City Year Kansas City

At City Year, we believe education has the power to help every student reach his or her potential. Yet last year, nationally nearly 750,000 students dropped out of school. In Kansas City Public Schools, nearly one third of students don't graduate each year.

City Year is an education-focused, non-profit organization that works to curb the high school drop-out crisis by deploying diverse, near-peer AmeriCorps members to high-need urban schools for full-time tutoring and mentoring of off-track students. As tutors, mentors, and role models, these young leaders - all between the ages of 18 and 25 - make a difference in the lives of students all day, every day for an entire year. City Year AmeriCorps members partner with school staff to monitor student performance on the early warning indicators - Attendance, Behavior, and Course performance, the ABCs - which research shows can identify students at risk of dropping out as early as sixth grade. AmeriCorps members provide students who are off-track in the ABCs with one-on-one and small group, research-based interventions to help get them back on-track.

Founded in 1988, City Year nationally has 3,100 AmeriCorps members working working with 210,000 students at 313 schools in 28 cities. City Year Kansas City is one of the newest City Year sites, founded in fall 2015. After a successful pilot year with 16 AmeriCorps members serving at two schools, City Year Kansas City is proud to expand to 50 AmeriCorps members serving at five schools this year.