Success in Our Schools: City Year Transforms Learning Culture.

What if education could be the key to breaking the cycle of generational poverty? Join me as I explore this concept with our insightful guests, Macey Amissah McKinney and Josefina Avena Garcia from City Year. We uncover how City Year strategically places young adults as Student Success Coaches in Sacramento's under-resourced schools, where they serve as full-time tutors and mentors. Josefina, who has risen from an AmeriCorps member to a team leader, shares her inspiring journey toward earning teaching credentials, illustrating the profound impact that dedicated mentors can have on student success.

We'll discuss the vital role of English Language Arts education and community partnerships in fostering a welcoming and dynamic school environment. Discover the unique ways City Year builds trust and supports the holistic development of students, working alongside organizations like the Boys and Girls Club and Improve Your Tomorrow. Together, they significantly enhance student success by improving graduation rates and attendance, while transforming schools into more inviting spaces for learning and growth. Through their steadfast commitment, City Year members become reliable figures in students' lives, sometimes even more consistent than family due to the hectic pace of everyday life.

We also touch on the challenges City Year faces, particularly potential funding cuts, and how they've adapted to these realities. Macey and Josefina offer their perspectives on the resilience and dedication required to make a lasting impact in breaking generational poverty through education. Join us for this compelling conversation about the power of perseverance, community, and education in shaping brighter futures.

For more information on City Year, visit the website HERE

To reach Macey Amissah-McKinney directly, her email is: mmckinney@cityear.org

(00:00) City Year
City Year recruits young adults as tutors and mentors to improve students' attendance, social-emotional learning, and academic performance.

(12:54) Improving Education Through Community Support
City Year program improves ELA education, graduation rates, attendance, and school culture through trust and growth mindset.

(16:08) Building Trust Through Community Partnerships
City Year members build trust and relationships in schools, collaborate with community organizations, and participate in beautification projects.

(25:13) Enhancing Support Systems for AmeriCorps
Adapting to funding cuts, AmeriCorps reflects on resilience and prioritizes core member support and mental health.

(35:54) Breaking Generational Poverty Through Education
City Year breaks generational poverty through education in underserved communities, expanding to 8 schools in Sacramento.

Thank you so much for listening! We appreciate you. Please visit the website to sign up for our email updates and newsletter. https://www.nonprofpod.com/ And if you like, leave me a voicemail to comment on the program, leave a question for us to ask in the future or a message for me, Jeff Holden. I may even use your voice mail message in a future episode. https://www.nonprofpod.com/voicemail. Thanks again for your support in listening, commenting and sharing the great work our local nonprofits are accomplishing.

Transcript

Macey Amissah-McKinney: [00:00:00] I'll say that students who participate in a City Year program are two to three times more likely to graduate high school on track and on time than students who are not in a City Year program. We see that translate over to attendance, and so our students that are working with the City Year also have higher rates of attendance.

They're excited to show up to class to see that City Year Corps member every day. Our city or schools are showing greater improvement in attendance compared to some of the schools who had to have similar demographics that don't have a city air on that campus.

Jeff Holden: Hi, I'm Jeff Holden. Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. Our purpose and passion is to highlight a nonprofit organization in each weekly episode, giving that organization an opportunity to tell their story. In their words, to better inform and [00:01:00] educate the respective communities they serve, as well as provide one more tool for them to share their message to constituents and donors.

Our goal is to help build stronger communities through shared voices and to both encourage and support the growth of local nonprofit organizations through podcasting. I'm thrilled to welcome SMUD Shine Awards as our episode sponsor supporting our nonprofit community with grants for more efficient energy usage.

With continuing thanks to our founding partners, captrust, fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations and Western Health Advantage, a full service healthcare plan for individuals, employer groups, and families. As this episode releases. Federal funding for nonprofits is in disarray and AmeriCorps is undergoing monumental changes, creating uncertainty for programs traditionally supported by federal funds.

Despite these challenges, the episode highlights the value of AmeriCorps in sustaining the impactful work of City Year in Sacramento's [00:02:00] under-resourced schools. My guests, senior Vice President and Executive Director Macy Amisa McKinney, and team Leader Josefina Avena Garcia, discuss City Year's mission to recruit young adults as student success coaches to improve student attendance, social emotional learning, and academic performance.

Josefina shares her journey from an AmeriCorps member to a team leader pursuing teacher credentials. The episode emphasizes the role of English language arts in improving graduation rates and the importance of community partnerships. City Year's resilience and dedication to breaking generational poverty through education are celebrated.

Highlighting the commitment of the AmeriCorps members, Mac Kinney and Josefina Avena Garcia, welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Thanks for having us. Thank you. 

Jeff Holden: City Year. It's a familiar name to our inner city schools, but not as much as you're getting into the greater Sacramento area. Could you [00:03:00] explain Macy what the program really is all about?

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Yeah, I'd love to. So City Year is a education and workforce development nonprofit. We recruit young people, ages 17 to 25 to serve full-time as tutors and mentors in schools. And so really our mission is to provide the additional human capacity that some of our under-resourced schools need for students to succeed.

