I Heart New York: Mayor Michael Bloomberg launches city-wide initiative to make service a part of K-12 public school education

April 24, 2009 - A sustained culture of service can be created by developing programs that encourage young New Yorkers to think about volunteering as a core part of their lives. As part of the recently launched NYC Service, starting this fall, New York City will be the first large urban district to require all schools to have a service plan. In the fall, schools will submit individualized service plans as part of their schools' Consolidated Plans. Other school districts promote or require service among middle or high school students. In New York City, all 1.1 million students in 1,500 schools will have access to service and civic engagement programs.

Through a partnership with Children for Children, up to 100 AmeriCorps fellows will be deployed to provide training, technical assistance, data collection, and support to New York City educators to introduce or increase service in their schools. Other partners will include City Year, Common Cents, The League, and Global Kids, Inc.

New York will implement a Summer of Service through which 1,000 young New Yorkers participating in the Summer Youth Employment Program administered by the Department of Youth and Community Development will be engaged in large-scale service projects that will have a measurable impact on the City's most pressing needs.

Learn more about this exciting effort to engage more young people in service-learning. Visit NYC Service online.