With a lifetime of civil rights activism, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. left a legacy of inclusion and inspiration which City Year Jacksonville aims to uphold through its annual MLK Day event.
City Year AmeriCorps is a national organization with chapters in 29 cities across the country that provide resources and support to schools. Members aim to supply students with academic, workforce, and intrapersonal mentorship while preparing them to be leaders in their communities and careers.
“City Year empowers young people to reach their full potential through placing 18 to 25 year olds in class, and they give students holistic support in the classroom in attendance, behavior and coursework,” explained Quentin Griffin, City Year’s Senior Event Director. “And these young people also receive professional development while they’re here, so that way when they graduate, they can become successful people.”
When the organization was founded in 1988, it was centered around physical service projects like renovating homeless shelters, cleaning parks, and painting schools. “I’m not sure exactly the date that we started doing the MLK Day of Service,” said Griffin, “but the physical service has lasted through the transitions of us integrating into schools and such. That’s one staple piece that we continuously do.”
Griffin joined City Year nine years ago after applying to the program through the AmeriCorps website. “I have had multiple roles in the organization, from being a core member, a volunteer in the classroom, to now a senior event director, which essentially means I manage a portfolio of schools and support the managers of teams at those schools.” For Griffin, it’s the work that City Year does to benefit students that drew him back year after year.
Griffin also acts as the director of the MLK service event, delegating tasks and orchestrating behind-the-scenes work. “We start planning for it in September or October,” he said. “We connect with principals and community partners so we can get sponsorships and donations for the event. It looks like us walking the campus with the principals understanding what the needs are on a school campus, and then coming up with a final plan for what the execution of these projects will look like.” After coming up with a plan, the City Year team works to design the projects, order materials, and prepare before the event itself.
This year, the organization selected San Jose Elementary School for revitalization, where several City Year Student Success Coaches have provided full-time support to students and teachers since last year. Jasmin Gomez, San Jose Elementary’s principal, played a large part in the school being selected for this year’s service project. “She really wanted to have it at her school’s campus,” recalled Griffin. “She’s a big community champion, and that’s one of our newer school partnerships.”
Gomez opened the event with several other speakers from City Year and partner organizations. For Griffin, one of the most memorable moments of the day was listening to four of the San Jose Elementary students recite excerpts from King’s “I Have A Dream” speech in both English and Spanish. “I think after the kids read and thanked the community for coming out to help their school it really inspired everybody to want to give it their all.”
Following the opening speeches, volunteers from various companies and organizations worked alongside 67 City Year members to help paint murals and work on landscaping. “We painted over 170 paw prints on the ground,” said Griffin, “And they put down over 1010 yards of mulch down along the perimeter of campus. Those are the most prominent things that we did.”
According to Griffin, City Year’s MLK Day service project is especially important because it creates an immediate, visual impact. “We do the same work every day in schools with tutoring, but I think that this is a unique type of service that we do,” said Griffin, “I think it stands out in the community and people can see the work that we’re doing.”
Overall, the service event is a day to celebrate King’s legacy and give back to the community. “Martin Luther King had a heart for people and communities,” said Griffin. “This event, it brings out the good in people. It brings communities together to do something towards a greater good. Martin Luther King did say, ‘Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.’”
