience. You get to meet a group of like minded young folks who
are just as determined as you and it is a space where you can learn and grow.
Humbles you and teaches you a wide variety of aspects within a working environment.
39. • $3 million in exclusive scholarships
• $5,775 Segal Educational Award
• Scholarships unique to City Year and
matching grants for AmeriCorps alum
at more than 100 universities
• Loan forbearance during service
Higher Ed scholarships and educational award
43. Getting established as a corps member
• Dedicated admissions point person for transition support
• Start communicating with other incoming corps members in your service city
• Attend local events for incoming corps members
• Begin receiving resources about local housing, budgeting and things to do
in the city
45. • Maximum impact with the students we
serve
• Previous experience as a tutor, mentor
or leader
• Previous experience working with
children
• Demonstration of perseverance in
difficult situations
What we look for in candidates
46. Apply to your top choice site and include up to 3 additional preferences or apply to
serve where your service is most needed
Application includes work/volunteer history, two short answers and two references
Applying
Welcome to the City Year information session. Thank you for joining me today.
Key Messages
1. Explain the GAP CY ACMs fill.
2. Identify the impact the ed gap has on everyone.
3. It's solvable.
--------
Use the below activity for early engagement:
Stand up sit down
Stand up if learned about City Year this year
Stand up if you know someone who’s done a City Year
Stand up if you had a mentor that helped you through challenging times
Stand up if you have ever made a difference in the life of a child
Stand up if you think college students can be effective leaders
Stand up if you think a small group of committed people can make a big difference
Speaking Points:
At City Year, we know that all students can succeed against an absolute scale. We see it with the students we work with everyday, and outside of City Year, there are examples of high performing schools located in high poverty, urban communities.
Speaking Points:
Headlines: We know that kids growing up in high-poverty communities face a whole host of challenges that make it hard for kids to get to school, and be ready to learn every single day. Because of these challenges that kids face, they need extra supports to help them overcome them. However, there is a gap that exists between what kids need and what schools are designed and resourced to do.
Going Deeper: Poverty creates toxic levels of stress for kids and inhibits their ability to learn.
While we know that our students are innately capable of succeeding in school and in life, there are often many challenges that they face – from additional responsibilities at home taking care of younger siblings to growing up in neighborhoods where there may be higher rates of violence. A few additional examples of the challenges our students face include:
95%+ free and reduced lunch; there may be food insecurity issues at home.
15% of urban students have Limited English Proficiency
High rates of student mobility, with kids moving homes and even schools frequently
All of these challenges make it hard for them to focus because they often have so much on their minds.
Source: Baker, J. A., Kamphaus, R.W., Horne, A.M., & Winsor, A.P. (2006). Evidence for population-based perspectives on children’s behavioral adjustment and needs for service delivery in schools. School Psychology Review, 35(1), 31-46. Internal City Year partner school analysis
There is a very high intensity of need in these classrooms to support the needs of these children.
Speaking Points:
The Gap has stark implications for our society that affect us all. Only 63% of children in the urban communities we serve reach 10th grade on track and on time. Baton Rouge’s graduation rate is only 69%. That means 31% of young people each year are at risk of being left behind and left out - at tremendous cost to themselves and our community. We all pay the high cost: students who give on school are 6 times more likely to be incarcerated, 3 times more likely to be unemployed, and earn $1M less than high school graduates. In aggregate, this costs our society $292K each over their lifetimes.
City Year analysis factoring student proficiency and graduation data of schools in long-term impact plans nationwide.
Citations:
59% stat: City Year analysis factoring student proficiency and graduation data of schools in long-term impact plans nationwide
Estimated cost to society:
Alliance for Excellence in Education, Report, 2011
The Consequences of Dropping Out of High School”, Northeastern University study, October 2009
Every year, 800k children drop out of school.
It’s about a student every 31 seconds.
It’s an absolutely staggering number.
50% of these dropouts…
Research from Johns Hopkins University found that the problem is highly concentrated: across the country, 12% of high school produce 50% of dropouts.
The crisis is concentrated, which is good and bad news.
It’s good because we know which schools are struggling, so we know where to focus.
It’s bad because the dropout crisis is happening disproportionately, OVERWHELMINGLY in urban schools, and in communities of color.
All of these challenges make it hard for them to focus because they often have so much on their minds.
The average high school graduation rate in America’s 50 largest cities hovers around 50 percent. Only half of the kids who start high school in big American cities finish in four years.
In non-urban school districts the graduation rate is about 75 percent. And in suburbs, like St. Louis Park, MN or Bellvue, WA or Lexington, MA the graduation rate is over 90 percent.
