Preparing for a new Corps

The summer season is always a busy time for our staff as we prepare for the new City Year Sacramento AmeriCorps members to arrive. We are working hard to make sure they have what they need to get settled into their new role by providing assistance with housing, addressing technology needs, and hosting community-building Zoom calls. Each new corps member will also receive a “Welcome to City Year” goodie bag that includes a reusable cloth face mask provided by our partner Safe Credit Union as well as other fun items from Bank of America and members of our dedicated Advisory Board.

Starting in early August we will introduce our City Year AmeriCorps members to our mission and our work with students through three weeks of Basic Training Academy, or BTA. Just like our partner schools, BTA is also going virtual with all of our sessions online. Our staff and senior corps are spending the summer adapting our training to an online environment and practicing our skills with online facilitation with a focus on:

• Community Building: We will provide frequent opportunities for City Year AmeriCorps members to get to know each other in small groups on platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom. This will help forge those trusting connections among our members essential for effective teamwork throughout the year.
• Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity: To do the work of making our schools and world a more just place, we know there is a lot to learn. We need to both reflect on our own identities and understand the systemic and daily inequities that make it challenging for students of color and students in low-income communities to get the resources they need to be successful.
• Developing Skills for Teaching & Collaborating Remotely: As we think about Sacramento schools starting virtually this fall, our City Year members will learn how to build relationships with students, teach content, and collaborate with their teams in an online setting.

All of this groundwork will help prepare the new group of corps members to address the harsh realities of the COVID-19 slide that has worsened the education gap our students were already facing. They will continue to work on the front lines of this education crisis and be ready to pivot between in-person and distance learning for a dynamic school year with the students who are excited to see their return and meet their new City Year!