Education is crucial to the future of the city of Detroit.
With that in mind, City Year Detroit is an organization primarily focused on bridging the gap between students of Detroit Public Schools and their staff members.
Understanding what students really need and want to get out of their school will help the students’ ability to continue to higher education after high school. Although Detroit has improved their graduation rate from 64% to 71% in the last year, according to the CEPI reports of 2013-2014, there is still a lot of room for improvement.
The City Year initiative takes on a holistic approach, appropriately coined “Whole School Whole Child.” The organization will use the help of willing and trained young adults, along with Corps Members (from City Year), to dedicate at least a year of their lives to working in schools and working directly with at-risk students. The goal is to help students achieve success by creating a stronger and more positive learning environment. Schools will benefit from the extra help received by the volunteers willing to sacrifice their time and work, while students will have more access to academic guidance when needed.
With all the new transitions and big changes happening to the infrastructure of Detroit, we end up hearing very little about educational reform and progress happening within the real future of the city, the students of Detroit Public Schools. City Year is working with schools to preemptively identify students most at risk for dropping out and providing them with extra support and attention. Understanding certain trends in behaviors with attendance and course failures from their earlier school records, helps City Year identify these students from the onset of their high school career. If students make it to the 10th grade, they have a 75% chance of graduating.
Here’s where you can help. In honor of this initiative, City Year Detroit will be hosting an awareness event on June 16 from 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. at the Fountain Bistro in Campus Martius. You can buy tickets here or donate to the organization to help further improve the educational system and ability to impact more students in a positive way.