Nationally, 12% of the schools produce 50% of the dropouts. In cities where City Year works, we found a similar trend where 22% of high schools produce 50% of the dropouts.
Citation:
22%: Based on 2012-2013 four-year adjusted cohort graduation rates
Furthermore, we know which students are most at risk of dropping out. Johns Hopkins also found a set of predictive analytics – called the “Early Warning Indicators” – that can identify whether a student is likely to graduate or dropout with a high degree of statistical reliability. As early as 6th grade, any student who demonstrates poor attendance, disruptive behavior, or course failure in math or English has less than a 25% chance of graduating.
However, if a student reaches the 10th grade on track and on time, he or she has a 75% chance of graduating. That’s why we try to reach these students early—specifically, during third through ninth grade— and provide them with one-on-one support to help them overcome the challenges they face both in and out of school.
Use “This is your City Year” video
https://drive.google.com/a/cityyear.org/folderview?id=0B9eA_GUqPxonM21qd1pRRnZaOVk&usp=drive_web&ddrp=1&tid=0B9eA_GUqPxonWmJ0bVdKMi1Na0U#list
Key Messages:
City Year AmeriCorps members spend 11 months of service supporting students though data-informed academic intervention along with the engagement of parents, teachers, and school staff to an environment for student success.
By working as tutors and mentors to individual and groups of students during school and after school, we help keep children in school and engaged with their learning and support their socio-emotional needs as well.
Every corps member will have a focus list of students, or students who are exhibiting early warning indicators in attendance, behavior or coursework in math and/or English. As a corps member you will tutor these students during class in a 1:1 setting outside of the classroom or run small group tutoring sessions while the teacher is running his or her planned class instruction. This helps students catch up and keep up with their peers while minimizing the academic disruption for the rest of the class.
Corps members partner with teachers and faculty to discuss individual students and create plans for student success. They may discuss various interveniton strategies like pulling a student out of the class for 1:1 tutoring or afterschool tutoring in math or English. They also may discuss how to incorporate the corps member into the class curriculum and instruction.
Corps members use grades, test scores and other data points to inform their work with students. This data helps determine which students need continued support.
Afterschool programs can vary widely depending on the needs of the students and culture of the school. All of them include academic, homework and extracurricular elements. Corps members have creative freedom and flexibility to design programs leveraging their personal skill sets, interests and talents. A few examples of programs corps members have run include—debate teams, photography classes, dance, academic enrichments, sports clubs etc.
Attendance is critical to student success and corps members play a significant role in creating a school climate and culture that encourages and values being in school on time day after day. City Year teams collaborate to create school wide attendance initiatives. These can be things such as visible attnedance tracking displays that culminate in a school wide celebration of student improvements—dances, carnivals, “swag stores,” pizza parties etc. CMs also make phone calls home to assess factors that could be hindering students from getting to school on time.
Another aspect of creating a positive culture and climate within the school is engaging community partners and families of students. CM’s run events that are open to the community and families to share in the celebration of student success. These can be things like family literacy nights, math carnivals, awards ceremonies. They also engage the community in school beautification projects to enhance the learning environment for students and to create a sense of community pride and value. They could lead volunteer in painting murals, building outdoor classrooms, community gardens, etc.
Corps members are making significant progress with individual students and in the schools we work in. A recent national study of City Year schools showed that schools that partner with City Year are 2-3 times more likely to improve on state assessments in math and English.
Choose the quotes that will resonate the most with your audience. Add the additional quotes you’re not using to the hidden slide (slide 24).
Key messages
You’ll serve full-time on a team of diverse, passionate young adults in an elementary, middle, or high school for the year.
Your team will be led by a Team Leader and Impact Manager that will set you up for success, providing feedback and growth opportunities, and support you in navigating your year.
Your time will primarily be spent in your school, running intervention programs, after school programs, and parent engagement activities. The days are long, but your work will speak volumes.
One of City Year’s core values in Inclusivity. We embrace diversity of every kind and see differences as strengths that help us meet our goals to get students to graduation. The communities we work in are incredibly diverse and the unique perspectives of our diverse teams of corps members enables us to provide the greatest impact for the students we serve. Having different interests, work styles, backgrounds, experiences on the team help us ensure there is someone that can connect with and get through to every single student. Share an example!
Coordinator roles—math, ELA, after school, behavior, attendance. There are others that vary by site such as social media, event, leadership development, etc. Coordinator roles are designed so you can bring your own creativity to plan initiatives. For example, as a math coordinator you may put on a school wide event for Pi Day or plan a Math Carnival. You will collaborate with other math coordinators at the site to build and share ideas.
Key Messages:
City Year offers all of its AmeriCorps members personal and professional growth.
