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An LA city employee and senior corps member Law Murray strategize their outreach route in South Los Angeles.

As the new school year begins, the Los Angeles Unified School District typically sees high numbers of absent students and potential dropouts. To address this issue, the LAUSD organized its third “Student Recovery Day” in which volunteers help recover “No-Show” students; those students who did not return to school for the fall semester. Our 200 corps members, along with employees from the District, the Mayor’s Office and LA’s Community Development Department, deployed to schools all over Los Angeles – from the Valley, to the beaches, East LA, and everywhere in between – going door-to-door to locate students who have not returned and provide them with the support and encouragement they need to go back to school. We also engaged local businesses and asked them to post resources for students who have dropped out. It takes a village for our students to succeed and we were proud to be a part of the city’s efforts to get students back in school and on track to graduate.

A local store owner displaying dropout recovery information for his patrons.

An example of the beautiful street art found in South LA.

By Kristopher Capello, City Year Los Angeles Training Manager

City Year Los Angeles’ 2010 Basic Training Academy, four weeks of day-long trainings preparing corps members to serve as tutors, mentors, and role models in schools across Los Angeles, kicked off on August 17th.

As training manager, this was a huge day for me.

Taking into account a year’s worth of input from the amazing 2009-2010 corps, we started planning for the 2010-2011 corps back in March. From this input, we knew that trainings with more than 150 people together would need to be reconsidered; material would have to be more focused; days would need to be more thematically organized; and at every level, we needed to incorporate City Year’s culture and values into content.

So we built BTA around small learning communities, with most sessions happening with no more than 35 participants, allowing for more discussion and engagement. This initially posed quite a few logistical questions, the most pressing being: With six sessions running simultaneously: where could we hold these trainings and who would facilitate them?

Fortunately, three of our middle school partners, John Liechty, Stevenson, Berendo, offered classrooms, while our staff and senior corps jumped at the opportunity to develop and lead trainings.

We held days dedicated to literacy, mathematics, behavior, and more of the information and skills that corps members need to be effective in supporting students stay in school and on track. With great literacy content supported by the Walmart foundation along with other materials from City Year’s Summer Academy (sponsored by Comcast), Corps Members were provided with a wide array of information that readied them for service.

Aside from practical skills, however, the most exciting for me was watching the corps begin the transition into being a community of education professionals, sharing ideas, questions, and experiences in passionate and profound discussions.

BTA was just the beginning of Corps Member development, both in terms of their service specific to working with youth in academic settings, but also the broader leadership development goals of City Year, and the Corps showed that they took both their development and their service to students and the city extremely seriously. It is exciting to realize that this is only the beginning of the year and we will all work together to continue these discussions, share best practices, and consistently increase our impact with students through our training days on Fridays.  I look forward to using this time to innovate in our work and take on the charge of being a community of education professionals.

“…To the giants who wore it before me.”
“…To those serving overseas.”
“…To hoping for a better tomorrow.”

On Friday, September 10th, we the City Year Los Angeles corps, completed our final day of BTA (Basic Training Academy). On this day we received our yellow bomber jackets, in the traditional Jacket Ceremony. There is no better way to mark the end of the beginning. On this last day of training, before our launch into a new service year in the great communities of LA, we the 2010 – 2011 CYLA corps became a mighty force in yellow. We are now full fledged teams. We now wear the uniform that children in schools around the country will recognize as a symbol of love, safety, inspiration, and so much more.

This jacket will help us throughout the year. Sometimes it will feel like a cape, as unfamiliar children will call out to us, smiling, as if we are super heroes they’ve seen in action.  At other times, it will be a symbol and a reminder of our purpose. When we look at our bombers, we will think back on the early days, remembering how excited we were to meet those kids and incorporate all the skills we learned in the past weeks and remember why we chose to give a year and change the world. We will remember who and what we dedicated those bombers to, and why.

“…To my ancestors, who survived slavery, Jim Crow… and here I am now.”
“…To my mom, who dedicated her life to me.”
“…To my beloved community… Los Angeles.”

This year, we will perform over 350,000 hours service by supporting students at 14 LAUSD elementary and middle schools, developing middle and high school students as leaders in their community and beautifying the communities we serve. This is going to be an amazing year. We are going to do amazing things.

I dedicate my bomber to the 1,700 corps members across the nation serving alongside me, giving a year to make an impact, to do something bigger than ourselves. The people and communities we serve this year will never forget us, nor will we ever forget them. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for proudly wearing that City Year bomber.

By Lorena Fiori, Team Leader at Normandie Avenue Elementary

Team Leader Jyrell Barrientos kicks it off with a break session at Opening Ceremonies.

