The profound challenge in scaling out the social
innovative practice into new locations is how to make the intervention
effective or successful within a short period of time. In this process to
ensure deliverable, the wheel is reinvented but, the basic principle of scaling
up is that wheel should be reinvented on the basis of terrain (geographical
location) and context (nature of implementation strategy), which require
changes in design of the wheel. This seems that City Year has all the effective
supporting mechanism to expand its approach and philosophy in other location. Analyzing
and assessing the City Year expansion strategy, this shows that expansion
strategy of City year is critical as well as challenging.
The core mission of City Year is that young
people can change the world and their involvement in well planned program
ensures them to learn while working with community and working in the
organization. However, diversity, citizenship and private sector investment has
been evolved as three strong pillars to achieve the mission. The City Year has
been evolved in tremendous process of learning and experience, while working
with young people in different federal programs. Historically, there were
number of programs in the USA, which were reasonably effective in addressing needs
and aspirations of young people, but the approach and philosophy of City Year
are different than other programs.
The basic approach of City Year is to build a team,
in which diversity is driving force. Diversity has never been seen as important
component in earlier youth centered programs and projects. In fact, diversity
component differentiates City Year from other youth programs. Apart from this,
it underlines the significance of citizenship and private investment because
building young people capacity help them to do better in education, public
speaking, community development.
There was a consistent struggle in the City Year
from implementing vision into reality, convincing others to believe on vision, tough
task of fund raising, program development during the initial period of
evolution of City Year. But the significant part of this struggle was that they
considered time would be important component in implementing City Year’s
philosophy into reality. Therefore, they decided that initial two years would
be spent in planning, implementation strategy, fundraising and program development
before starting ‘a full year program in Sept 1989’.
After getting first financial support from the
Bank of Boston, they were able to recognize that the idea of City Year had its
potential to go ahead. However, the priority of this program was to involve
diversity, which was also facing challenging task. Diversity is a value loaded
term and without proper planning and organizational culture, this can
jeopardize the ongoing effort to address this sensitive issue in program and
project. Therefore, City Year started a
process to imbibe the need to promote shared idea, symbols and tradition’ in
initial periods. The integrative process helped the organization to start
working and also assisted them to resolve day to day challenges.
In fact, City Year has emerged as value based
organization, where every activity were designed and planned to motivate corps
members and staffs members ‘a way of doing things’. Communication and
sharing stories were emphasis for building inclusive and cooperative culture in
the organization.
Some activities, such as NOSTUESO, physical
exercises, rapping, cheering were developed as powerful inspiration tools for
crop members and these were ‘religiously’ used before the work started. In the
initial periods, every effort was used to build an organizational identity and
also encouraged both staffs members and corps member to build informal
relationship. Everyone was learning from each other, which was enhancing
efficiency and strengthening effective implementation process. Acceptability of
new ideas and perspectives were welcomed and created enabling environment to
implement these to learn the possibility of integrating with the core
philosophy of the City Year.
The most effective aspect of City Year was that
there was a passion and commitment from top to bottom, which was helping them
to recognize the challenges and also enabling them to foster the potential of
organization in the working areas. Everything was not planned but every step was
recognized as learning opportunity to be effective among the young people and
also to make them efficient to do better in their life.
I
would like to share 6Cs (context, confidence, capacity, cohesion, connection
and Cash), which are significantly apparent in City Year’s approach and
functioning. The strength of City Year is its model, which are encouraging
young people and engaging them in creative and productive activities.
Market potential and rate of return in
City Year cannot be quantified but the long term impact of its programs and
activities are visible. City Year is working with young people and their
involvement in different set of activities ensure behavior change and building
community. A survey shows that there are corps members, in which ‘65% in higher
study, 69% are working’. This indicates that program and activities of City
Year do has high potential to address the need of market and its rate of return
can be higher in long time. This is generally assumed that more years of
education increases the chances of more earning, which increase national
financial health in long run.
Products and services of City Year are
extremely important to address its core principle of diversity, citizenship and
private investment. In these three pillars, diversity is one of the most
important guiding forces in the organization. Most of products and services are
efficiently evolved and effectively implemented in the working areas of City
Year.
The impact of these product
and services is quite visible when school principal recognizes that the
involvement of corps members among the school children has created hope and
vision of how to live. During the young age, the impact is visible in those activities,
which are able to address the need and aspiration of diverse group and motivate
young person to learn new skills. The products and services of City Year not
merely address the need and aspiration of different group of young people but
also enable them to be effective citizen in future.
