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| Founders | Michael Brown and Alan Khazei |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1988 |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Staff | Michael Brown, Cofounder and CEO |
| Area served | Boston Chicago |
| Method | citizen service, civic engagement and social entrepreneurship |
| Revenue | US $46,390,845 |
| Volunteers | approximately 1,400 Corps members |
| Motto | Give a Year. Change the World. |
| Website | http://www.cityyear.org |
| All numbers are from the 2006 City Year annual report[1] | |
City Year is a nonprofit AmeriCorps organization whose primary goal is to build democracy through citizen service, civic engagement, leadership development, and social entrepreneurship. The program offers 17- to 24-year-olds the opportunity to engage in 10 months of full-time community service. These young leaders come from diverse backgrounds and put their idealism to work by tutoring and mentoring school children, reclaiming public spaces, and organizing after-school programs, school vacation camps, and youth corps such as the Starfish Corps, Young Heroes, and City Heroes. Corps members work in 18 cities across the United States and in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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History
City Year was founded in 1988 by Michael Brown and Alan Khazei, then-roommates at Harvard Law School, who felt strongly that young people in service could be a powerful resource for addressing America's most pressing issues. Initially, corps members focused their efforts on community rehabilitation, beautification of neighborhoods, and developing community awareness in Boston. Over the years, the organization has expanded, opening sites in 18 cities throughout the U.S. In early 2005, City Year opened its first international site in South Africa.[2] Since 1988, City Year has been built around the conviction that one person can make a difference, and has promoted the vision of service as a common expectation – and a real opportunity – for citizens all around the world. In 2006, after Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf region, City Year opened a site in Louisiana to help with the recovery. The Louisiana Corps motto was "Here to Serve, Here to Stay."[2]
Full-time youth service corps
The Full-Time Youth Service Corps is the primary program of City Year. Over 1,400 people from the ages of 17-24 serve a year with City Year performing a combination of service, leadership development, and civic engagement as Corps members. They may be school partnerships with the program Whole School, Whole Child, or the Heroes programs.[3]
To respond to the challenges facing public education, Corps members who are on school partnership teams work in schools full time providing academic support and after school programming. These school partnerships work with a curriculum developed by City Year called Whole School, Whole Child.
The Whole School, Whole Child program has several components:
The Starfish Corps is an after-school program designed to teach students in grades 3-5 about leadership, teamwork and community service. Many of City Year's elementary school partnerships also run City Year After School, in which students grades 3-5 participate in a variety of clubs, including art club, music club, culture club, dance club, environmental club, leadership club and many more. WSWC Corps members also provide one-on-one literacy tutoring to improve literacy scores, with an emphasis on fluency. Finally, WSWC Corps members promote Positive School Climate by hosting a variety of evening and weekend events designed to engage students, their families, the school community and the local community.
The Young Heroes and City Heroes programs for middle school and high school students respectively are leadership and service programs run by City Year corps member teams. The Heroes programs run from December to May on Saturdays. In the morning of Heroes Saturdays, have themes on social issues such as hunger, homelessness, ageism, drug abuse, and racism. During these days, heroes participate in a workshops and, perform community service projects.[4][5]
Site locations
Currently, City Year sites are located in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbia (South Carolina), Columbus (Ohio), Detroit, Little Rock and North Little Rock, Los Angeles, Louisiana, Miami, New Hampshire, New York City, Philadelphia, Rhode Island, San Antonio, San José / Silicon Valley, Seattle / King County, Johannesburg in South Africa, and Washington, D.C.
A new site was started started in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in August 2009, with a small development team. The site will be fully staffed with Corps members in September 2010.[6][7]
Unity rally
At the beginning of some City Year work days, corps members start their day in an event called unity rally. One aspect of unity rally is PT or physical training. Some of the exercises may include jumping jacks and lunges. When PT is completed, Corps members read their sites official newspaper, called Daily or Weekly Briefings. City Year sites generally have their unity rally locations in or near prominent locations in the City that they are based in. For example, City Year San Antonio performs Unity Rally in front of the Alamo Mission and City Year Columbus performs in front of the Ohio Statehouse.[citation needed]
Cyzygy
Cyzygy is City Year's annual, end of term conference in which all Corps members within the United States, and representatives of City Year South Africa attend. The word cyzygy is derived from the Greek word syzygy, a rare alignment of celestial bodies. Notable speakers at past conferences include President Bill Clinton, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Mitt Romney. During the conference City Year members attend forums and events as well as perform community service projects throughout the Host City.[8]
Cyzygy 2008 took place from June 5-7 at Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.[9]
Due to the economic crisis Cyzygy 2009 was canceled. It was intended to be held in Washington, DC. Cyzygy 2010 is now scheduled to be held in Washington DC.