As the Spirit Chant builds to a roar, I know it’s time for City Year’s annual Basic Training Retreat (BTR). It is Wednesday morning and the newest group of City Year corps members is gathered at headquarters. They’ve arrived with their luggage, as well as their jittery nerves, to find that our office has been transformed and Opening Ceremonies are about to begin. This ceremony will mark the beginning of the much anticipated POWERlympics.  The energy in the room is palpable.  As a senior corps member this is the day that I’ve been awaiting; the day when we would leave downtown as 16 cheering groups, but return as yet another united corps. This year more than 200 corps members will make L.A neighborhoods their own as tutors in the classroom, mentors on the playground and role models after the last bell rings. This day, as the office rattles with stomping feet, marks the beginning of that journey.

To solidify the importance of this moment we gather as a senior corps. “This is it…,” someone whispers, it begins now whether we saw it coming or not. Our approach for this trip will set the tone for the retreat and quite possibly the entire year. So we listen intently as Allison, our Executive Director, commemorates the event. We part the crowd with the now coveted Spirit Stick and wait as the cheer grows louder. Spirit…Spirit…Spirit! In the final moments before we depart, I catch the eye of a former teammate and smile. The corps is here.

It is only Day 1 of BTR and nature has tested the fortitude of our incoming corps. After countless hours spent preparing for our POWERlympics we now have to re-structure our games and accommodate for the changing weather. We depart for the mountains with news of thunderstorms and hail. We may have to forgo the relay race. As we near the steep hill we see that one of our buses has broken down. Again, nature and its heat have put a damper on our plans. We bring water and granola bars to those stranded, and I begin to wonder how this group will remain flexible. After waiting in the sun for hours I know it will be difficult.

 As they casually stroll in to dinner, I’m made aware that this last group has been in transit for 6 hours. I see their weathered faces, but the fire in their eyes is not lost. Maybe this would be their true test of spirit. We call for the beginning of the games and Eagle Lodge explodes. Teams emerge with war paint, colored bandanas and chants. Could we ever have imagined it to be this powerful? After over an hour of brain teasers, silent opera and sponge bucket, our voices are hoarse, but the day is redeemed. I overhear a group of corps members say that “…the ride was totally worth it,” and I know Olympics has done its job. The idealist in me can’t help but wonder how BTR will set the pace for their City Year. After seeing the warriors emerge I know this group will be victorious. 

The corps gathers as we begin the games.

First photo as a group. CYLA 2010-2011.

Beautiful Alpine Meadows sunset.

What is it like when the ENTIRE City Year network comes together for 8-days of training in Boston? Check out Arthur’s reflections appearing on Good.is to find out!

Graduation PT

Last night we celebrated the accomplishments of the 2010 City Year Los Angeles corps during CYLA’s graduation ceremony held at the Aratari Japan/America Theater in Little Tokyo. We were joined by over 400 community partners, sponsors,  friends and family members and were honored to have special guest Jason Bateman deliver the keynote address.  The night also featured a beautiful musical performance by team leaders Sarah Espinosa and Lucia Mota and an inspirational speech by corps member Christine Castillo. This year’s corps performed over 250,000 hours of service and made a difference in the lives of over 2,000 children. Clearly, we had much to celebrate.

Congratulations to the 2010 CYLA corps!

Corps members Tommy Dierkes and Laura Mariscal with Jason Bateman

2010 City Year Los Angeles Corps

We have always known that for our corps members with musical skills, the year inspires and unleashes some amazing musical creativity. In order to capture this remarkable talent, we launched Idealism Rocks; this year is represents our second annual City Year songwriting contest!

The contest serves the following purposes:

• Unleashes the creativity of the City Year network
• Builds community
• Inspires idealism
• Shares the power of the service experience with the world

The contest was open to all current City Year corps members and staff. We received some impressive submissions from corps members and staff from across the City Year network. All submissions were reviewed by a panel of judges comprised of City Year corps members, staff, and senior leaders. This year we were honored to have a guest celebrity judge: Chad Stokes, lead singer of State Radio!

Songs were judged according to the following criteria:

1) Technical skills (quality of musicianship, vocals and music is in tune, etc)
2) Creativity (Songwriting is catchy, innovative, interesting, engaging, etc)
3) Idealism (The song conveys an idealistic message)
4) Overall Artistic Impact (The song’s overall power and impact)

CYLA is proud to have TWO winning submissions: Bigger Than Me by Briana Stevens and Christine Castillo and The Long Road by Sarah Espinosa and Lucia Mota!

Take a listen to all the winners: http://www.myspace.com/idealismrocks2