Personal growth: become a stronger and more effective leader, develop insight into the education field, and learn how to make social change in any arena
Professional growth: develop transferable and marketable skills, join a network of fellow servant leaders in dozens of careers and sectors
City Year has been named by college students as one of their top 100 ideal employers. And here is an example from City Year’s employer partner, Deloitte, of how organizations think about the skills gained during a City Year.
While in classroom experiences may seem a world apart from corporate America, it takes similar skills to navigate both successfully. With this in mind, at Deloitte, we look for highly motivated individuals who thrive while working in challenging and collaborative environments. The diverse populations corps members interact with from students to parents to teachers and administrators is a great training ground for what individuals will face during their professional careers.”
At least one dedicated professional development day each month that includes trainings in tutoring, outside speakers, resume writing, skills trainings etc
Build your resume with skills employers are looking for
It connects AmeriCorps alumni with leading employers from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to create recruitment, hiring, and advancement opportunities. Use this link to expound on Employers of National Service: http://www.nationalservice.gov/special-initiatives/employers-national-service
Database of Employers: http://www.nationalservice.gov/special-initiatives/employers-national-service/search-employers-national-service
Serve as leaders of transformational change in education, non-profit organizations, medicine, law, government, the corporate sector, the arts and many other professions.
Corps members go on to work across all career sectors and apply their skills and experience to diverse careers from business to law, education, non profit and education, social work.
Many corps members go on to careers at City Year. Almost 40% of City Year’s national and site based staff members started as corps members.
Choose the alumni that will resonate the most with your audience. Add the additional profiles you’re not using to the hidden slides (slides 38 and 39).
Choose the quotes that will resonate the most with your audience. Add the additional quotes you’re not using to the hidden slide (slide 41).
Key Messages:
As a City Year AmeriCorps member, there are many financial benefits that you’ll receive both during and after your completion of the program.
All AmeriCorps members upon completion receive a $5,730 scholarship to apply to past educational expenses or future educational opportunities.
To assist you through your year of service, you will receive a bi-weekly living stipend along with other supporting benefits.
Eligibility for scholarships and matching grants in recognition of service with AmeriCorps at over 100 universities
Loan forbearance during service for eligible loans
Stipend:
Belong to a team and corps of like minded individuals who are all living on the same stipend
Shared meals
Shared housing
Local discounts and transportations passes
Thousands of corps members ahead of you have identified free and discounted things to do in xxx city and Site based staff and corps community pass on information.
Speak to localized benefits in your location, i.e. transportation passes, discounts at local stores/restaurants.
Key Messages:
Supported through the process
Start potential relationships with fellow AmeriCorps members
Place to ask questions
Given local housing information
Key Messages
City Year is selective and we look for certain characteristics and experiences in our candidates, like being solution-oriented and flexible and having experience with children or leadership experience
Candidates can apply to a specific location, to a region of the country, or to serve where most needed based on your skills and our corps needs
We have 4 application deadlines throughout the year, but you can complete the application in 2 weeks (highly recommended)
City Year is a highly selective organization and we look for the right people to work with our students.
This slide is referring to experiences from the corps member profile:
CHARACTERISTICS Commitment: The lead/applicant demonstrates the ability to make a long term commitment for more than 1-2 years
Humility: The lead/applicant demonstrates the ability to work as a member of a team to a cause greater than self
Self-Awareness: The lead/applicant demonstrates awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth and can connect them to their previous or upcoming experience
Solution Oriented: The lead/applicant demonstrates the ability to take an active approach to finding solutions to problems rather than dwelling on dilemmas
Flexibility: The lead/applicant demonstrates the ability to change and adapt as necessary to resolve or bypass unexpected roadblocks or challenges
EXPERIENCES
Teamwork: The lead/applicant has experience working on a team and contributing positively towards a common goal
Work with Children/Youth: The lead/applicant has experience working with Children/youth over a period of 3+ months in a care giving or educational capacity
Overcoming Challenges: The lead/applicant has experiences in which they demonstrated a steadfast approach to solving a problem or succeeding despite setbacks or obstacles
Volunteering: The lead/applicant has experience being involved in causes to support a local, national, or global issue and committing their own time to the cause
Tutoring/Mentoring: The lead/applicant has direct experience working in an academic setting and or providing instruction, support, or coaching
Applicants must:
Be between the ages of 17 and 24
Be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident
Have a college degree, attended some college or have a high school diploma or GED
Be able to dedicate 11 months to full-time service
Previous experience with service, tutoring, mentoring or leadership strengthens candidacy
Admission criteria are consistent for all deadlines. Applying early provides more opportunity to plan for your transition into the corps should you be accepted.