Funding
City Year's funding comes from a variety of sources. In FY 2006, 26% of the organization's operating revenue came from AmeriCorps, 26% from foundations, 20% corporations, 14% individual donors, 8% other governmental sources, and 6% in-kind sources.[1]
AmeriCorps
While he was still Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton visited the Boston site, and that experience partly inspired him in his first term as President to create the AmeriCorps national service program as a way to fund City Year and other similar organizations. All AmeriCorps members earn an education award while performing service, which can be used to fund education or training or to repay student loans. This money is not tax-free. City Year is now a member of the AmeriCorps network along with thousands of other non-profits. The money received via AmeriCorps allows City Year to support its 1,400 corps members annually.
Sponsors
City Year was started with private funding and still maintains many of its efforts via gifts from organizations such as Bank of America, CSX, Comcast,Timberland,[10], PepsiCo, T-Mobile, and Aramark the program also began sustaining its corps members via public funds during the George H.W. Bush administration. City Year also receives support from local and national non-profits, such as the Case Foundation, which brought City Year to Washington, D.C., in 2000.
Care Force
The Care Force division of City Year engages employees of corporate sponsors of City Year in community services events. Net proceeds Care Force events are revenue of the City Year organization.[11]
Awards
City Year is a five time winner of the Social Capitalist award from the Fast Company Monitor group.[12] City Year has also has had positive reviews from the Princeton Review, the US News and World Report, US News, and has earned four stars from the organization, Charity Navigator.[13]
Criticism
City Year has been criticized for accepting a sponsorship from the soft drink manufacturer PepsiCo. Because City Year Corps members are role models to many children, this partnership might encourage greater consumption of soft drinks exacerbating the problem of childhood obesity. [14]
Moreover, City Year only has 3 locations west of the Mississippi river.
References
- ^ a b "2006 City Year" (PDF). City Year. 2006. http://www.cityyear.org/media/pdf/annualreport2006.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
- ^ a b "43 Entrepreneurs Who are Changing the World: City Year", The Fast Company, 2007, http://www.fastcompany.com/social/2007/profiles/profile8.html
- ^ "About City Year" (HTML). City Year. http://www.cityyear.org/about.aspx. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ a b "Our Service Programs" (HTML). City Year. http://www.cityyear.org/localcontent_ektid955.aspx?terms=whole+school+whole+child. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ Kennedy, Caroline (2007-05-15), "Teens Team Up to Give Back", Time Magazine, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1599703,00.html
- ^ "City Year Milwaukee: Frequently Asked Questions". City Year. 2009-07-10. http://alumni.cityyear.org/site/PageServer?pagename=CYMilwaukee_FAQs. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
- ^ Bracchitta, John (2009-07-30). "Greater Milwaukee Foundation grants funding to create homeless shelter central access system". http://www.thedailytell.com/2009/07/greater-milwaukee-foundation-grants-funding-to-create-homeless-shelter-central-access-system/. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
- ^ "City Year Celebrates 'cyzygy' at Columbia", Columbus News, 2006-06-15, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/06/06/cyzygy.html.
- ^ "City Year's Annual Convention Of Idealism" (HTML). City Year. 2008. http://www.cityyear.org/dynamic.aspx?id=3021. Retrieved 2008-03-08.
- ^ James E. Austin, "Strategic Collaboration Between Nonprofits and Businesses" Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 29 (2000), p. 73 "To illustrate the progression along the CC, we turn to the evolution of the 10-year-old alliance between City Year, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting community service through the mobilization of an urban youth corps, and Timberland, a manufacturer of boots and other apparel."
- ^ "Care Force" (HTML). City Year. http://www.cityyear.org/dynamic_ektid3027.aspx. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "45 Entrepreneurs Who are Changing the World: City Year", The Fast Company, 2008, http://www.fastcompany.com/social/2008/
- ^ "Awards and Recognitions". City Year. http://www.cityyear.org/dynamic_ektid408.aspx. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
- ^ Soumerai, Stephen B.; Gillman, Matthew W. (2007-07-21), "City Year's unhealthy corporate ties", Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/07/21/city_years_unhealthy_corporate_ties/
City Year currently only has 3 locations west of the Mississippi river, they are currently trying to expand to Great Britten.
See also
External links
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