Conducted by Cornell University in collaboration with City Year, Inc, and with support from Einhorn Collaborative. the study also reveals that the AmeriCorps service experience builds the capacity to work with diverse teams
City Year Alumni Bridging Study
Boston, July 10, 2024 – City Year and Cornell University, with support from Einhorn Collaborative, have released the findings of a study that provide new evidence of the importance of national service to young people and how service supports workforce development and promotes engaged citizenship.
The City Year Alumni Bridging Study draws from survey responses from over 2,000 City Year AmeriCorps alumni who served as student success coaches and mentors in systemically under-resourced schools across the U.S. between 2012-2022. The study, conducted by Cornell University’s Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement, also included one-on-one interviews with a subset of survey respondents.
A major theme emerging from the study is that an AmeriCorps experience can prepare young people with many of the essential skills that are most in demand by employers today and in the next five years, as identified in the 2023 Future of Jobs report by the World Economic Forum. These core skills include creative thinking, empathy, resilience and leadership, among others.
City Year alumni also reported their experience helped them to work across lines of difference, enabling them to navigate working effectively and collaboratively with diverse teams in the workplace.
“Understanding and embracing difference is critical to professional and personal success, at work and in life, so we are encouraged to see that service is contributing positively to corps members’ growth and development in this area,” said Jessica Proett, City Year’s senior director of external evaluation. “The skills that corps members gain are also being nurtured in the students they serve, opening their eyes to the value of community and how public service can change lives.”
Other notable findings relate to the impact of national service, with alumni saying that they felt more prepared to continue with their commitment to community engagement,
Read an overview of the key findings of the Alumni Bridging Study: https://www.cityyear.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Cornell_Study_Overview_City_Year_01.17.24.pdf 