Just Human

The Impact of City Year on Education-Interview with John Albright

• Jay Boykin • Season 2 • Episode 3

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Summary:

In this episode of the Just Human podcast, host Jay Boykin engages with John Albright, the executive director of City Year Denver, to explore the organization's mission of supporting students in under-resourced schools. They discuss the importance of building relationships with students, the holistic approach City Year takes in fostering academic and social-emotional skills, and the challenges faced in the current educational landscape. John shares his personal journey to City Year, the impact of their programs, and the future vision for expanding their reach and effectiveness. The conversation emphasizes the significance of community support and the role of leadership in driving positive change.

Takeaways:

City Year focuses on building relationships with students. The organization supports students in under-resourced schools. AmeriCorps members serve as near-peer mentors. City Year emphasizes social-emotional skill development. Attendance is a key indicator of student engagement. The organization celebrates student achievements regularly. Fundraising is crucial for sustaining City Year's programs. City Year aims to expand its impact in more schools. Leadership is about showing up and making a difference. Young people can be powerful leaders in their communities.

Jay Boykin (00:01.958)
Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Just Human podcast. I am Jay Boykin, always happy to have you here. And on this podcast, this is a space where we explore what it truly means to be human, whether it's at work, in relationships, in our communities and in life. Because you see, no matter where we come from and no matter what we do, we all wrestle with the same questions. How do we grow? How do we connect?

And how do we live with a purpose and stay true to ourselves? So I'm excited to have you here. And on this podcast, we talk about a variety of different topics that are all part of our human experience. And so we're going to dive in. I'm really excited because this episode is allowing just human to connect with an organization called podcast.

And this organization is about convincing as many podcast hosts as possible to dedicate one episode of their show to support a charity or a nonprofit of their choice. And all of us are going to release these episodes at the same time in a coordinated effort. And so this is worldwide. It's going to create a massive

international wave of inspiring content and inspiring audio. And so to that end, I am very excited to have with me someone that I've been working with here over the last almost year. He is the executive director of an organization that I'm personally connected with and it's called City Year. John Albright, how you doing?

John Albright (01:53.122)
Do a great, Jay. Really appreciate you having me here today.

Jay Boykin (01:56.194)
I am really excited to have you here and to talk about City Year and all of the great work that you're doing. So for our listeners, John, that may be unfamiliar with City Year, can you give us an overview of what City Year and specifically City Year Denver does?

John Albright (02:14.03)
Yeah, you bet. So City Year is part of a national AmeriCorps program. We have been around about 35 years. We were part of the organizations that came together actually to found AmeriCorps in our country. And so City Year predates the AmeriCorps legislation, which was passed during the Clinton administration. What City Year does is in 29 cities in the United States,

and two international sites. We recruit young people ages 18 to 25 and they become part of our AmeriCorps program and then we train those young folks for what it looks like to serve in schools and we put them in teams and we partner with public schools in our nation's largest urban school systems. The reason that City Year chose to do this is as we developed our work

You know, over the last 30 years communities across the country told us that they most needed us in the public schools to support to support impact with students and young people. So we developed a program called whole school whole child. And at the same time, we also run another program called AmeriCorps member leadership development program. And so what we do is we create what's called a double bottom line impact and that impact is felt with

the students we serve in schools and then also with the young people ages 18 to 25 who are in our program. So unlike some other nonprofits or organizations that partner with public schools where they might you know serve in that public school a couple days a week or run an after school program or do some you know literacy work or tutoring with students, our teams of AmeriCorps members who are in the school are in there 50 hours a week.

So we are fully embedded in the school community. This looks like, know, being there before the bell rings and being the first person to greet students in the morning. Our core members, you know, we often talk about city year, they're the folks in the red jackets, right? They're the folks in the red jackets who are greeting students first thing in the morning to check in with them as they're coming into the school day. They're then working with their partner teacher. They're partnered up with a professional teacher.

Jay Boykin (04:23.141)
Right?

