v olu nte e r impact report
ci t y y e a r b o sto n 2 0 1 5 - 2 0 1 6
s e rv i ce in b o sto n 4 b ui l d i n g pa rt n e r s h ip s 10 vo lun tee r im pact 13 s usta i na b ilit y 16 a da p ta b ilit y 17 b e fo r e /a f t e r 18 g et i nvo lv e d 19
Service is a priority I love Boston, and I love getting to know the people and communities that make our neighborhoods thrive. So, I am pleased to present City Year’s 2015-2016 Volunteer Impact Report! City Year has been building connections through service in Boston for almost 30 years. In that time, we’ve created lasting partnerships founded on the idea that service groups can and do make a difference. We work closely with Boston Public Schools to support the future of our communities: our students. Teams of AmeriCorps members serve in schools, improving students’ attendance, motivation to learn, and performance in English and math. We also recognize that many factors contribute to students’ success —including a supportive, bright learning environment. So, each year, our AmeriCorps members engage thousands of volunteers in projects that contribute to the vibrancy of schools, hallways, and classrooms. We know that learning also takes place outside of schools, so we regularly engage in service projects that show students we are invested in their whole lives by serving in parks, community centers, and beyond. As you will read in this report, these projects are designed in consultation with students, teachers, and neighbors so that we can provide precisely the outcomes that will best benefit those we serve. We couldn’t complete these important service days without our amazing volunteers and partners, a group of committed citizens who want to send a strong message to the students of Boston that we are all in this together and that their success will be our success. When we roll up our sleeves for a common purpose, we become more connected and invested in the well-being and future of our neighborhoods. I hope you enjoy this report and are inspired by the stories it tells—and that you’ll join us at a future service day! Yours in service,
Sandra Lopez Burke Executive Director and Vice President City Year Boston
City Year Boston /3
s ervice i n b oston
Beyond curriculum City Year’s Boston Civic Engagement (BCE) Team is a group of specialized AmeriCorps members that works with Boston Public Schools and community volunteers to transform physical learning spaces in schools, improving students’ educational experience, school pride, and engagement in their education.
At City Year Boston, our AmeriCorps members are dedicated to helping Boston students develop key skills to learn, grow, and reach their college or career goals. Teams of corps members serve in 21 Boston Public Schools (BPS) as tutors, mentors, and role models for more than 10,000 students. Our service model is developed around the idea that a student’s educational experience is defined by a variety of factors, in addition to academics. Are students getting to school on time? Do they know they have someone to talk to? Are they engaged in and inspired by learning? So, in addition to the academic supports we provide, teams of corps members in schools partner with leadership to help foster a welcoming, positive school climate. Our BCE Team is an extension of that service. Seven second-year AmeriCorps members organize and lead service projects across Boston, brightening school hallways with a fresh coat of paint, beautifying walls with inspirational murals, and providing students and classrooms with valuable resources to enhance their school experience.
City Year Boston / 4
l ast scho ol year,
City Year’s BCE Team
served
24
different boston schools
painted 97
classrooms
42,500
64
murals
square feet of hallways
donated 5,355 supply kits to students
645
supply kits to teachers
City Year Boston /5
s e rv ice in b o ston
Where we serve Last school year, City Year served with 45 different community organizations and schools all across Boston, benefiting multiple neighborhoods. This map illustrates the scope of our service in three key categories: service sites that partnered with our BCE Team, partner schools where teams of City Year corps members served with students, and City Year partner schools that were also service sites.
SERVICE SITES
PARTNER SCHOOLS
BCYF Madison Park Community Center
Blackstone Innovation School
Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester – Denney Center
Channing Elementary School
Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester – Marr Center
Irving Middle School
BPS Homeless Education Resource Network College Bound Dorchester Dorchester YMCA East Boston High School Everett Elementary School Excel High School Jeep Jones Park John D. O’Bryant School of Math and Science Lee Academy Pilot School Lilla Frederick Pilot Middle School
Higginson-Lewis School Jeremiah E. Burke High School John F. Kennedy STEM Innovation School Mattahunt Elementary School Mildred Avenue K-8 School Sarah Greenwood School The English High School Young Achievers Science and Math Pilot K-8 School PARTNER SCHOOLS/ SERVICE SITES
Madison Park Technical Vocational High School
Chittick Elementary School
Mildred C. Haley Apartments
Curley K-8 School
Nira Rock
Grew Elementary School
Roberts Playground
Hennigan K-8 School
Saint Patrick School
McCormack Middle School
South Street Youth Center
McKay K-8 School
TechBoston Academy
Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School
Timilty Middle School
Trotter Innovation School
Tobin K-8 School
Winthrop Elementary School
Condon K-7 School
UP Academy Dorchester West Zone Early Learning Center
6 /City Year Boston
City Year Boston /7
s e rv ice in b o ston
What makes a service event? City Year’s BCE Team independently organizes more than 25 service events each year. We prioritize project outcomes, as well as volunteer experience, and every event involves detailed planning, organization, and management. Each event is different, but here’s a taste of how it all comes together, from start to finish.