We focus on attendance, social emotional learning, and then the academic kind of coursework. So making sure that students who are behind kind of get some additional. Tutoring, um, intervention, small group supports, kind of get them back on track so they can be on track to graduate high school with the largest number of options.

At the same time, we're developing these amazing young adults who are kind of coming to us for a year of service, giving them tangible life skills, the hard skill that they'll need, and their next steps of life as they're trying to figure out like what careers they wanna do, what pathways they wanna take, but really just developing their leadership opportunities so they can kind of be positive, contributing members of society.

Jeff Holden: So what's my next step when I grow up, right? Yeah. So you really are a two-pronged program. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Yes. 

Jeff Holden: You [00:04:00] are certainly beneficial to the students and the impact you make on their education through your group of members. I, I don't know what you actually call them, the city, your team, the 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: student success coaches is what we're calling them.

Thank you. Yeah, 

Jeff Holden: thank you. And Josefina, that is what you are, you are one of the student success coaches, correct? 

Josefina Avena Garcia: Yes, I am a second year team leader, Americorp. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. And tell me a little bit about your experience as you, you've now morphed into the organization for almost two years. 

Josefina Avena Garcia: Yeah, so I started off as a first year AmeriCorps member, so I'm in the classroom helping the students with a lot of small groups.

Then during my second year, I transitioned into a service leader, which there was a shift from being in the classroom. And also working one-on-one with the Impact Manager to help out the team. And then finally I transition into Team Leader completely [00:05:00] being removed from the classroom, still with the ability to work with students, but more ensuring that the team that I'm working with at this school has their needs met.

Jeff Holden: And tell me, what is your end goal? What, what happens when your time with City Year ends? What do you want to do? 

Josefina Avena Garcia: Well now after experiencing working with children, I am gonna be pursuing my teaching credentials. 

Jeff Holden: Wonderful. 

Josefina Avena Garcia: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Which we so desperately need. 

Josefina Avena Garcia: Yes. 

Jeff Holden: Macy, do we see the schools that have City Year student success coaches in them?

Mm-hmm. Adopt those. Student success coaches as its employees? At some point 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: they do. So all of our schools have a city or alum in some capacity on staff. So whether that's a teacher in the classroom as a para educator, but all the six schools we currently serve do have city or alumni on staff. 

Jeff Holden: And tell us a little bit about those six schools.

How do they [00:06:00] become one of the schools? 'cause I'm imagining if I'm running one of those schools, I want as many as. Your student success coaches as I can possibly get? Yes, 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: there is a waiting list for City Year, I would imagine. So we first came to Sacramento in 2012. Um, then Superintendent, superintendent Jonathan Raymond had designated priority schools.

And so these were some of our most underperforming schools in the district. And so City Year got placed into five of those schools and they kind of worked with the school administration, the principals at the time to kinda identify who really had the need for city here. So they were probably behind on both their academic scores far below the state and the district average.

And we're really struggling with attendance, making sure that students are showing up consistently. And so we put, we went into those five schools, so those are the same five schools that we are still currently serving. And then we added a six one a few years ago. But all those schools are in communities where we know they just aren't necessarily as many resources.

There's probably a high concentrate concentration of poverty. There's a high language need. So whether that's an immigrant population that kind of. Has different needs. So we're trying to make sure [00:07:00] that those things are met, that teachers can kind of focus on. Teaching and then we're kind of able to differentiate the, the needs that are in the classroom.

So whether that's recognizing when students are coming to school hungry and getting, making sure that they eat and whether there are different things going on in the home that might be distracting from their ability to focus and getting them connected to the school social worker. Um, and so I really see City is really filling a lot of those gaps that schools have that they just don't have the capacity to address when you have one teacher kind of focusing on teaching 24 students who are all coming in with many different needs.

Jeff Holden: Boy. Oh boy. There's questions I didn't ask in our template, but you just teed them up. I'm gonna have to ask those. Obviously Spanish is probably a second language or primary language for you, so you have the ability to interface with some of those classrooms. But what about all the Asian dialects and some of the, the Ukrainian and Russian?

How on earth do you service that community in those schools? So [00:08:00] 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: we are very intentional in our recruitment efforts, and we actually really try to recruit locally so that our board members, our student success coaches kind of match the demographic of the students we're serving. And so we have Spanish speakers in our core.

We have Hmong speakers in the core. I, so we've had Tagalog in the past. I said Russian not as much. And so we really, really struggle. Probably are like more of the Middle Eastern languages. Mm-hmm. I said, and our core members are phenomenal at using Google Translate and kind of any other resource Sure.

That they can get their hands on. And I said that's really common though, is that we will come in with students who maybe. A month or two into the country and they're being placed into a seventh grade classroom, have no idea how to speak the language, and so we're just trying to make sure that one, they feel welcomed on campus, that they feel that there's a safe space.

