CY 101: Power Greeting

Hello! Good Morning! Glad you’re here!

These are all good ways to start your average day. But a City Year event is not an average day. Power Greeting is a tool used to set the town at City Year events like Serve-A-Thon, Opening Day, and Legacy Projects. It is designed to make guests feel more welcome and quickly get them to where they need to be.

There may be just a couple of Power Greeters or a couple dozen. The cheers can be intricate with verses or something as straightforward as clapping. The most important thing about Power Greeting is that it be welcoming, sincere, and enthusiastic.

City Year makes kids feel safe

So this is going to be a weird joy and a weird quote but one of our 6th graders here at Feltonville said this about our City Year classroom:

"If there were zombies, this would be the room to be in. It feels safe here." -Rachel 6th grade.

Ashley A., 24, service leader, CSX team at Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences.

George Mason Alternative Spring Break Reflection

To City Year Philly:

There are times when I lose hope. I get discouraged, even resentful. Sometimes, in the end I’m left feeling burnt out. However, it is organizations like City Year that make me believe, believe that change is possible. All of you have reinforced the idea that Impossible? Is nothing. Thank you for caring, believing, respecting, recognizing, then acting to inspire. I AM INSPIRED, WE ARE INSPIRED.

Ultimately generations are inspired by your work. They say change happens in generations. Well, I am seeing it take place right here, right now. The Unity Rally, the murals, the debriefs and strong circles, the friendships, the laughter and tears, the energy and effortless motivation to love those we know and those we pass by in West Philly, Feltonville, and 52nd Street. Thank you for being visible. Thank you for testing our comfort zones, creating conversation and making Philly a home away from home for a week. I may be leaving with more questions than answers, but I do know one thing for sure--City Year has it--although not my application (yet).”

Justin Fogata, George Mason University ‘09, Alternative Spring Break Participant





Photos by Robyn Lorfink, CYGP

Day to Day Service, an Update from Meg

A typical day of service means that I arrive at the school around 8:15, unless it is a Wednesday when I need to be at school at 7:30. My team always circles in our office at 8:30 and runs through readiness check, joys and ripples, and our agenda for the day. Our first class starts at 9:30, so for the next 45 minutes we have a different theme for each day. On Monday we write down all the students we worked with the week before, on Tuesdays we work on our Life After City Year plans, on Wednesdays we write in our Starfish logs, and on Thursdays we make sure everything is organized for the next week. At 9:27 the bell rings and everyone on my team heads to their first class.

My first class is a 10th grade African American history class. I take two students out of that class and we go back to the City Year office and work on worksheets or read passages out of the book. After 2nd period I go to Ms. LeeHim’s class, which is a 10th grade English class with most of the same students as my second period. I work in-class there, usually working with a few students on the book they are reading at the time. Right now they are reading The Giver, and filling out a packet as they read. When that class ends I head to my period 4/5 class, a freshmen physical science class. For this class I walk around and make sure that everyone stays on task and is copying down notes. After that class ends, I have a half hour to work on different tasks, like planning the Book Club that we are starting at Overbrook soon. Then it’s lunch and I finish the school day in another freshmen physical science class, working with one student who has trouble seeing the board.

Then it’s time for tutoring in the library. This is my favorite time of the day, since we have a few students who come regularly and it’s just more relaxed atmosphere than being in class. This is the time when students talk to you about stuff unrelated to school, and they really begin to open up. The students never like to leave tutoring, but around 4:30 we finish up and they leave. For the next hour and fifteen minutes my team takes care of different tasks. For example, every month we publish a newsletter to give to students and parents, so everyone has a different article that they have to write. This is also the time to have team meetings once a week and plan our next 90% Club event. 90% Club is an initiative with our sponsor, Villa, that rewards students who come to school 9 out of 10 days. We collect attendance once every two weeks and have different prizes for the students who were present. It’s a great program but requires a lot of planning. At 5:45 my team will break and everyone goes home. And that is a day in the life of a City Year corps member serving on the Villa team at Overbrook High School. J

Meg, 19, corps member, Villa team at Overbrook High School

A great work out to go along with a great year of service

Recently, we began playing football on Sunday’s with a lot of random people. We organized the games by telling a few corps members that we were going to play at Clark Park (43rd to 45th on either side of Chester Ave.). Then, they told people. Then those people told people, and it turned into a big recruitment process.

Corps members began playing in January with college, high school and neighborhood teens. Football was a hit (literally). It began to progress every week, which is funny, because we just made up a random place to play.

As a group, we noticed most of the players lived in West Philly. We started telling all the West Philly people to tell their friends and we made announcements at Unity Rally for City Year people to come out.

The games kept getting bigger and bigger and we have a full team that includes linemen, wide receivers, running backs, and a quarterback. It’s a good way to play around with the people that we work with.

Marque, 19, corps member, Eagles Youth Partnership team at Jones Middle School

Basic Training Retreat (BTR)

BTR stands for our Basic Training Retreat. This generally happens during the second week of BTA, and we use this time to really bond as a corps.

We typically leave the city, in true retreat style, and are able to focus on our teams, and the service ahead. Leaving the city allows for a more peaceful, focused reflection.

Ragina, 24, ProServe senior corps member

CY 101: Power Courtesy

Simple courtesy includes being polite in behavior and speech. City Year amps up regular courtesy and turns it into Power Courtesy. Power Courtesy is a great way to engage people unfamiliar with City Year. It also goes a long way in changing people’s view of young adults. Never underestimate the power of small, daily interactions.

Power Courtesy includes, but is not limited to:
• Holding doors open for others
• Saying “Please,” “Thank you,” and “You’re Welcome”
• Making eye contact when you shake someone’s hand
• Standing up on public transportation to let someone else sit down
• Greeting people in the hallways and walking down the street
• Introducing yourself
• Standing up to speak to a group
• Being aware of your surroundings at all times.

These simple, straight forward gestures can transform the way people view you and others like you. You will be taken more seriously. You will impress those around you with your courtesy. You will make people readier to follow you as a leader. You may even notice a change in yourself.