8/City Year Boston
1. Visioning
4. Preparation
All service projects, large or small, begin by meeting with school community members to align goals and set expectations. Our team gets input from teachers and students about what they want and need for their classrooms through visioning sessions to ensure completed projects reflect the unique climate of each school.
We invest significant time and resources into prepping for our events. Before volunteers even set foot on the school grounds, our team spends up to a week pre-sketching murals, organizing supplies, and putting down tarp to protect school property.
2. Planning
5. Service
Next, our team gets to work designing projects that bring students’ and teachers’ ideas to life. Projects may include painting murals, refreshing the teachers’ lounge, or building a school garden. We balance the school’s needs with volunteer capacity to create projects that are engaging yet feasible.
On the day of the event, we bring volunteers, school leaders, and members of the community together to roll up their sleeves and serve. Our team leads groups to paint hallways, classrooms, and murals; complete landscaping and light construction projects; or put together student resource kits.
3. Review
6. Follow-up
Before anything is finalized, our team walks through the project plan with school leadership and BPS Facilities Management liaisons. We make adjustments based on their feedback, so our projects align with BPS standards for safety and school maintenance.
Immediately following the event, our team goes over all projects for quality control and carefully resets any workspaces we’ve shifted. And our service doesn’t end when the paint is dry. In the months and years that follow, we continue to check on completed projects and make touch-ups as needed, ensuring that our schools continue to shine. City Year Boston /9
“Thank you so much for your work at the McKay. The building looks amazing and our students will be returning to a clean, bright school in September. Thank you!” - jordan weymer, principal, mckay k-8 school
b uild in g part n er s h i p s
City Year and the McKay K-8 City Year’s BCE Team has played a critical role in forging a strong relationship between City Year Boston and the Donald McKay K-8 School in East Boston.
In 2014, BCE started serving at the McKay in response to a request from the school for support creating and maintaining bulletin boards. Throughout the 2014-2015 school year, the BCE Team partnered with the McKay to help maintain monthly data bulletin boards, encouraging students to set goals and develop good work habits, while also celebrating accomplishments in attendance and academics. City Year Boston’s presence at the school built recognition among students and faculty, and when BPS selected the McKay to receive a fulltime team of City Year AmeriCorps members, the school already had a solid foundation of trust established.
10/City Year Boston
This partnership with the McKay made City Year’s academic and physical services available in East Boston, and City Year’s unique corporate sponsorship model brought investment firm Wellington Management on board to offer additional support and resources to the McKay. Wellington Management has continued to host regular service days to benefit the school and surrounding community. Over the last two years, City Year service events have helped the school reinforce its values of respect, effort, and responsibility, as well as meet its attendance, behavior and coursework goals. In addition to creating more than 2,000 teacher and student supply kits, BCE volunteers have painted numerous murals, classrooms, and schoolyards. Most recently, BCE volunteers built Buddy Benches, which encourage students to invite shy or bullied classmates to play, enhancing their pro-social skills and ultimately creating a more inclusive school community. City Year continues to deepen and expand our partnership with the McKay, and in 2016, we were thrilled to congratulate the McKay on rising to Level One status, the highest level of academic achievement that a Massachusetts school can obtain.
projects completed since 2014
14
bulletin boards
10
benches
35
murals
2,475 student resource kits
City Year Boston /11
“This service day transformed our school space. The school looks more welcoming, and the messages transfer expectations, ideals, and hope for the learning environment. Thank you for believing in our community.”
vo lunteer impact
Added value
erin vandeveer, director of operations, holmes elementary school
$29 PER HOUR Value of volunteer time1
$255k
total value of volunteer hours provided by city year
MORE THAN
$100k total value of donations provided by city year
City Year’s BCE Team amplifies Boston Public Schools’ investment in our partnership by extending our service to schools and community spaces most in need of the type of support we can provide. For the last ten years, the BPS facilities department has collaborated with City Year, working together to find innovative, economical ways to ensure that each school physically reflects its high caliber of teachers, administrators, and students.
Through this partnership, City Year is able to add significant value to BPS by contributing resources, supplies, and volunteer hours. Last school year, City Year’s BCE Team provided more than $100,000 of donated materials for classrooms, students, and teachers. Volunteers put together summer resource kits and PARCC support bags for students, school supply kits for teachers, and hygiene kits for school communities. Our volunteer engagement program brings in more than 2,500 professionallymanaged volunteers each year, contributing a total value of $255,000 worth of hours served. Our ongoing partnership with BPS allows us to provide these services year after year, creating and maintaining innovative learning spaces for generations to come.