John Albright (04:36.078)
and they are supporting the classroom experience all day long with students. And then we also, every single one of our core members, they fulfill a role that we call student success coach. And those student success coaches each have about 15 or 20 students per student success coach, per core member, that they're going to support in small group and individual tutoring and instruction throughout the remainder of the school year.

so that we really get that impact with students. it's about attendance, it's about success in academics, and it's about developing durable skills with our students and our young people. And those are those skills that are tied to future success. So that's sort of the basics of our program. I know we'll get into it more. We have incredible outcomes. We have about 45,000 alums now nationally. Every year, City Year has somewhere around 2,500 AmeriCorps members in our national program.

Jay Boykin (05:34.17)
You know, John, that's a, it's, really an amazing program for people that are unfamiliar. I personally had the opportunity to go on a school tour at one of the local high schools here in the Denver area. And what amazed me was how connected your AmeriCorps volunteers are with the teachers and with the students. I mean, it appeared as if they were

one of the staff and a truly a vital part of what's taking place in that school.

John Albright (06:11.746)
Yeah, no doubt. mean, we often talk about our superpower as being relationships with students, right? And, anybody who's close to education or has experienced public schools themselves or any type of learning, right? You know that the relationship with the person who is supporting you, whether that's a teacher or whether that's a leader in the school or in our case, whether that's our student success coaches.

that relationship is the entry point to being able to do anything else that's meaningful or has impact with young people and particularly with students in public schools. So you're 100 % right, Jay. The number one thing we work on is, for an AmeriCorps member who's gonna spend typically one year in that public school community as a guest, the number one thing they can do is build really strong supportive relationships that are.

based on trust and care. And then they learn everything about that student, which helps the school understand the student's needs more and helps us be responsive to that student's needs more as well.

Jay Boykin (07:19.385)
Yeah, it was very impressive. So we'll get into the program a little bit more, but tell us a little bit about yourself, John. So what was your personal journey and how did you end up becoming the executive director at City Year Denver?

John Albright (07:36.044)
Yeah, well, I grew up in the Mid-South in Memphis, Tennessee. I'm actually sitting in my dad's house in Memphis right now as we're doing this interview. I think one of the things I learned growing up was that using my privilege to make impact was an important thing in my life. Certainly my parents talked about that in different terms. I also grew up around

a lot of racism and a lot of classism and a very segregated city. And my upbringing was one that really mirrored that. And so I had a lot of questions in my own personal journey growing up in Memphis and just had a desire to challenge myself, to explore other parts of the country, to explore other cultures.

to try to make sense of our country and the way systems do or do not work like they're intended to produce greater access to opportunity for folks in our country. so I decided that I was gonna leave the South and go somewhere different. So I went to Colorado. I went to University of Colorado at Boulder. I studied journalism.

amongst a lot of other things and really leaned into critical thinking and interrogating media and interrogating the way that different folks in our country are represented in our broad scale media and had a lot of questions still about that.

So I studied television production. became a TV producer. I was running my own company, but working mostly in government and education. I never really wanted to work in news because, know, in news you don't get to do much long format work. You don't really get to get in depth and tell detailed stories. And I was really interested in storytelling around how communities were, we're trying to do good work to improve.

John Albright (09:56.246)
opportunity for folks in their communities. And so did a lot of government and educational television work. I got hired by a school district in Metro Denver. And this was at the time, you know, that school district had been the first district in the state to be put on notice for being on the state turnaround clock that, you know, the threat of being closed as a school district or taken over by the state.

And it was, it was a district that had the highest concentration of poverty in the state of Colorado. And we had students who, you know, were coming, coming to school every day, walking out of dirt floor, 10 shacks by the scrap yard. and who were, who were coming to our schools and, you know, I got the opportunity in this role that I had there as a TV producer to basically get to know everybody in town.

to get to know everybody in the schools, to start telling the stories about this community really working hard to ensure that students in the community had amazing access to great teachers and great education. And I found out that they did. And that what was happening was, these are students who, for most of them, the factors outside of school had such an incredible impact on their life.

and their life outcomes. And oftentimes we're creating significant barriers to their success in sort of the standard ways we measure education, right? Whether that's through standardized tests or things like that. And so anyway, so I ended up working in that. I moved into other roles in that school district, ultimately ended up becoming, I just kept leaning in further and further. And I kept having leaders who had

Jay Boykin (11:51.451)
Got it.

