Category: What a Difference a Day Makes
City Year Jacksonville

City Year Jacksonville

Building democracy through citizen service, civic leadership, and social entrepreneurship.

City Year was founded in Boston in 1988 on the simple belief that young people can change the world and should be challenged – and provided with the opportunity – to dedicate themselves to a year of full-time service. Over the past 30 years, City Year has grown from a pilot program of 50 participants to an international organization engaging more than 3,000 AmeriCorps members in 29 U.S. cities, as well as affiliates in South Africa and the UK.

City Year opened its Jacksonville site in 2013 in partnership with Duval County Public Schools. Since then, more than 350 AmeriCorps members have been empowered to drive student success in 12 high-need public schools in North Jacksonville.

The Mission

Our mission is to build democracy through citizen service, civic leadership, and social entrepreneurship. Together, these essential, interconnected and nonpartisan strategies can serve as the civic foundation for a strong, active, and responsive democracy.

We do this by deploying highly trained idealistic young adults to serve as student success coaches in public schools across the country to improve academic achievement, build social-emotional skills, and help to transform the nation’s academic landscape. Our program places highly engaged young adults, AmeriCorps members, in schools where they serve full-time for one academic year to support students at-risk of dropping out. AmeriCorps members are trained to provide quality support to students, teachers, and the wider school community to accelerate learning and performance.

What Would You Do with $5,000 and a Day of Service?

City Year periodically mobilizes the community to transform the learning environment at our schools through community service projects. These service events cultivate school pride and build a positive school climate. This opportunity would allow us to leverage volunteers and purchase supplies for both the service event and our day-to-day service.