Introducing The Flame of Idealism An Overview of City Year’s Leadership Development Model BTA 2011

“Give a Year. Change the World.” Change the Inner World Leadership Development Change the Outer World Service

Changing the Outer World: Addressing the Nation’s Dropout Crisis Every 26 seconds A student drops out of school "When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe." - Gen. Colin Powell (Ret), Founding Chair, America’s Promise Alliance Young people of color are most affected o Nearly half of all African-American and Native-American students will not graduate with their class; less than six in 10 Hispanic students will. Dropouts are less likely to be productive members of society o 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. o Over a lifetime, individuals with a high school diploma earn two times that of a high school drop out. The economic impact to society is high o The more than 12 million students projected to drop out over the next decade will cost the nation about three trillion dollars.

The Crisis is Solvable Source: Robert Balfanz and Liza Herzog, Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University. “Unfilled Promise: The Dimensions and Characteristics of Philadelphia’s Dropout Crisis, ,” Ruth Curran Neild, Ph.D and Robert Balfanz, Ph.D Fact: A relatively small number of corps members deployed strategically could make a disproportionate impact on the problem. The Problem is Concentrated Likely Dropouts Can be Identified There are three off-track indicators that can identify likely dropouts as early as 6 th grade: Poor Attendance, Disruptive Behavior, Course Failure in Math/English 50% of the country’s dropouts come from only 12% of the high schools

Whole School, Whole Child Whole School: Creating a positive, welcoming environment with participation in structured group activities to achieve school success Whole Child: Disadvantaged youth benefit from individual academic attention and supportive relationships with adults in which to learn and thrive socially and emotionally Academic Support Positive School Climate After School

Beyond Both/And City Year has always been focused on BOTH Service AND Leadership Development; We have recently achieved a breakthrough understanding of how outer and inner change work together… Service Leadership Development

The Flame of Idealism DO: Civic Action Whole School, Whole Child Heroes Civic Engagement KNOW: Civic Capacity Competency-Based Learning Training Coaching Self-Directed Learning Performance Management BE: Civic Identity The Idealist’s Journey (Personal and Small Group Reflection) Culture Uniforms, PITWs, Founding Stories, Team-Based, & More! Values Together, these promote Idealism & Big Citizenship!

The Flame of Idealism

Key Insights from the Flame 1.EVERYTHING we do at City Year is part of a thoughtful, comprehensive leadership development experience 2.The work of Outer Change (Service) and Inner Change (Leadership Development) is interconnected and interdependent 3.Because we aspire to change the world, we will focus on BOTH outer and inner change this year

Clarity + Integration = Power Service Whole School, Whole Child Leadership Development The Flame of Idealism

Discussion

Final Thought You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -Gandhi