​​​​​​I first learned about City Year when I was at Harvard Law School in 1988, when Michael Brown and Alan Khazei, a few years ahead of me, founded the organization. Since then, I have witnessed the growth of their impact, not just in Boston, but across the country and in South Africa and the United Kingdom. While working in London, I was involved in bringing City Year there via the Private Equity Foundation where I was a founding trustee. When I returned to Boston, I joined the City Year Boston board, and I am now active in supporting the Summit Partners team at UP Academy Middle School. Summit Partners is proud of our long time support of the organization, led by our co-founder Steve Woodsum.

I continue to be inspired by the work City Year Boston AmeriCorps members are doing to work with their students during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have been serving their students continuously since the beginning, and their dedication to the work has been inspiring.

With the work they are doing to support BPS students in this time of crisis, and as they prepare for supporting them in the year ahead, I hope you will join me in supporting City Year Boston this year. 

In March, Boston Public Schools (BPS) announced the closure of all 125 schools citywide. These school closures left 50,000 Boston students without access to in-person schooling.  City Year Boston is working closely with BPS to provide innovative distance learning opportunities to students, adapting our Whole School Whole Child program model to suit virtual spaces.

While teachers continue to provide whole-class instruction using platforms like Google Classroom or Zoom, City Year’s AmeriCorps members are providing academic supports in English language arts/literacy and math by facilitating breakout groups, answering questions, and leading enrichment activities.  Our corps members are assisting teachers in planning lessons and reviewing students’ assignments and holding office hours to provide one-on-one and small-group tutoring.  Importantly, our AmeriCorps members are also supporting students’ social-emotional health and placing phone calls home to students and their families as a way to build connectedness, troubleshoot, and communicate updates. 

City Year Boston is one of the only partners to support Boston Public School students throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

City Year’s support of virtual classrooms is a pivotal step in preventing learning loss and generating opportunities for new learning, as well as ensuring greater equity of experience among families who may not otherwise have the ability to facilitate in-home instruction.  Beyond this school year, City Year will continue to engage in the virtual space to support BPS students and will be in schools next year to support students when they will need more than ever.