John Albright (11:53.582)
trust in me that I had built relationships with who said, you know what, we know you can take on other things and, and, know, ultimately moved out of the video production seat and became the head of communications. And then ultimately the chief strategy officer for the school district. And I was there 11 years. I mean, it was incredible community loved it. And, you know, then things happen in school districts that up, you know, create

A tremendous amount of upheaval and one of those that happened was, you know, I'm sitting in a board meeting and the Board of Education, you know, publicly fired our superintendent after I had been there 11 years and we were really on a journey that was turning around the schools. could, you know, still produce the data that showed that, right? And the board was, you know, they wanted to go a different direction and

I and just about every other administrator, including all the principals, the great principals of that school district left and said, you know what, this board doesn't seem serious about turning around their schools. It's time to go, right? I've given 11 years of my life to a community and tried to see things through and I need to go somewhere else and try a different system and learn other things. So I went down to Denver Public Schools.

Jay Boykin (12:54.181)
Wow.

John Albright (13:13.846)
had the opportunity to work in the superintendent's office there in a strategic leadership role and doing a lot of policy and strategy and political work for the district. That was my home district. It's where my kids were in school. It's where my ex-wife is a teacher. And so I said, hey, for the life of me, I can't really figure out what the strategy of Denver Public Schools is from the outside or as a parent.

let's go work in the nerve center, know, in the superintendent's office and learn about that and figure it out. So I did and, you know, worked in the superintendent's office directly for five years during some years where we saw just incredible outcomes, growth and outcomes for students, particularly black and Latinx students. think we grew graduation rates by 15 percentage points over a 10 year period. mean, it was just incredible movement and growth.

Jay Boykin (13:43.867)
Okay.

John Albright (14:10.35)
And it helped me understand and made me believe, you know, when you're working as a system in unison and you pinpoint focus on something you want to improve and you set specific targets and everyone comes together to collaborate around research back strategies, they're gonna help move those targets, and you can really do it, right? And, you know, so then.

And there I was, you know, sort of at my 20 year mark in public education. And, you know, I had been leading this, this really big project for the district. It was very high profile. And we've, in the five years I had been leading that project, we had five different superintendents. There was just so much leadership turnover and churn. And I said, okay, I got, you know, beat my head against the wall here.

Jay Boykin (14:57.732)
Wow.

John Albright (15:07.438)
you the work I was doing with my team was amazing and, and I loved that, but it got to be really hard. And there was just a lot of, you know, sort of infighting and, and bureaucratic noise. And it was, you know, I say, you know what, got to do something else. Well, I had had the good fortune of being the liaison to City Year at Denver public schools. So I was the person who managed the contract with City Year Denver.

And so I knew the work really well. I partnered with AmeriCorps programs all throughout my career to do all sorts of cool things to provide programming for students. And I knew City Year well. just when the opportunity came up with the executive director role, I went all in on it. Just said, gosh, this would be the amazing next thing. And the why is, one, I've always had interest and have always been

always partnered closely with nonprofits to support young people in expanded ways. And I always saw myself as maybe, know, exploring the nonprofit sector as a next step at some point. And then City Year's impact is just so strong. You know, I had seen it in terms of outcomes for five years and I had talked to all these school leaders who had City Year in their schools and just, you know, they were wild about it. They just knew how powerful it was. And

Jay Boykin (16:07.899)
Okay.

John Albright (16:34.134)
I had seen it firsthand. And so I said, you know what, I want to go be there. can, you know, continue to drive the strong work that City Year does and also think about innovative ways that we can expand our model locally that fit the local context, given, you know, what I know about the needs of the school system and the students in the community. So that's why I wanted to be there. Been there three years now and it's been incredible and, you know, we're doing amazing work.

