Erica Hamilton Honored as Above And Beyond

We are proud and excited to announce that our Executive Director, Erica Hamilton, will be honored tomorrow night by City & State, at their Above and Beyond Awards. The Above and Beyond Awards will honor 25 accomplished women for excellence in the areas of business, public service, journalism, nonprofits, or labor and advocacy. Please click here or the image below to read about Erica and all of the Above and Beyond honorees.

I would also recommend subscribing to the City & State First Read – an early morning e-mail that shares a summary and links to all of the important New York headlines, editorials, schedules and much more. Subscribe here.

A Better New York

Panelist L to R: Rain Henderson, Erica Hamilton, Josh Wachs, and Chelsea Clinton

Earlier this year, The Association for a Better New York (ABNY) asked Chelsea Clinton to be the keynote speaker for one of their breakfast events. When Chelsea accepted, she asked if she could bring leaders from some of her favorite New York City-based non-profits to join her for a panel discussion on how they are engaging the younger generation. We were thankful to have our Executive Director and Vice President, Erica Hamilton, sit on the panel alongside Rain Henderson, Deputy Director at the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, and Josh Wachs, Chief Strategy Officer at Share Our Strength.

The conversation focused on how the non-profit community is working to help our most vulnerable citizens, particularly the younger generation. This was a topic that Chelsea felt was not mentioned enough in the recent election, but something that we all could feel positive about given the progress that non-profits working in NYC and around the country are making. A strong focus on children is a common thread that all of the panelists are addressing through their work, whether by bringing health education to the low-income community, creating  greater access to meals for those in need, or by deploying corps members to under-performing schools; from all the panelists we heard solutions that are both making an impact and can be scaled.

The event space overlooked the 9/11 Memorial which was a great reminder of how New Yorkers come together when faced with tragedy, and this was made evident when the panel shared how quickly and efficiently they mobilized food, volunteers, and resources to help those most affected by Hurricane Sandy.

City Year Staff and Corps L to R: Ian Rees, Alice Pak, Lauren Abuhadema, and CYNY Board Member David Caplan

A word that reoccurred several times throughout the discussion and was something that I felt as I walked away from today’s event was “optimism.” All the panelists are working to solve really big and challenging problems, but with the right resources and strategies these are problems with solutions. It was a privilege to be represented on  the panel, and we thank ABNY and Chelsea Clinton for making today’s event possible.

Photos by Don Pollard.

City Year on The American Graduate

On September 22, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting held their first AMERICAN GRADUATE DAY. The multi-platform event featured local and national programming, partners, and celebrities focused on improving high school graduation rates in America. We thank The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and WNET here in NYC for dedicating a full day of programming to shed light on the high school drop out crisis and many of the programs that are working everyday to help solve this problem.

Please check out the video below to see the segment that included City Year’s CEO and Co-founder Michael Brown, City Year New York corps member Marla Ensuncho, and her student Kaison.

City Year New York Featured In Cornell Alumni Magazine

City Year New York’s work in schools was recently highlighted in Cornell Alumni Magazine. The article covers Jonathan Pomboza ’11 and his great work to increase graduation rates at Newtown High School in Queens. We are incredibly proud of our deep partnership with Cornell University and the fact that it is the top feeder to City Year from the Ivy League.

Click the image below to read the full article.