Update on City Year Milwaukee’s response to COVID-19

The safety and well-being of the City Year community—our AmeriCorps members, students, staff members, partners and the broader communities we serve — is always our top priority. Our primary focus remains keeping our people safe, healthy and supported in the coming weeks.

We are doing this in the following ways:

• Our national City Year team has formed a COVID-19 Response Team.
• We have been closely monitoring information about the COVID-19 virus from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and our health department.
• We’ve made the decision to postpone or cancel many of our upcoming events.
• Additionally, we’re working closely with our partner, Milwaukee Public Schools, to ensure that our AmeriCorps members and students are safe and well, too. We are actively monitoring the situation at Hopkins Lloyd Community School and working with the district as they enact their response protocols. AmeriCorps members on that team have been preemptively instructed to self-quarantine and monitor their symptoms.
• We will continue to pay our AmeriCorps members during this time and provide resources for them as they continue to earn service hours remotely. The City Year COVID-19 Response Team is requesting flexibility from the Corporation for National and Community Service on AmeriCorps member hours, stipend and benefits.

In moments like this, I hope you will remember that a crisis of this magnitude has a disproportionate impact on the families who experience food and job insecurity and live in some of the most vulnerable and under-resourced communities. Now more than ever, City Year is steadfastly committed to our work supporting thousands of students in Milwaukee. Our AmeriCorps members are part of a network of caring adults in Milwaukee schools who are dedicated to helping students cultivate essential social, emotional and academic skills that are important for success in school and in life.

How can you support:

• We want to extend our appreciation to our AmeriCorps members for their tireless service to the students of Milwaukee. Email a note of gratitude to Rose Wegner at rwegner@cityyear.org that will be shared with the corps.
• We ask that you make a financial contribution to help us provide emergency resources to our AmeriCorps members during school closures and to fill the funding gap that will result from postponed or canceled fundraising events.

We know this is a concerning time and our thoughts are with those who have been impacted. Thank you for your continued support and partnership. I will keep you posted on new developments and any additional ways that we can continue to come together to support our city’s youth.

If you have further questions or concerns in the meantime, please feel free to reach out to Meralis Hood at mhood@cityyear.org.