Jay Boykin (17:03.771)
Yeah, you've got such a great story, John. And not my first time hearing that story, and I never get tired of hearing how you came to City Year. And so you've got a great staff here with City Year Denver. And so let's talk a little bit more about some of the things that you all are doing. So tell me, how does City Year support students?

beyond just the academics.

John Albright (17:36.022)
Yeah, so you heard me talk about that relationships first approach, right? That's absolutely essential to what we do. And the beauty behind our model, right, is this near peer approach. So if you've got young folks ages 18 to 25, many of whom came out of the public school system themselves, either in the local community or nationally,

They often bring a depth of understanding of the lived experience of students that may not be like many of the teachers that are supporting our students in the public schools. So, it really starts with that relationship centered approach, builds trust quickly. Students get to know their core members who are supporting them and

we focus on three main things. So attendance and attendance is usually, you know, considered like a really good proxy for a level of engagement that students have in school, right? And there's all sorts of root causes why students may not attend school, whether it's a choice they're making or, you know, by some circumstance in their life that that shows up in attendance. So

We focus on attendance, but we focus on attendance in a really positive way. And what I say is, you know, we can be another set of eyes and ears for information about this student that supports the school staff in understanding maybe why a student is missing school or what's going on in their life, either outside of school or inside school.

that we can then be part of that set of supports and interventions that students need to attend school more frequently. The next thing, yes, we work on academics, we support students, specifically we're looking at math and literacy gains as critical factors for students. But then a whole part of what we do is around durable skill development.

John Albright (19:54.766)
or social and emotional skills, depends on who you talk to. A lot of people talk about these in different ways, essential skills, transferable skills, 21st century skills, right? You hear people refer to it in all sorts of different ways. But what that is is things like critical thinking, things like communication and collaboration and teamwork, things like agency and advocating for yourself, right? Using your voice, knowing yourself well enough to know your needs.

so that you use your voice and your agency and your own power to advocate for what you need to be successful as a learner and both inside and outside of school and life. know, persistence, resilience, all of that kind of stuff. And what that looks like for us is we have a particular model we follow that has competencies that are, you know, the ones I just mentioned.

And we work with students across the year. We do a pre-assessment, a mid-year assessment and a post-assessment at the end of the year. And we use that for the pre-assessment to set a goal with the student. say, hey, look, you know, here's one to two competencies that, you know, we want you to improve on. And the student really is informing that. They're using their voice to say, hey, based on what I know about myself, if I improved in these couple of areas,

both my life in school and outside of school, I would see improvement in. And so we work on those and we typically see really strong growth across the year in those one or two skills that a student might choose to focus on and with our support. So that's part of what we do in that small group work in support that each core member does with students. Another thing, yeah, was...

Jay Boykin (21:50.031)
You know, that's... I'm sorry. Go ahead.

John Albright (21:52.334)
Yeah, I was just going to mention one more thing. Another thing that we do beyond sort of the academic work is, you know, most of the students we're supporting on our, know, those 15 to 20 students that each core member supports, most of those students are students that are sort of in the middle, know, academically or socially or with attendance. And oftentimes they're not going to be the folks that rise to the level that get all the teachers' attention.

Jay Boykin (22:21.872)
Right.

John Albright (22:22.338)
or they're not the students that are getting very deep level intervention support from the school because they're the folks who are maybe academically the most behind or need the most support, right? And so because the students are in the middle, that often means that they also often don't get a lot of recognition or accolades or celebration by a school for their improvement. so,

We also do a lot of work to ensure that our students are getting positive affirmation. We do positive phone calls home to their parents or caregivers on a regular basis. And we do events in the school to celebrate students as well twice a year for the improvements they are making and how they're showing up with our support. you know, it's a really holistic approach.

that goes well beyond just the basics of we're gonna sit and tutor you and drill you on math and literacy work,

Jay Boykin (23:22.841)
Yeah, it's such a great story, John, because what's so unique about what City Year does is the fact that you aren't just trying to get people to pass a test and hit a certain grade. You're working with them with these skills. I love the fact that you mentioned critical thinking. You're working with these students in ways that are going to serve them.

long beyond the classroom that they're in. So I think that that is, that's absolutely amazing. And I also love the fact that you're, you talked about these students that are sort of in the middle. And so, no, they're not going to get many accolades or a lot of recognition, but you and your team and all of the city year branches are

making sure that these young people do get the recognition that they deserve because they've, they've shown some great improvement with the support that you've provided. So I think that that is a great part of what you and your team are doing.

