City Year, Inc. will focus on growing national service opportunities and bringing more tutors and mentors to schools and organizations focused on helping youth reach their potential
Student Success Coach Learning Network
Los Angeles, March 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — City Year, Inc. announced today a continuation of the Student Success Coach Learning Network (SSCLN) with a focus on recruiting and retaining student success coaches. The network is supported by a Student Success Coach Grant Program administered by California Volunteers and aims to enhance youth national service for education-based programs across the state.
In this new phase of the SSCLN, City Year, an education nonprofit focused on advancing student and school success, will lead recruitment and retention focused training and technical assistance for existing AmeriCorps California education programs. This new initiative will strengthen programs like City Year that provide tutoring and mentoring in schools and other nonprofit organizations across the state by supporting the recruitment of AmeriCorps members. Additionally, City Year Los Angeles, City Year San Jose, and City Year Sacramento will receive a direct investment into the operation of their existing student success coach programs.
“Over the last two years, over 1,100 student success coaches in the California SSC Learning Network have reached over 76,000 students across 25 cities in California, and we now have an opportunity with this continued partnership to help even more young adults reach their potential,” says Jim Balfanz, City Year CEO. “Their service has helped students improve academic performance and been credited with increases in attendance.”
Student success coaches (SSCs) are near-peer tutors, mentors and role models who are mature enough to offer students guidance yet young enough to relate to students’ perspectives. Their near-peer status uniquely positions them to build positive relationships with students and become another trusted adult at school, which research shows can help increase student engagement and motivation. SSCs partner with classroom teachers, providing 1:1 tutoring, small group instruction, interpersonal skills coaching, afterschool programs, and school-wide activities designed to enrich a school’s environment for teaching and learning.
In 2021, California Volunteers and City Year established a partnership focused on supporting key drivers of student success, including strong student-coach relationships and ongoing learning and development. This initiative created the SSCLN, which has increased SSC deployment among partner organizations by more than 22% over the two-year period. Organizations where SSCs are serving who are tracking impact on academic performance report that 77% of students saw improvement in their yearly grades.
Sandra Cano, executive director of City Year Los Angeles, said: “The learning network will allow City Year to support California’s AmeriCorps education portfolio’s recruitment efforts through quarterly learning workshops, statewide marketing and media campaigns, a digital application tool, and more. With the lingering impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the education sector, lack of awareness of opportunity, cost of living increases, competitive job markets, and other challenges, increased investment in recruitment is needed more than ever.”
“Student success coaches play a critical role in ensuring California students receive the support they need to thrive,” said California Volunteers Chief Service Officer and GO-Serve Director Josh Fryday. “Not only do the students benefit, but this initiative also provides AmeriCorps members with valuable experience preparing them for their own futures but also California’s future teacher workforce.”
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About City Year
City Year is a trailblazing, youth-powered organization that strives to create conditions that enable young people to meet their full potential, build leadership skills, and contribute to vibrant communities, through national service. Research shows the more time a student spends with a City Year AmeriCorps member serving as student success coach, the better the student outcomes—academically, interpersonally and in terms of attendance. A public-private partnership, City Year is a proud member of AmeriCorps, operating in 29 U.S. cities with international affiliates in the U.K. and South Africa. Today, 40,000 alums continue to lead and serve where they live and work. Learn more about City Year’s six areas of impact: www.cityyear.org, Facebook, X and LinkedIn.
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CONTACT: Joe Zappala City Year 607.339.1098 joseph.zappala@cityyear.org
