Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Alberto M. Carvalho

About City Year

THE MISSION: City Year unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of fulltime service, giving them the skills and opportunities to change the world. City Year’s youth service corps of 1,750 is one of the largest in America and serves full time in grades 3 through 9 where they provide academic support, attendance monitoring, positive behavior support, and after school programming to help students and schools succeed. As tutors, mentors and role models, these diverse young leaders make a difference in the lives of children and transform these schools and communities across the United States, Johannesburg, South Africa and London, England.

City Year’s mission is to build democracy through citizen service, civic leadership and social entrepreneurship. It is through service that we can demonstrate the power and idealism of young people, engage citizens to benefit the common good, and develop young leaders of the next generation.

THE NEED: Every 26 Seconds a student gives up on school in America. High school dropouts are three times more likely than college graduates to be unemployed and eight times more likely to be in jail or prison than high school graduates. Nationally, barely 50% of all African American students and less than 66% of Hispanic students will graduate with their class. The more than 12 million students projected to drop out over the next decade will cost the nation $3 trillion.

City Year is wholly focused on fighting the national dropout crisis. We have committed to leverage the talent, energy and idealism of corps members to serve as tutors, mentors and role models in schools to help students stay on track – and get back on track – to graduate. Our corps members do this by focusing on three early warning indicators that have been defined through research:

• Poor Attendance
• Unsatisfactory Behavior
• Course Failure in Math and/or English

City Year’s In School & On Track initiative is designed to bring City Year corps members to 50% of all of the students falling off track in City Year’s 22 U.S. locations, which will require expanding the number of corps members to 6,000 and engaging school districts, the private sector and the federal government through AmeriCorps as partners.

City Year Miami was launched in the fall of 2008 as a way to support the Miami-Dade Public School System in its efforts to help youth succeed in school and realize their potential. Since its inception, City Year Miami has worked to create and implement innovative solutions for the most pressing issues facing Miami-Dade County school children. Our corps members currently serve in 13 of MDCPS. To learn more about City Year Miami, please visit www.cityyear.org/miami or call 786.406.7902.