There's an adult can kind of pay them a little bit more attention, but we're focusing on teaching them the letters of the English alphabet at seventh grade or sixth grade grade or fifth grade 

Jeff Holden: even. That's so far advanced. What a, yeah. Baptism by fire for sure. Correct. And 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: then recognizing that they're not necessarily, it's not that they're dumb or like don't know anything.

No. They just don't speak the [00:09:00] language. Right. And so how do we kind of make sure that they can learn the language so they can kind of start to absorb the rest of the information in the rest of their classes? Math is usually one that's really fun to see. 'cause numbers are kind of universal for the most part.

And so we're able to kind of apply some of their language skills to other things that they're learning at the same time. 

Jeff Holden: Critical with STEM being such an important element for the future employment of anybody coming outta school. The schools, you've got the six schools that you serve today, I'm sure the list, as long as you had mentioned, what dictates whether or not a school can be accommodated by City Year.

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Yeah. So we work with Sac City Unified School District as our primary partner. And so we work closely with our district liaison and the superintendent to really kind of identify the schools that have needs. So we'll be adding two new schools next school year. So we're really excited about that. And so I kind of went through a interview process, went out and visited the campuses with my managing director of Impact, got to talk to the principals, kind of learn more about their needs, but.

I tell [00:10:00] folks it's really about making sure it's a good fit, that the culture is gonna be there, that teachers are ready. Sometimes it's not always easy having a second adult in your classroom, and so making sure that there's reception to city and the service that we can provide, but also acknowledging that our young people are often.

Fresh out of high school or college. It is a 10 month program. And so we teach 'em as much as we can in the first two months that they're here. They go through a pretty extensive training with us, but there's an expectation that those teachers that they're being partnered with, they're also mentoring them and helping kind of coach and develop them.

And so there's a willingness and it's a two-way street of, yes, we're gonna bring in this additional capacity, but we also kind of need you all to meet us halfway and help give them the rest of the skills that they may not have. And so really it's kinda like a marriage we're looking for, like what are both sides bringing to the table and how do we make sure that it's going to be a good fit if.

There's too many things going on. Our Corps members are not licensed and clinical social workers and things like that. It's gonna be really hard for us to kind of fit in and kind of meet the needs of the students of that community. We don't wanna be doing a disservice, and we wanna make sure that also there's a need.

So if kids are for the most part [00:11:00] on track, like that's probably not a school we're gonna go to despite. How nice would it be, right to have a few extra hands on campus. And so I think there are probably schools that are often overlooked who may not have a lot of other community resources on campus. Yeah.

So if like you have the Boys and Girls Club and the help from the local church down the street, like that's probably not necessarily gonna be the best fit either, really making sure, like we're going to the schools that are probably a little bit more overlooked. 

Jeff Holden: So you're gonna have eight schools next year, which congratulations.

That's a big deal. It's 25% of your, 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: thank you. Yeah, it is 

Jeff Holden: capacity at this point. The core members are 10 month programs. However, Jose is two years as I understand what dictates whether somebody crosses over longer than their 10 months. Or or not? 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Yeah, so we offer a second year program and essentially they're able to apply to come back a second year.

We open up that application usually around the winter break, and it's pretty amazing. I said, we're probably about five months into the program. How many of them are already like, yes, I'm having a great time. I'm seeing the impact that I'm making, and I am interested in coming back for a second year. And so we don't take everyone, there's a, they have to apply to come back for a second [00:12:00] year.

This year we were really fortunate where I would say about. 50% of our eligible first Year Corps members chose to submit an application to come back for a second year service. Wow. So we have a wait list for that for the second years as well. Good problem. To have. A good problem to have. And so I think just they don't always feel like they're done.

I think when we open up the application, we know they're not done, and so they're able to kind of think about, oh, I've seen such amazing progress already in the first five months. I can only imagine what it'll look like to be able to start a second year where I'm already trained, I know what I'm doing, and be able to hit the ground running.

And so often I think we see the greatest impact to usually in that second year with our returning Corps members who kind of don't need as much training, don't need as much support, and can really often follow the student, the same students that they worked with their first year. And so getting to work with them in second and third grade, um, it's a huge benefit.

They know how the school works, they know, have the relationships with school staff, with administrators to kind of make a, an even bigger impact. 

Jeff Holden: We're gonna get to impact in just a second, but for the benefit of the audience who's hearing City Year schools, what grades do you [00:13:00] impact? Where do you. Place The members?

Yes. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: So we're in elementary, middle school here in Sacramento, and then really doing targeted focus support in second through eighth grade. And so when I say targeted focus support, I mean we're doing small groups and like one-on-one support for those, those kids in those classrooms. But we do do whole school support.

And so kindergarten, first grade also kind of received some City Year support as well in the form of whole school initiative. So we run things like spirit days and. Cultural heritage celebrations. We help out with some of the larger school assemblies and things that are happening. Um, but just making sure that like everyone gets a touch ofid air mm-hmm.

Um, in some form or capacity. 