John Albright (24:34.476)
Yeah.

Jay Boykin (24:36.847)
So tell me this, with your serving primarily in Denver Public Schools, is that correct?

John Albright (24:46.402)
Yeah, we partner exclusively with Denver Public Schools, including charter schools in the community.

Jay Boykin (24:52.153)
Okay, so how many schools do you have volunteers in?

John Albright (24:56.492)
This year we have volunteers in six of our schools in the district. We've been as large as 12 schools, I think, at times, and I think as small as four or five.

Jay Boykin (25:09.787)
Okay. And so this may segue into my next question. So, you you say you've been in as many as 12 schools. It sounds like there may be some challenges at times that you have to deal with. What are some of the biggest challenges that City Year Denver faces and especially trying to ensure that student success?

John Albright (25:30.189)
Yeah.

John Albright (25:35.106)
Yeah.

Well, think, you know, I think I'll start with just sort of the complexity of the systemic challenges overall, right? In the context in which city or operates, right? We have a priority to serve students in under-resourced school communities. And, you know, what that means is, depending on the labels folks choose or the way you look at data,

What that often means is, know, higher concentration of students of color in a school, higher concentration of students who may be living in poverty, higher concentration of students who are experiencing all sorts of factors outside of school that impact their life, right? You know, access to healthcare or unstable housing or, you know, job security, et cetera, in the family.

You also, you know, we work in schools where there's oftentimes a lot of students who are multilingual learners, right, who are learning English at the same time they're trying to access content in the school. So I think that's the first thing is to know that, you know, the complexity of the environment in which we're operating is very high. And, you know, that means it's very dynamic and it's very fluid.

And so, you know, think one of the challenges we face sometimes is, and it's one we welcome, right, is really trying to meet the needs of the school in which we're serving to align the program. We have a, we have a, you know, a core set of work we do that looks the same in every school we serve. And we can also tailor that based on the school's needs and their priorities.

John Albright (27:31.282)
So that's one of the things is just being flexible and nimble enough to do that with our school partners. think the more we have evidence over a lot of years that show the more years we serve students and the longer we partner in a specific school, the deeper the impact we have with those students and in that school community.

And in the environment we're in right now with public schools in the United States and certainly in Denver, we're in a fiscal environment where it's tough for schools. know, the birth rates across all race and ethnicity groups and every other social identity marker have gone down across every group in America. And that means there are fewer students in our public school system. And

that means that schools have less resources because the way schools are funded is based on the number of students they have enrolled. so, you know, schools are having to make really hard choices about, well, do I keep a partnership with someone like City Year or any other, you know, partner? Or am I going to have to cut a teacher or more, you know, when I'm looking at declining student enrollment over time? So that's definitely a challenge.

you know, is what we see is as school enrollment declines, schools get to a certain size where they're, you know, they're cutting whole programs and students just don't have access to, you know, arts or music or, you know, certain things that, you know, they should in our public schools. And so, so that's one of the things that we face. And so we collaborate really closely with the school district and our school partners to make sure that

We think we've got a pretty sweet spot about the type of school profile that is stable enough to have a really fruitful partnership with us. So we work closely on that. Last thing I'll say is, you know, we're a nonprofit. And like any other nonprofit, fundraising is a big part of the work we do. And we need the support of a lot of folks to make this work happen in communities. I think fundraising is challenging always.

John Albright (29:52.334)
But it's particularly challenging in times of uncertainty and I think there's a lot of uncertainty in our country right now. And I think that that makes the fundraising environment more difficult for an organization like us.

Jay Boykin (30:09.669)
So speaking of the fundraising, what are some ways, if I've got listeners here that are looking for ways that they can support City Year, talk about some of the events and other fundraising efforts that you and your staff have going on.

