Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University & ENGAGE are working to fill, improve, and scale service year opportunities across Massachusetts. Our first focus was East Boston, a neighborhood with 46,000 residents. The strategy leveraged service years to provide after school programs for at-risk youth.  We are now exploring other Massachusetts communities as our next focus and are committed to heightening the value of service years throughout Massachusetts with recruitment efforts, higher-ed partnerships, and workforce connections. 

 

Lead organization:
Tisch College of Civic Life, Tufts University

 

Focus issues: 

• Education
• Youth engagement
• Community development

 

Current number of service years in impact community: 

15

 

Current number of service year programs in community: 

4

 

Growth goal: 

TBD

 

How service years have/will help your community address local challenges:

“Participating in a service year allows community members to build key life skills that are highly valued by employers in all sectors — skills like communication, cultural competency, and problem-solving,” said Rep. Adrian C. Madaro. “The East Boston Corps will both provide positive opportunities for youth and develop service leaders in our community.”

 

How working with Service Year Alliance/being a member of the Impact Community Network has been helpful:

“Service Year Alliance has been such an excellent support for our work. They have guided us in creating a strategy, pitching to funders, supporting our corps members, managing our coalition, and "making the case" for service. The well-rounded and comprehensive support from Service Year Alliance that we receive as an Impact Community is refreshing and unlike anything else we’ve experienced.”

-Kevin Ballen, Director, ENGAGE