Boston, Aug. 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- City Year CEO Jim Balfanz has been included in the 2024 NPT Power and Influence Top 50, the publication’s 27th annual list of top nonprofit executives.
The NonProfit Times highlights 50 of the nonprofit sector’s leaders for “innovation, influence on the broader sector, and for developing organizational models that can be replicated.”
“Balfanz proves that promoting from within works, given the four positions he has held there since 1997,” said the publication. “He’s led City Year’s strategic shift toward addressing the nation’s urban education challenge as a scalable human capital strategy.”
“Thank you to the NonProfit Times and congratulations to the other honorees,” Balfanz said. “It means a lot to be among such an inspiring and innovative group of leaders.”
The publication noted multiple challenges facing the nonprofit sector in the past year and said the executives they selected were all working full-time and “can redirect and rebuild vital nonprofits and their operations.”
Balfanz credited City Year’s focus on service and collaboration for its ability to continuously learn and evolve over time. “Everything we do at City Year is grounded in teamwork and building positive relationships as we strive to create conditions that enable all young people to meet their full potential,” Balfanz said.
At a moment when our schools and students need additional capacity and support, he said, “this recognition confirms that City Year AmeriCorps members, serving as student success coaches, are having a positive impact, helping young people to learn, thrive and succeed.”
Balfanz also thanked City Year’s school partners, investors, peer organizations and the organization’s staff across the country.
Balfanz, a graduate of Northeastern University and himself an alum of City Year Greater Boston ’94, served as City Year’s president and co-founding Executive Director of City Year Philadelphia, as well as several other leadership positions before becoming CEO in 2020.
For more than three decades, City Year has recruited, trained and supported young adults who dedicate a year or more of their lives to serving their communities. Through their year of national service, AmeriCorps members are developing the skills and mindsets needed to work across lines of difference and tackle complex problems, capabilities that are increasingly in demand from employers and institutes of higher education.
Through a combination of direct programs and strategic collaborations, City Year supports more than 2,500 AmeriCorps members serving as student success coaches and partners with 438 schools across 60 districts nationally, providing 1:1 support, social-emotional skills coaching, and afterschool enrichment opportunities. As demonstrated by rigorous third-party evaluations, schools that partner with City Year are up to two-to-three times more likely to improve in English and math assessments. And there’s evidence that student success coaches’ focus on personalized learning and developmental relationships builds student engagement and connection to school and has an impact on reducing the number of students who are off track to high school graduation.
Continuing to evolve its reach and scale, City Year will soon publicly launch its next phase of impact through a dual focus on the development of young people and students in the most systemically under-resourced school districts in the country, creating a pathway to thriving adulthood for more than one million young people by 2030.
About City Year
City Year is a trailblazing, youth-powered organization with a dual mission: expanding educational equity for students furthest from opportunity and developing diverse leaders through national service. Research shows the more time a student spends with a City Year AmeriCorps member serving as a student success coach, the better the student outcomes, academically, socially and emotionally. A public-private partnership, City Year is a proud member of AmeriCorps, operating in 29 U.S. cities with international affiliates in the U.K. and South Africa. Today, 40,000 alums continue to lead and serve where they live and work. Learn more about City Year’s six areas of impact: www.cityyear.org, Facebook, X and LinkedIn.
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