Jeff Holden: Now, Jose fin, I'm gonna come over to you for a second because into your second year, what did you notice that you didn't experience in the first? 

Josefina Avena Garcia: Being so focused on just one classroom, you kind of don't have the same time to interact with the whole school and build relationships with other grades [00:14:00] as much.

And now out of the classroom, I'm with all the students from all the grades at all the recesses. I have more time to talk with staff and get to know with staff. So you notice more needs. You notice more, more gaps that you have to fill. Then you feel also more confident in being able to do those things.

So that's like the, the major, the major difference. 

Jeff Holden: Macy, we talked about impact it, it comes up in, in everything and everybody wants to know KPIs and what are the key, key performance indicators and what are the metrics look like. 57% of the students who started the school year with a D or an F. In A, B, C, or in English Language arts, 63% of the students in math have all seen the significant increases as a result of the City Year contribution.

Tell us a little bit about [00:15:00] that impact that you're seeing and the value of the programs to the schools. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: So we're very impact focused, data-driven organization, and so we assess our students about three times a year, and it's really about noticing what things are lacking. So. I'm a fourth grader, but I'm missing maybe basic addition and subtraction skills.

How do we make sure that we're able to kind of go back. Do the foundational elements so that they can kind of then use that to do multiplication and division. Mm-hmm. But we're kind of seeing that really expand. So one of our schools, father Keith Kinney, I said their, their ELA scores were actually some of the highest kind of in district in terms of their growth.

Jeff Holden: ELA, English Language Arts. English Language 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Arts. Yep. Sorry. And so. Just being able to think, work with, along with admin and figure out what is the need and that looks different on each campus. Maybe what their kind of target focus is for that year, but really trying to make sure that we, that kids know how to read that they understand like the sounds that the letters make and things like that.

How the, the letters go together. We're [00:16:00] oftentimes, we're spending so much time on learning how to read that we're not, or fluency that we're like. We really struggle with comprehension. So just because I was able to read the sentence doesn't mean I have any idea. I just said what I read, what I just said.

And so how do we kind of bridge the gap for those two things? But I'll say that students who participate in a City Year program are two to three times more likely to graduate high school on track and on time than students who are not in a City Year program. We see that translate over to attendance, and so our students that are working with the City Year also have higher rates of attendance.

They're excited to show up to class. To see that City Air Corps member every day. Our city air schools are showing greater improvement in attendance than some of the, compared to some of the schools who have to have similar demogra demographics, um, that don't have a city air team on that campus. And so it's takes some time.

I'm not saying that it's like an overnight, but because we've had these really long standing partnerships, we've been able to see that shift of some of our schools who were at the bottom. Like I said, the priority designation when we first started, [00:17:00] they're not considered. Priority schools anymore, they've been able to see significant shifts and kind of make gains based upon that reoccurring really support that they're getting year after year after year.

So I tell folks, I say, we may not get a student back on track in one year, but that. Fourth grader who was two or three grade levels behind by the time they get to sixth or seventh grade, they're usually on track. But that's because they've had a city here for three years now, and each person who contributes is able to kind of make a, an impact and kind of slowly move that needle.

And whether that's helping them build their confidence so that they can ask for help when they need it, and it's not just the academics is kind of, we really focus on how do we support that whole. Child, how do we give them a growth mindset where they know that like I can learn, I'm willing to try to do hard things.

Um, 'cause oftentimes it's not, they may be behind, but it's not just because they don't know the content, it's because of some of the mindsets that they've developed and some of the beliefs that they have about themselves that we really try to kind of undo to let them know that. You can do it. I think that's probably just as important as the [00:18:00] academic tutoring that our members provide.

Jeff Holden: Absolutely. Building the confidence and that one step at a time just breeds more and more and more confidence every time they have a success moving forward. You've seen the organization for some time? 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: I have. 

Jeff Holden: Because you've been here from the very beginning about 13 years ago, right? Correct. From its inception to today.

What would you say you've seen as the greatest benefit? Its greatest impact, knowing it from the very, very beginning and that equity that you've got of understanding. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: I think our probably greatest impact has been on really shifting some of the climate and culture on our campuses. I. I think making school a place where kids are excited to come, to learn to try.

I think one of the biggest things we worked on our first couple of years was just building trust with the communities that we were serving. I think so many of our students are used to having folks who kind of come in and leave and maybe like don't remain committed to them. And so there was a lack of trust of just like, are you still going to be here?

Mm-hmm. [00:19:00] In six months? And I think that is one thing we really impress upon our core members is that they are making a year long commitment to students, to showing up. Every day to not being another adult in their life who's just not going to show up, who's not going to be there when they need them. And so I think whether that's Corps members who are choosing to come back for a second year, that kind of understand that commitment.

And so I tell them when I first started it was like, who are these weird people and these yellow jackets on our campus, and probably for the first couple of years, there's a lot of like reluctance to engage with the city or team that would take us two to three months to kind of. Really get kids to kind of loosen up to like trust our presence on campus and realize, yeah.