John Albright (30:28.662)
Yeah.

So we have a really robust set of ways that folks can get involved with City Year, whether folks are looking to volunteer and engage that way, or whether it's a corporation that has a corporate social responsibility set of work that they like to do and they want to engage in the community and partner deeply with a nonprofit. And we have partnerships like that.

So we do everything from, know, folks can sign up to volunteer and mentor one of our core members. are, every year we pair up our core members with, know, mid-career professionals from the community who can mentor them across the year. It's a really essential support we provide. A 50-hour service week is a ton of work and it's exhausting and we want to do a number of wraparound supports for our core members.

to make sure they're feeling the love of the community and feeling successful and supported. And so one of the things we do is a mentor program. So folks could sign up to be part of that mentor program. We have full corporate sponsorship packages where a partner could choose a particular school that we serve and do volunteer engagement in that school community while also

getting involved in city or providing some funding, things like that. And then of course all of our schools have a number of different ways that folks can get involved and partner and volunteer as well. And we can often be a link into those school communities for that.

Jay Boykin (32:18.299)
That's great. You also have a pretty big event coming up here soon. I think it's called Rock the Red Jacket.

John Albright (32:26.924)
That's right. Yeah, we every year we have a big party. We you know, we don't call it a gala. A lot of folks call their fundraiser a gala, but it's our annual fundraiser called Rock the Red Jacket. And it's a great party. We have a live band, we have food stations. It's a lot of fun. You get to meet AmeriCorps members who are in our program. They're all there that night and

and talk with them and hear about their experience and learn more about our organization and hopefully support us with a donation during that event. And I'm excited this year we're gonna be rolling out a brand new video about our program. We got that donated from a public relations company and it's gonna be amazing. They're gonna be filming it this week actually. So we're gonna be rolling that out.

We have a number of different sponsorship levels. You can purchase tickets through our website. Either you, Jay or I can provide that information for folks. And yeah, it's just a cool event where you get to meet, know, network with a lot of people. It's light on program. It's about 45 minutes long a program. So it's light on program and mostly just a lot of fun. So.

It's May 14th, that is a Wednesday at 530 and it's going to be at Mile High Station in Denver. If folks want to know more about that, they can reach out to me directly. My email is jalbright at cityyear.org.

Jay Boykin (34:07.267)
And we'll make sure to include links to City Year's website as well as links to these specific events. so John, this is open to anyone. They don't have to have an affiliation currently with City Year. they want to go and check things out, they're welcome to get a ticket, I'm assuming, right?

John Albright (34:28.334)
That's right. Yep.

Jay Boykin (34:30.629)
That's fantastic. So we will make sure to include links for that. John, tell me about what the future, what your future vision is for City Year Denver. You've talked about some great programs that you have in place currently. What do you see the organization looking like in the next three to five years?

John Albright (34:52.94)
Yeah, well, I'm really excited, Jay. We just completed a five-year strategic plan for our site. And you heard me talk a little bit about the Whole School, Whole Child program, which is our core set of work we do with our AmeriCorps members as student success coaches in schools, and then the AmeriCorps member leadership development program. Those have really been

the two key pillars of City Year's work over the last 20 years, and we're gonna continue those and continue to deepen the impact of that work. But in our five-year plan, there's several things we're really excited about. One, we're gonna serve more students in more schools over time. Over the last three years, we've been able to attract and retain a far more diverse core member group in Denver.

which is really important work that we've been able to do as a site. So we're going to continue that. And two new things that we're going to focus on. One is we know that AmeriCorps service in a program like ours is really important workforce development in a community. And so we're going to lean into that space and we're going to grow our talent pathways work that we have.

So I'll tell you what the future vision is and can't tell you what the current state is, but one is we're going to have in behavioral health fields and in education fields, we're gonna have talent pathways that are from high school graduates up through grad school student level, credentialing, credit for service and licensure pathways.

We're really excited about this. We're working with a number of partners to build this out. It's going to take us a couple years to build it out fully. But what we've got right now is we have a graduate level teaching fellowship licensure program. In that program, we have core members who have already served one city year and who already have an undergraduate degree coming back as a teaching fellow where they are in a one year.

