City Year Inglewood USD Expansion

Expand existing program

City Year Los Angeles will work closely with the Inglewood Unified School District for the duration of this project. However, this is not a collaborative proposal.

This school year, City Year Los Angeles (CYLA) began a partnership with IUSD. As mentioned above, Inglewood is prioritizing City Year as part of their turnaround strategy to help further the district’s mission to nurture, educate and graduate students who are self-responsible and self-disciplined. Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana, the former State Administrator for IUSD, stated the district is experiencing “declining student enrollment, changing demographics, challenging socioeconomic conditions for families, a drop in school funding, and the expansion of charter schools” but, IUSD’s “mission remains unchanged: providing effective educational experiences for every student in our care.” CYLA is an important part of helping IUSD maintain this mission. City Year’s “Whole School Whole Child” approach to student-success, with a strong focus on social-emotional learning, is uniquely equipped to support Inglewood Unified in its goals to improve student outcomes and enrollment.

CYLA is uniquely positioned to work in partnership with IUSD as we have 13 years of experience doing similar work in LAUSD. For over a decade, we have been implementing our Whole School Whole Child program in schools across Los Angeles. Through this program, CYLA has the ability to add capacity to under-resourced schools and help meet the holistic needs of all students by integrating academic and social-emotional supports throughout the school day. Our AmeriCorps members forge positive, caring relationships with students and help create an environment in which students can build on their strengths, take risks in their learning and feel connected to their school. Expansion into IUSD is deeply aligned with CYLA’s goals and priorities, as we seek to provide support to schools where students can benefit the most. Ultimately, we see potential to grow into more districts like IUSD that have the same level of need as LAUSD and also work collaboratively with us to ensure sustainability.

City Year is contributing to a bolder vision of what public schools can and should be for all children: places of learning, exploration, and risk-taking, where data informs practices that promote student growth and achievement and where all students have access to positive relationships and personalized learning environments that encourage them to persevere through challenges and thrive. With this proposal we want to continue to bring these enhancements to our two Inglewood Unified School District campuses. Since 2007, City Year Los Angeles has partnered with teachers and schools in communities challenged by the persistent inequity in our education system to create learning environments where all students can reach their full potential.