Right. Prove to me that you're 

Jeff Holden: gonna be here when I need you. Correct. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Establishing that respect and said, now, I said it takes maybe two weeks, three weeks for like the New Corps members are able to come in because of the respect and the goodwill that's been built up over the years, and so they're able to get to work a lot faster because.

Students trust the yellow jacket. They know what that yellow jacket symbolizes, that there's going to be this young person who's going to be here all year to support [00:20:00] me. There's this team of them that I can go to and if, if not Ms. Josefina, who's in my class, then I can go to see why Lily, who's going to also be able to help me because she's a city, or whether they're in my class or they're in a different class and there's just trust.

I think that's the biggest thing we've built, and not only with our students, I'll say with our parents, with our teachers, with the staff on campus of like. These are young adults, but they're responsible. They're committed. They're gonna show up, they're willing to work late hours. They're willing to kind of step in and do the things that other folks may not necessarily want to do.

And so really, I just, just proving that. There's nothing too small for us, and we're really willing to step in to meet the need because we care about student success. 

Jeff Holden: Well, and that support and familiarity in some cases could be a longer time spent with a City Year and or teacher in those schools than they do with a parent.

Because the parents are working, they're running around and they have so much to do, especially single parent families, where you really do become, you know, a mentor, a teacher, an [00:21:00] instructor. Quote unquote parent to support those kids, especially after the second year when they know, oh wow, yeah, Ms.

Josefina iss back again. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Mm-hmm. 

Jeff Holden: Yay. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: And so city Ears, I said, we're often the first ones on campus, they start their day at seven 30. So we get there before a lot of the staff, sometimes, and they're usually the last ones to leave. They help support the afterschool program. They're there at recess, they're there at lunch, they're in their classroom.

Um, they are probably the adult that most kids are seeing for like the longest period of time throughout their day. 

Jeff Holden: We'll continue our discussion with City Year's Senior Vice President and Executive Director Macy Amisa McKinney, and student success coach Josea Aina Garcia. Immediately following the messages from those who make our program possible.

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I specialize in working with local nonprofits and associations. Annually, we survey private and public nonprofit organizations across the country to better understand challenges they see in today's environment. [00:23:00] In our more recent survey, we heard concerns about proper board governance, mission aligned investment, and how to implement alternative investments.

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Jeff Holden: Tell me a little bit about collaboration. Who do you see that you work with? I mean I, you had already mentioned a couple, and I can only imagine, but I want you to tell me some of the other organizations that interface with City Year as they go through the process.

Macey Amissah-McKinney: So I think on campus oftentimes is probably our afterschool partners, the Boys and Girls Club, other organizations such as IMP Improve Tomorrow, or the Roberts Family Development Center folks who are kind of also supporting our students in those communities. But we also really try to. Make sure that we are embedded in the larger Sacramento community.

And so we do service days on the weekends kind of during some of our breaks. And so partnering with MLK 365 for mm-hmm the big march that happens at Sac City to the convention center. And so that's where a big opportunity for us to [00:24:00] kind of engage and kind of with the community outside of our schools.

I said we help the Earl Warren School staff with the garden that they run on the weekends to make sure that there's right healthy food and flowers and things for folks to look at. 

Jeff Holden: Food banks, do you touch on any of the food bank services we have in 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: the past? And I think it kind of just shifts based upon folks coming to us on what that need may look like.

We recently did an Earth Day cleanup with the Stockton Boulevard partnership, who actually saw us at MLK Day. Exactly. Perfect. Love the energy. Then came like the synergy. That's what I love to hear. They're like, we love how you all work and are you all available? And so we were able to come out and help them provide a lot more volunteers for their Earth Day cleanup.

And so I think really just trying to be. Available when folks kind of have those additional needs. We do our own kind of neighborhood cleanups and just making sure like not only the Oak Park, which is where our office is located, the area around our office looks good, but also we do beautification projects on our, mm-hmm.

Many of our school campuses. So partnering with organizations such as Kaiser Bank of America to, they help us kind of get the [00:25:00] funding and the resources and the extra volunteers and we're able to do some pretty. School things in about eight hours to really revitalize the campus. Things like that. 

Jeff Holden: Just back to that bonding with the students and or the school to say, look what we're doing, not only at the school, but in our community as well.

Josefina Avena Garcia: Yeah. Just to add to that, recently the school that I'm at turned into a community school, which is a program to, to get the community, the students, the parents, the families, all of the organizations involved and work together, and I was assisting meetings. Maybe like once every few months and looking over data that was from parents specifically to see what they would like to see in the schools data from the students as well.

So in that meeting we had a parent, we had the principal, we had a student just to make sure that we, you know, everyone's voice community partner was, was city ear. So that was another way too as well. Um, just to get to [00:26:00] know. And feel more integrated, not just, you know, whole school, whole child, but beyond those barriers because you come to learn that it's the issue.