Jay Boykin (37:02.267)
Okay.

John Albright (37:14.092)
master's level licensure program to get their teacher license. They complete their practicum in classroom takeover during our service year with us. And they're part of that city or team in a school while they're earning their teacher licensure. And then they go on to be teachers. We've had about 25 folks complete their licensure with us.

City or Denver was the first city or site to pilot this several years ago. And we're one of only three sites in the country that have the graduate level teaching fellowship. So yeah, yeah. So we're going to build that out with, you know, entry level because, know, about half of our core members are high school graduates. And so we want to make sure that there's entry level on ramps to credentialing programs in partnership with maybe some of our community college partners.

Jay Boykin (37:43.035)
Wow.

Jay Boykin (37:52.601)
Wow, that's impressive.

John Albright (38:11.726)
to ensure that folks can start to gain access to on-ramps into education careers as well, and then build that all the way up. The other is in the behavioral health fields. That is a huge need in schools and in our community. In the Colorado Talent Pipeline Report, behavioral health was one of the critical needs areas for demand for skilled professionals. And so this year we have

Jay Boykin (38:20.869)
Wow.

John Albright (38:42.35)
We're the first city year in the country to launch, we have a graduate level social work fellowship, and then we have an entry level credential program with Community College of Aurora that is a behavioral health assistant role. And the graduate level social work fellowship is for MSW students doing their field experience as an AmeriCorps member in our program. It's a really revolutionary.

Jay Boykin (39:07.035)
Okay.

John Albright (39:09.622)
way to approach field experience. I don't think there's anybody doing anything else like it out there. And so on that behavioral health side, we also want to build that up from, now we've got the credential entry level point and we've got the graduate level point and we want to build out that pathway all the way through. So really exciting work in that space. You know, I think for us, what we've tried to say is,

know, AmeriCorps we know is transformative for folks who engage in service. And how can we leverage that to be a talent engine for the local community to both, you know, continue that work of it being a transformative experience that builds all these durable skills with Corps members and also lean into spaces where we have real needs for more talent and workforce development space in our community. we're excited about that.

It's a huge part of our work and we're also planning to launch a statewide network of what we call our student success coaches, build that out more across the state. And to do that in partnership with the Youth Mental Health Corps, which is that entry level behavioral health work we're doing that's happening in communities across Colorado. We've got partners who we're working with who are leading AmeriCorps programs in the San Luis Valley on the Western Slope and also in Metro Denver, of course.

We think by partnering with these groups, we can build this statewide network out, partner with our state commission called Serve Colorado. They're the commission that supports all AmeriCorps programs in the state and really expand the impact we're having with students, not just in Denver, but all across the state.

Jay Boykin (40:57.765)
Wow, that's a very impressive vision that you've got and the things that you're doing. And you've used the word we a number of times, and I know that you are a great leader and you've got a great team that you are leading. Talk a little bit about your staff and the great team that you've assembled there at City Year Denver.

John Albright (41:26.732)
Yeah, I have an incredible staff team. know, Jay, you and I have talked about this a lot. think at this point in my career, think the favorite thing that I get to do in my role as a leader is, you know, growing folks with whom I have the great privilege to work every day. And

I do that a number of ways, it's really about having the right folks on the bus, building this culture of empowerment, starting with a mindset of, yes, we can do hard things and we want to explore opportunities to do that. So you're right. I have this incredible team of folks and we're a small team.

I have three leaders who report directly to me. We call that our senior team. Their expertise is incredible. My person who heads up program, the program side of our work, which we call Impact, he's a former assistant principal and teacher in public schools for decades before he came to city or just an absolute rockstar in building out program, understanding impact.

understanding how to work with schools, how to support students, how to work with educators, right? And how to grow people, right? Put systems and structures in place that really grow our folks who are leading the work in schools.

