Serving with City Year

Hello readers! It’s Gopi Patel, AmeriCorps member for City Year Detroit. In case you don’t remember what City Year is, let me remind you. City Year is a nonprofit organization comprised of 17-24 year olds that commit 10 months and 1,700 hours of service to Detroit Public Schools. Our members tutor and mentor students from kindergarten to 12^th grade, as well as hold after-school programs for students. We also perform physical service on Fridays around the city of Detroit. At the moment, we have 19 sites throughout the United States and one overseas in Johannesburg, South Africa.

I am actually an alumnus now because I officially ended my year of service on June 17^th. It was an amazing year full of memories. I look back on my time and I think I wouldn’t change a thing about my time at City Year. I made great life-long friends and I made a powerful impact on the city of Detroit. I made such an impression on the children I worked with as well.

In my last months at City Year, we really shelled out some great projects I wanted to tell you about. First, the Animal Awareness Day at Brenda Scott Middle School which focused on educating students on caring and being compassionate for animals. We had two representatives from canine rescue societies come into the school with dogs to teach our students about the specific breed and the safety tips when it comes to strays. I found the students really enjoyed the presentations and gained valuable knowledge when it came to stray animals in their neighborhoods.

Our second big project was one led by my team leader, Luke. He organized a huge event with United Way, Greening of Detroit, and the Osborn Community to develop a community garden. Our volunteers worked hard and really made a difference on the community.

Lastly, I wanted to speak a little about 100 Hours of Power. The goal of this event was simple: to serve 100 hours of continuous service in a week. On June 7^th, the whole Corps kicked off the event at Blight Busters by tearing down houses and weeding in a nearby Brightmoor community. From then on, we had many different shifts the Corps members signed up for to do service. We had members working around the clock, providing some type of positive to the Detroit community. It was really amazing to see because it showed that even though it was the end of the service year, we still had that hope that we change our community for the better.

Now that most of AmeriCorps members’ years are done, we start to pass the torch onto the next Corps year. I hope they will surpass us in the difference they will make in Detroit. If you want to make a difference, then why don’t you start at www.cityyear.org? GIVE A YEAR. CHANGE THE WORLD. It’s been a pleasure!