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City Year Seattle/King County 

Description

City Year's focus is to significantly reduce Seattle's high school dropout rate by helping students in high poverty urban schools stay on track, or get back on track to graduate. Our school service model, called "Whole School, Whole Child" is a thoughtful, deliberate effort to effectively leverage the strengths of our corps members to help students improve their attendance, behavior and coursework, which are the proven ways to help students stay in school, succeed and excel.

Mission Statement
City Year's mission is to build democracy through citizen service, civic leadership, and social entrepreneurship. City Year's long-term goal is to significantly reduce national high school dropout rates by helping students stay on track - or get back on track - to graduate.
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City Year Seattle/King County
2203 23rd Ave S Ste 101 
Seattle 
WA
98144-4636 
(206) 219-4996 

Simon Amiel 
Executive Director 

Programs

City Year Seattle/King County Programs

City Year Seattle/King County corps members act as tutors, mentors, and role-models for approximately 3,000 elementary, middle, and high school youth throughout King County that have the least access to resources. City Year operates full-day programs that accomplish three objectives:

  • promoting the academic and social success of children and youth,
  • inspiring an ethic of service in young people, and
  • renovating schools and community centers through physical service projects.
Our program, Whole School, Whole Child supports six schools by providing in-class tutoring, extended learning opportunities through homework help in the morning and curriculum-based after school programs, and family engagement evenings. 

    City Year corps members provide full-time service to children and youth, Monday through Thursday, during in-school and after-school hours at partner agencies and schools throughout Seattle Public Schools. The programs they provide include:

    1. tutoring and mentoring in public elementary, middle and high schools, with special emphasis on literacy and math
    2. running after-school programs which incorporate academic and enrichment activities; and
    3. offering service learning opportunities to elementary, middle and high school students.

    City Year volunteer corps members partner with local agencies and communities to create and implement one-day community service projects, with a focus on community beautification and environmental improvements.

    Every Friday, corps members hone their leadership skills and deepen their professional growth and commitment to community through trainings and workshops focused on social issues.  Additionally, trainings occur to ensure corps members are proficient practitioners within the classroom to fully support the academic advancements of their students.

    Recent Successes and Current Challenges

    External to City Year, powerful forces are poised to unleash the full power and potential of national service in American civic life. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act represents the greatest expansion of government support for service since the New Deal. Applications from young people to join City Year have tripled, suggesting that the government's call to service will be answered by a generation eager to serve. Through strategic deployment, focused service models, measureable impacts, and significant investments from government and the private sector, City Year has the potential to play a critical role in a system-transforming strategy for educational reform in Seattle.

    Our 5-year goal is to strategically deploy Corps Members within the Seattle school district to significantly reduce the high school dropout rate on a city-wide scale. Based on the geographic distribution of dropouts, Seattle is an ideal city to demonstrate this impact. In Seattle, four high schools contribute 47% of the district's dropouts. By strategically placing teams of corps members in these high schools as well as the 21 middle and elementary schools that feed into them, we will reach half of all Seattle students most at risk for dropping out.

    Evaluation

    City Year unites a diverse cohort of young adults in a year of full-time service, leadership development, and civic engagement. Teams of City Year corps members serve as tutors, mentors, and role models in six high-need Seattle public schools. City Year Seattle/King County places approximately 60 corps members into local schools each year. By 2015, City Year’s goal is to place corps members in all of the Seattle high schools that produce the majority of the district’s dropouts, along with the 21 middle and elementary schools that feed into them.

    Use of Best Practices
    Through close partnerships with host schools, each corps member is given a focus list of 10-12 students who are not meeting English or math standards. Corps members provide daily individualized attention (both during and after the school day) to help these students get back on track.

    City Year is unique in that it provides tutors and mentors who connect students’ school-day experience to their out-of-school time activities, making it easier to integrate classroom-based instruction with after-school supports.

    Collaboration
    City Year is launching its flagship program Diplomas Now at two high-poverty middle schools in Seattle this year. The program is a partnership of three organizations (City Year, Communities in Schools and Talent Development) to provide wraparound services for students who are identified as at-risk through the district’s Early Warning Indicator system, which tracks attendance, behavior and course failures. By focusing on these off-track indicators and developing interventions to address them, City Year hopes to have an impact on high-school graduation rates city-wide.

    Sustainability
    City Year’s ambitious expansion goals will require additional public funding as well as increased revenue from individual donors.

    Grant History with The Seattle Foundation:

    Grants Awarded through The Seattle Foundation Grantmaking Program:

    DateAmountPurpose
    6/10/2011 $10,000.00support general operating expenses.
    3/10/2010 $25,000.00support general operating expenses.
    3/10/2008 $25,000.00support general operating expenses.
    12/15/2005 $25,000.00support general operating expenses.
    9/18/2003 $30,000.00support general operating expenses.

    Financials

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