It stems like further beyond, it stems in the community. You have to help the community, you have to help the parents as well. And then just being part of that because the resources are out there. But a lot of these communities don't know about those resources, and that's just a huge, huge gap that we're trying to bridge as well.

Macey Amissah-McKinney: So I think we're able to bring in a lot of resources that maybe folks are trying to get in front of our students and their families. And so I know we kind of worked with the Upstate Treasurer's office. Making sure that kids knew that they were savings accounts at them for, to be able to pay for college.

And so just sometimes like things that they're not aware of and because we have those relationships and are a trusted kind of source on campus, we're able to kind of build, bridge that connection that maybe folks who don't intimately work in schools don't have. Um, and so just kind of. Bringing resources kind of tells the Phoenix Point to campus and being a connector.

Jeff Holden: Well, I'm [00:27:00] almost thinking here. Junior achievement, where they've got financial literacy mm-hmm. That could be integrated in some way, shape, or form to take that burden off of you. Now you've got a third party coming in to support the schools in, you know, a way that's, that's accretive to the success of that student growing up.

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Yep. 

Jeff Holden: Whatever that looks like. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Regional Transit is another one of our big partners. Of course. We do a lot of stuff right, of outreach for them, of making sure that students are aware of. They know how to ride the bus. We're able to bring resources, but also families need things, smud clean energy. We did a really big Back to School Bash and we're able to bring a lot of community resources to our school community just so they were aware of some of the different things that might help them just.

Just live and making sure, like some of, we were to address some of those gaps. And so you talk about food banks, I think those are opportunities. River City Food Bank comes and helps train our Corps members on how to use their resh benefits each year. Perfect. And so I think it is a two-way street. We really try to make sure that our Corps members are getting support that they need to kind of serve throughout their year of service, but that we're able to also give back as much as we can to the community that's been [00:28:00] so instrumental in making sure that we have what we need to deliver services.

Jeff Holden: Let's talk a little bit about funding now. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Mm-hmm. 

Jeff Holden: How is City Year funded? 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Yeah, so we get our funding. We are an AmeriCorps program, and so we get quite a bit of money from the federal government through AmeriCorps. The school district does pay for each school's team that we have on a campus, and then the rest of it we are raising from the private sector.

So like I said earlier, Kaiser Permanent Day, state Street, golden One are some of our major funders here. Mm-hmm. In 

Jeff Holden: Sacramento. What does that look like? I want to touch on it just a little bit. We won't get too deep into the conversation, but AmeriCorps are your students, your student success coaches?

Correct. And it's a percentage of what's, what's the total budget? Roughly? 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: 3.4. 

Jeff Holden: Okay, so, so maybe a third of that budget might be Americorp Corp funded. As we look at the the future. How do you buffer in the instance that maybe AmeriCorps gets a little thinner or a little skinnier or goes away altogether?

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Yeah, and so we've definitely been having [00:29:00] to work through some scenario planning. I said we lost our state grant in the end of April, and so luckily we are part of like a national organization, so we're able to kinda get some additional support and just making sure our Corps members could finish out the school year.

But we're having to rethink like what does that look like in terms of like that portion. Our school district has been very supportive in. What they're able to contribute. And so us being able to expand will kind of help us get some additional dollars from the school district, but really asking, I think, private sector to kind of step up and kind of help fill some of those gaps.

Mm-hmm. And so we've had lots of folks reach out and kind of be able to offer some additional support. Big Dave giving was a huge win of just being able to kind of get out the message of support and we saw probably a 50% increase in our, what we raised this year. Oh boy. 

Jeff Holden: Congratulations. Yeah. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Thank you.

And so that was a, a huge win, but really just trying to think about what does. Modeling look like for not having AmeriCorps funding or for that funding gets reduced. And so I said we're committed to making sure that we can deploy core members. I said there may not be quite as many or school sizes, may have to look a little bit smaller, but we know that we can kind of continue to make the [00:30:00] impact.

I think if anything we learned from COVID, we saw almost a 50% reduction in our core size coming out of COVID. Just the amount of uncertainty, folks not necessarily wanting to do virtual learning, but we learned one that said that we're really resilient. Two, we've learned how to adapt our model for almost kind of any situation.

We know how to have impact with 10 people on the team. We know how to do it with four. Mm-hmm. And still support. The same student population on the school campus. We've learned how to become very organized, I think in our approach. I said we're data-driven, so we know what supports, for the most part, are working and they're gonna deliver the highest results.

I think our school partners have been really key in helping us make sure that our Corps members are trained and being really flexible with us and like, what does that model look like? So maybe a Corps member's not with one teacher all day, maybe they're supporting two or three classrooms so that we can make sure that the kids who still need the help are getting the help that they need.

And so I think. I think one thing I tell my team is like, we're adaptable out of necessity, but I think it's one of our biggest strengths is, and assets is that we've been able to kind of be really [00:31:00] proactive. We're not waiting to kind of see what happens next year, but we're already kind of thinking through, this is how we still function with or without AmeriCorps funding.

