Allishia Bauman, Executive Director & SVP, City Year Jacksonville

In an interview with Invest: Allishia Bauman, executive director of City Year Jacksonville, shared how they focus on leadership development for students and young mentors, why diversity and inclusion are core values at City Year, and how they use various digital tools and data-driven methods to monitor and evaluate their progress and build strong partnerships.

What is City Year and what have been the key highlights over the past 12 months?

City Year is a national organization located in 29 locations across the country, including Jacksonville. We just celebrated our 10th year in Jacksonville, which was a big celebration. I also celebrated 10 years with City Year Jacksonville, so it felt like a joint celebration of the service I have been honored to do here.

We have worked hard to establish our mission, which is to create a cycle of opportunity for young people in Jacksonville. We engage 18- to 25-year-olds as mentors and tutors for students (Student Success Coaches), focusing specifically on elementary-age students starting last year. Over the past 10 years, we have served students from the third grade onward. These young people support students, who then graduate high school and want to become mentors like those who helped them, creating a cycle of opportunity.

Students in systemically under-resourced communities are graduating high school when they did not think they would, and now they want to wear the red jacket of City Year and join our program. They are going off to be teachers, leaders in corporations, and are infusing our community with leadership and a heart for service. This work is starting to come to fruition as we see students growing up and becoming mentors and tutors themselves.

Over the last 10 years, we have had over 600 alumni come through our program, impacting thousands of students. These alumni are doing amazing things, leading in our community. Celebrating 10 years and shifting our focus to elementary school students due to the pandemic’s impact on education have been significant achievements. The needs of students are presenting themselves earlier, and our focus on earlier grades has been crucial. We have also tripled the size of the number of Student Success Coaches serving in our schools.

What programs or practices do you put in place to develop leadership among the students?

We have a double bottom line: supporting the students we serve and developing the young people who serve in our program. Over the last 10 years, we have focused on students in schools, but the young people serving with us were once students we served. This in itself is a leadership development lens.

The relationships we build with students and the examples we set are crucial. Showing up every day and talking to them about their futures is embedded in our work. Specific leadership development programs include training on basics like resume building and punctuality, as well as helping them discover their “why” and connecting them with community leaders.

Our comprehensive Learning and Development program prepares our young people for both their roles in the classroom and their future professional careers. One signature initiative is called 18-Minute Networking, a speed-dating style networking event where our Student Success Coaches can talk with professionals and sometimes even secure job offers. Our year-long engagements play a significant role in developing leadership qualities.

What measures or initiatives do you implement to guarantee or promote diversity and inclusion among your students?

Diversity and inclusion is embedded in our values. There are things like social justice for all, students first, collaboration always, inclusivity, and so on. Firstly, being grounded in those values that we hold is of top importance. Practicing what we preach is crucial. It is not just about having a list of values but also about practicing them. The practice of showing up and meeting students where they are, regardless of how they identify, what resources they have, where they live, or what they look like, is foundational in our work.

Our Student Success Coaches focus on supporting students in schools who need it the most. Our program, called our Whole School, Whole Child program, focuses on the holistic being of every child, not just their academics. We understand that a student acting out in class is not a reflection of their intelligence but indicates they are going through something. We take the time to understand what they are going through and how we can support them.

Showing up every day and focusing on students regardless of where they are is a significant piece. Having those values translate into the spaces we are in is essential. We serve every school district across Jacksonville, and in every community, we are present in at least one school in each school board member’s district.  

What partnerships do you have and why do you partner with them?

What I love about this work with City Year is how diverse our partners are. We have public and private partners. Our significant public partners include AmeriCorps, a federal entity, and Volunteer Florida, a state supporter. We also receive support from Duval County Public Schools directly and from the city of Jacksonville, through the Kids Hope Alliance. Additionally, we have support from groups like The United Way of Northeast Florida and the Community Foundation.

From a foundation standpoint, individuals and family foundations support us. For example, Michael Ward, an incredible local philanthropist and former CEO of CSX, founded our organization in Jacksonville and rallied these supporters. His foundation, the Michael Ward and Jennifer Glock Foundation, continues to support us.

Corporations like Wells Fargo, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Truist, Deloitte, and Bank of America have supported us, along with local companies like Beaver Street Fisheries. We also have alumni who have graduated and started supporting us at various levels, which is one of my favorite stories. These diverse partners help us tremendously in achieving our goals.

In terms of leveraging technology, how do you use digital tools or apps to guarantee the success or graduation rates of the students you work with?

We use technology extensively. Basic communication methods and data tracking tools like Power BI help us analyze our data. We use Salesforce for student-tracking data and managing our partners and donations. We have data sharing agreements with our district to access school district data systems for tracking and analyzing our data. Our national and local teams evaluate data regularly to report effectively and inform our work.

What is the outlook for City Year in the next two to three years regarding priorities, goals, or strategies?

The public education space is evolving significantly, with changing student needs, leadership shifts, and varying focuses like graduation rates, literacy, and attendance. Our primary focus is to continue showing up for students regardless of these shifts. We are hyper-focused on making it clear that young people are our priority, and we want to do more in this area.

During the pandemic, recruitment was a challenge, but we are recovering. In 2023, we tripled the size of our volunteer core. Our goal over the next three years is to have at least 100 young people serving across our community. This year, we have about 70, and last year, we had about 60, so we are growing steadily. As more young people join our program, the greater the number of students and schools we can serve.

On the business end, resourcing the organization and diversifying our funding sources is essential. Public and private funding availability is shifting, so we seek more individual supporters at various levels. Donations of $20 or $50 matter significantly to us, and we want to grow our partnerships in this way.