1
12/City Year Boston
Latest figure from 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, indexed by Independent Sector in April 2016; www.independentsector.org/volunteer_time
1 3 /City Year Boston
City Year Boston /13
“City Year provides a fantastic and fun opportunity for us to build camaraderie and teamwork among our employees, while also getting to connect with the Boston community in a meaningful way.” - sally dornaus, bain capital credit
2015-2016 corporate volunteers Advent International
volunt eer i m pact
Bain Capital Bain Capital Credit
Opening doors By engaging groups of volunteers in a variety of projects, City Year’s BCE Team expands the walking knowledge of BPS among key stakeholders and leaders in Boston.
Corporate volunteers get to meet talented students, dynamic school leaders and teachers, and community members that they might not otherwise interact with on a daily basis. By working alongside them, volunteers learn about the school’s students and culture, celebrate its accomplishments, and learn more about ongoing challenges and needs. They become invested in the success of the school and the neighboring community.
27
last year, city year planned volunteer service days
14/City Year Boston
volunteers served
8,814 hours
Bain Capital Private Equity Boston Celtics Comcast NBCUniversal Deloitte Consulting
Many of our corporate volunteers are among Boston’s most prominent leaders in the business community, spanning several industries. When they invest in BPS, that commitment becomes embedded in their company’s culture through all levels of the organization. Many companies have volunteered with BPS through City Year for several years, and annual service days are a hallmark of employee engagement and pride. Employees often expand those relationships by volunteering as mentors, resourcing school events, or increasing positive attention for schools through publications, social media, and awards.
2,515
volunteers served with city year boston.
97%
EY Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Loomis Sayles LPL Financial MFS Investment Management Proctor and Gamble Rapid7 Staples, Inc. State Street Summit Partners Wellington Management Westfield Capital Management
of volunteers would recommend serving on a City Year project.
City Year Boston /15
fo cus o n
fo cus on
Sustainability
Adaptability
“City Year has been tremendous in terms of not only support, but consistency for our program. We greatly value their work and the individual [team] members are just incredible! I couldn’t speak more highly of them.” corey stallings, director, south street youth center
16/ City Year Boston
City Year is committed to providing high-quality service to BPS that continues to enhance students’ experiences for years to come. In 2015, City Year’s BCE Team launched an initiative to regularly revisit and inspect past projects in order to identify, prioritize, and implement needed maintenance work. These maintenance projects can include repainting walls or schoolyard graphics, touching up murals, and staining benches and picnic tables. In the last year, the department has conducted assessments at 27 past project sites and completed maintenance projects at Boston schools including the Blackstone, Tobin, Hennigan, and UP Academy Dorchester.
SY16 Micro-Projects november College Bound Dorchester
repainted classrooms december BCYF Perkins Community Center
repainted locker rooms january South Street Youth Center
painted murals, repainted teen center february Timilty Middle School
decorated bulletin boards march Lilla G. Frederick K-8
painted a wall mural april McCormack Middle School
repainted main office
City Year’s BCE Team regularly receives requests for service – some big and some small – from schools and community centers throughout the city. To accommodate smaller requests, we created the Micro-Projects initiative in 2015. Once a month from October through April, the team completes small projects with 10-15 volunteers in schools or community centers. These projects can include painting a teachers’ lounge, completing a new wall mural, organizing a storage area or other similar projects. This initiative allows us to be flexible to the needs of all of our partners. We provide smaller volunteer groups the opportunity to engage with our community, and we adapt and respond to the needs of our community partners. City Year Boston /17
s e rv ice projects
Before & After hennigan k-7 scho ol
lill a g. frederick pilot middle scho ol
Get involved the english high scho ol
Interested in learning more about City Year’s service in Boston? Contact a member of our Volunteer Impact team.
MOLLIE PUSKAR Director of Volunteer Impact 617-927-2516
[email protected] JONATHAN PALUMBO Managing Director of External Affairs and Government Partnerships 617-927-2438
[email protected]
holmes elementary scho ol DUAL TEAM SPONSORS
18/City Year Boston
City Year Boston /18
TEAM SPONSORS
City Year Boston / 19
City Year is an education-focused organization founded in 1988 dedicated to helping students and schools succeed. City Year partners with public schools in 27 urban, high-poverty communities across the U.S. and through international affiliates in the U.K. and Johannesburg, South Africa. Diverse teams of City Year AmeriCorps members provide high-impact student, classroom and school-wide support, to help students stay in school and on track to graduate from high school, ready for college and career success. A proud member of the AmeriCorps national service network, City Year is made possible by support from the Corporation for National and Community Service, school district partnerships, and private philanthropy from corporations, foundations and individuals.
BOSTON LEADERSHIP PARTNERS
NATIONAL STRATEGIC PARTNERS
NATIONAL PARTNERS