Jeff Holden: Wonderful pivot. And I'm thrilled to hear it because it gives people the confidence, Hey, it's, yeah, it's a ding. We'll work through it. We'll figure it out. It doesn't decimate the program. The program still exists and we're still going to go forward and continue to support and improve the schools that we're working with.

The additional two, yeah, inclusive, which is correct, I think really, really neat. Here's a fun question. Money, no object. Somebody comes in. Macy, I love what you're doing. Josefina. You are just incredible in the schools. I have a blank check if I like the answer. What would you do? What would change with the program?

What would the program look like? How would it be different? 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: I think right now a lot of our money is going towards just implementing programs with our students, making sure that corps members [00:32:00] have what they need to. I. Do small groups to provide student incentives, things like that. Our core members give a lot and sacrifice a lot to kind of do their 10 months of service.

Um, and so I think really in ideal world, if I had a blank check, it'd be able to provide more benefits and supports to our members. Um, housing is sometimes a huge issue for us of just, mm-hmm. The cost of living has gone up, especially in Sacramento. And so being able to kind of offset and supplement some of their, their stipends so that they can kind of find affordable housing.

Um, we don't really have an emergency fund, and so when things come up, we're really relying on our board members and staff to figure out how do we support this board member through a crisis so they can still serve. I tell folks that the goal is that anyone can serve, but we know that the reality is that that's not always true just based upon people's circumstances.

I have many Corps members who are working. To jobs right now. Mm-hmm. Because they can't support themselves just on the stipend, or they're also helping to support their families when they're the primary [00:33:00] breadwinner or Right. They have siblings that they're still helping their parents to kind of take care of, and so how do we make sure that they have the resources that they need so that they can focus on service?

I know that I served as a Corps member and I tell folks, I said, I don't know. I know that would not have gotten to where I was had I not had two years to just. Serve mm-hmm. To figure that out, to gain the skills that I needed to really like launch in my career. And it, it's paid off in the long run, I said, but I want folks to be able to make that investment in themselves early on so that it can pay off in the long run.

And I dunno that folks always feel like they have the time to make a stipend to live off of a, a modest stipend where they Well, especially when 

Jeff Holden: they're in their first and leaving last at the schools. Correct. That's really tough. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Yep. 

Josefina Avena Garcia: Yeah, I would say. I'm a mother. I have a 4-year-old, and then I'm also taking classes, and then you are working 10 hours a day all throughout the week.

You get home super late and tired. So it's definitely, you have to make sure that you have [00:34:00] a balance in, you know, your mental health. Because working with children, you, that's essential. You need to be like at your best all the time. And it's difficult because. Sometimes you're not at your best and you have to go in and just, you know, smile.

And just because these students depend on you on a lot more like how you mentioned students come to school just because we're there and we were not there. Like for example, yesterday we were out for field day, so we weren't at the schools today. This morning I stopped for morning greetings. Why weren't you here today?

I mean, why weren't you here yesterday? I, I was so confused. We missed you. Why didn't we do small groups? And, you know, that just shows how much again, like it's very important for you to be good in order to be good to show up, to show up. So it just requires. Making sure that we have those resources, those mental health resources.

Like you said, housing is really important. The EBT benefits and just [00:35:00] having our own mentors. We, I think City or Sacramento does an amazing job, just the staff in general to listen to what the core members need and implement those changes. But again, it's so many of us and there's. Other resources too that we could probably use and just other mentors as well that would, that we would benefit from.

Jeff Holden: Mm-hmm. So what I'm seeing is a core member compound, it looks like, you know, housing or dormitory or whatever. Mm-hmm. There's the blank check. We build it, you guys come. You got a place to stay. A place to live. It's got some services, everything taken care of with transportation to the schools. That would be great.

We just, yeah. We just fixed half the problems, right? 

Josefina Avena Garcia: Oh, so much weight off of our shoulders For sure. Some meals included in there. Oh, there we go. Yes. 

Jeff Holden: And And some food. Yeah. What's the greatest need today? 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: The greatest need today, Americorp funding [00:36:00] to get reinstated. Fair enough. Mm-hmm. To be completely honest.

Sure. And I think, yeah, I think it's. There's just so much uncertainty, I think with, with, with funding at the federal level. And so I think the greatest need is for the local community to kind of step up and offset some of that so that there's not as much volatility kind of from year to year as we're like, dependent upon the federal government to kind of fill some of those, those gaps.

So that just honestly is the first thing that comes to mind. 

Josefina Avena Garcia: I would add to that because it also creates like a lot of uncertainty for ourselves. Living on a stipend now. I just mentioned all of our worries. And then to know like, oh, that you just kind of panic and like, you know, at times it's like, oh my gosh, what am I gonna do?

Just am, am I going to be just having to worry about having the stipend or not? Or it's like last minute changes that are, can be chaotic. Mm-hmm. In a way. And then. Again, we don't wanna spiral. We don't wanna have that uncertainty because we [00:37:00] sometimes don't even have the privilege to, to have those feelings because we have to be on both of our feet all the time.