And then I've got, you know, my head of people in operations who, you know, sort of does those HR functions and business and finance functions and does our recruitment work at the site level. again, another rock star who comes from, you know, multi-sector work. He was a teacher in Teach for America. He worked at City Year previously as a program level impact leader. And

John Albright (43:43.33)
then has worked in giant organizations like Boys and Girls Clubs, overseeing all HR functions for 300 staff team. So it brings just incredible experience and commitment to the city or model. And then our head of fundraising and development and partnerships comes from an incredible background of worked at an international research nonprofit for studying lung cancer. And before that,

worked in Lutheran Family Services and comes from both a fundraising background, but also a research and data and analytics background. So really thinks about how are we generating impact for the investments folks make in our work and how are we able to tell that story and demonstrate our impact well. Just you're right. I mean, I just couldn't ask for a better team of folks.

Jay Boykin (44:36.409)
You know, the thing that I've noticed in my interactions with your team, and I'll tell the audience here that I'm very proud to work with John and his team as one of their board members. And it's been a great experience. But you know, the interesting thing that I've noticed about your team is that these folks,

And I think that most folks who work for nonprofits are not in it for the riches. These folks really care significantly about what it is that they're doing. And I do think that you have assembled a great team, a strong team with a lot of great talent. And so I think that that's an area that you should really be proud of.

John Albright (45:26.232)
Thanks, yeah, I am. I my favorite thing I get to do is hire folks and grow folks, right? I love that opportunity. At this point in my career, the sort of coaching work and working with a high functioning team and building that high functioning team is absolutely one of the things that really fuels me.

Jay Boykin (45:52.666)
Well, and again, that's just a true reflection of who you are as well, John. we are, this has been a great conversation and the time is flying by as we get ready to wrap things up. What's one message, if there's something that we haven't talked about it, but what's one message that you'd like to leave our audience with about City or Denver?

John Albright (46:17.58)
Gosh, yeah, I think...

I've been thinking a lot lately about and reflecting on leadership a lot lately. I think we're at a time where, I will speak for myself. I am at a time where I am looking for examples of great leadership. one of the things I said to our AmeriCorps members, March, by the way, is AmeriCorps Appreciation Month.

One of things I said to our members this month is that people often think that leaders develop over many years and through dedicated time and effort. you know, certainly that can be true. However, what I've witnessed at City Year and, in our public schools before that is that young people are the incredible leaders that we need right now in our communities. And each day I get to see that on display at City Year. It's incredibly powerful, whether

You know, it's a 19 year old high school graduate who came to us in the summer and was extremely shy and reserved and who is now leading extremely effective small group instruction with students to support them in their math work, right. And the principal of a school can't say enough good things about this young person, right. Or a board member who takes the initiative to support our core members, you know, by doing things to make sure they feel supported and successful or

you funders who lean into our work and push our thinking to help us drive for stronger results. You know, I think I'm excited about what we do at City Year because our ethos about service comes from great leaders and thinkers like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said, everybody can be great because everybody can serve. And I think...

John Albright (48:12.792)
You know, we're in an important time in our country, things are hyper-partisan, our young people need to see more examples of what leadership can look like. And at City Year, we're fortunate, we get to show up every day in service and make an impact. And that's what real leadership looks like to me, is showing up and making a difference, even when forces might be pushing against you.

Jay Boykin (48:35.149)
Wow, couldn't think of a better way to begin to wrap this up. so once again, for our listeners, and again, thank you for joining us. If you're watching this on YouTube or if you are tuning in from your favorite podcast provider, I know you've got a lot of choices. So thank you for giving us your time. This episode was a special episode.

as a part of the podcast-a-thon event to support worldwide charities and nonprofits. It's been our pleasure to have as our special guest today, John Albright, the executive director of City Year Denver. So John, thank you again for being with us. And hey, as I mentioned before, we're gonna put some links that you can connect with City Year and see some of the things that they've got going on.

But here's the big call to action for you. If this episode resonated with you, please share it in your circle. As you may know, some additional folks who want to connect with and find ways that they can support City Year and their very, very important mission. So again, thank you for joining us here on Just Human. I am Jay Boykin. And until next time, let's all keep growing.