BOSTON — United Way’s North Shore AmeriCorps team joined with volunteers from Kettle Cuisine, Metro North YMCA’s corporate office, Northeast ARC, and community volunteers from Lynn to lead a two-day, two-city volunteer event benefiting 900 students in Lynn and Salem.
“Our North Shore AmeriCorps Partnership is focused on providing English Language Learner students in Lynn and Salem with the academic, social and emotional supports to increase their engagement and educational outcomes,” said Michael K. Durkin, president and CEO at United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. “Together with the volunteers and our community and school partners, we’re fighting to close the achievement gap and ensure educational success for all students.”
The two-day service project engaged more than 75 community and corporate volunteers in four projects in Lynn and Salem who together with North Shore AmeriCorps members:
- Helped make the new space for the New American Center in Lynn a home for the immigrant and refugee students who attend the out-of-school time programs. Volunteers hung photos of the center’s students, created a giant world map to showcase student roots, and prepped for its summer enrichment program by creating portable summer reading carts, word walls, and posters.
- Built a new literacy space at the Lynn YMCA, where students of all reading levels and English language proficiencies can access a story that is engaging and culturally responsive. Volunteers assembled bookcases and categorized books, assessed 200 young readers to place them at their proper reading level, and distributed 200 books for students to take home.
- Created welcome signage to be distributed and used across the district at seven Salem schools.
Through United Way’s North Shore AmeriCorps initiative, 20 members are serving during the 2017-2018 school year in seven public schools and eight community organizations across Lynn and Salem. Funded by United Way of Massachusetts Bay, the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Massachusetts Service Alliance, the North Shore AmeriCorps partnership is working to increase academic engagement and outcomes among English Language Learner students in these cities.
Last year, AmeriCorps members supported 400 students in Lynn and Salem with academic and social emotional interventions both during school and in out-of-school-time programming.