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Also, I think that's probably one of the things I've been proudest of this year's core for. I know it's not been easy, not not losing our grand and then just the amount of uncertainty, but they have impressed me just how they've consistently showed up every day they've put on that face for their students.

I said for the most part, they stuck with us despite like. Not knowing what things are gonna look like and what is my stipend? Am I still gonna get paid? And I think just even the staff was just being able to kind of rally and reassure folks that like, just as committed as they've been to their schools and their students, we were gonna make sure that they kind of got through this year come hell or high water.

We would find a way to make sure like they had the support that they needed to finish out and close out this year, the way that we had planned, um, when they started in August. And so. We had a really, like said we had field day yesterday. It was a lot of fun. But just a think of being able to recognize the impact and the success that they've had this year and the way that they've just been resilient and continue to show up the same way.

Mm-hmm. And I kind of told them is we're an educational equity organization. [00:38:00] I said, and we work so hard to kind of fill some of those gaps for our stu, our students and our schools. And I said, and unfortunately we're kind of. The ones in that situation of the uncertainty, the same things that we're often fighting for.

I said that we're kind of caught up in this equity debate, right at the national level, and so it's been a real life, I guess, as an experience of the things that we're trying to support and kind of being on the other end of that. And so I think we all kind of got a little bit of lesson of like, what does that feel like to have to live with that much uncertainty that our students and their families do?

Mm-hmm. On a daily basis. And just kind of getting to figure out how do we navigate that? What needs do we have? And I think it's probably given us all a little bit more of an empathetic kind of mindset as we kind of go about the work that we do every day. 

Jeff Holden: Well, what a compliment to you too, with the attitude and the approach that you're taking, both of you sitting here.

Some of it we have to smile and laugh about. We'll figure it out. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: And, and I can see the confidence in both of you. We'll figure it out. It's, it's there, it's, it's ours. It's our challenge. We'll get through it. Yeah. [00:39:00] So this is a new question. You are the first executive director and or president and or ceo, EO of an organization that I'm asking this of and is, what do you do to relax?

Macey Amissah-McKinney: What do I do to relax? 

Jeff Holden: A lot of burden on your plate and a lot of weight on your shoulders. What does Macy do for fun? 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: I go to field day and I try to win games. I, I like to cook, so it's, I've been spending a lot of time in my kitchen just experimenting, doing, I'm, I'm not a recipe follower, so I'm kind of like, this sounds good.

Let me see what I can. Come up with, and I like to build Legos, so that's my other thing. I think my team knows that about me. And so I actually got a Lego set the other week from one of my staff members. And so yeah, that's also something that just, it's hard to think about other things while I'm trying to follow instructions and assemble little Lego kits.

Mm-hmm. 

Jeff Holden: But yeah, agreed. I totally agree with that. The best way to communicate with you and or learn about the organization is what? 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: So check out our website it@cityyear.org. [00:40:00] Sacramento. So we are a national organization, so if you've go to city year.org, you learn about everything. Sacramento will get you to our page specifically.

Follow us on Instagram. The core members have been doing an amazing job creating content for us so that folks kind of see what it looks like a day in their life, kind of get a little bit more about their perspective, and then you can reach out to me directly at my email address 

Jeff Holden: and I can put that in the show notes for everybody.

Yep, you 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: can put that in the show notes. 

Jeff Holden: Excellent. I'll do that. Education, in my opinion as well as that of many others, is the quickest way to break that cycle of generational poverty. I don't think anybody would disagree with it. You guys are focused on the underserved communities in our city school districts, and when you get a hundred percent recognition from the principals, that city here has, an city here has an overall positive impact.

A hundred percent. Every one of those principals said, yes, you have made a difference. That's incredible. And what a compliment to you, to the team, to the organization itself. The way that it's implemented itself into Sacramento's school system. To see the growth now [00:41:00] from six to eight schools in spite of the uncertainty that's not changing.

Macey Amissah-McKinney: It's not. 

Jeff Holden: So I, I congratulate you guys. Thank you for what you're doing. So thrilled to have you in here Josefina, to share it from a different perspective, not just the executive director's perspective, even though she's been here from the very beginning. So she gets it, but also from somebody who's in the trenches doing it day to day.

So thank you both, I appreciate it. 

Macey Amissah-McKinney: Thanks for having us, chef. Thanks.

Jeff Holden: Thank you for listening to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If what you heard moved you. Please reach out to that organization and do what you can to help. If you like and appreciate what we're doing to support local nonprofits, please give us a positive review, subscribe and share.

If you're a nonprofit with an interest in participating in an episode, you can reach me at jeff@hearmeowstudio.com. Once again, we're grateful for the businesses who have made this program [00:42:00] possible. CAPTRUST fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations. You can find them in Sacramento, Roseville and Folsom captrust.com SMUD Shine Awards helping support our nonprofit community with grants for more efficient energy usage, sud.org/shine and Western Health Advantage, a full service healthcare plan for individuals, employer groups, and families.

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