Friday, Sept. 26, Ciy Year groups throughout the country will swear-in new corps members during Opening Day ceremonies. The new corps members will take both the City Year pledge (see below) and the AmeriCorps pledge. The ceremony is the culmination of a month of intense pre-service training, as well as the launch of ten months of full-time service.

In some cities Corps members will follow Opening Day with service projects, such as preparing care packages for hospitalized children as part of Worldfest in Little Rock, AR, or working on the grounds of a public elementary school in Louisiana.

City Year was founded 20 years ago, graduating more than 10,000 participants. City Year corps members serve in one of 17 U.S. cities and in Johannesburg, South Africa in schools and neighborhoods as tutors and leaders for a year of full-time service. Read more about City Year’s projects and initiatives.

Here is the City Year pledge:

I pledge to serve as a City Year corps member
to the very best of my ability,
to honor the rules and expectations of City Year,
to respect my colleagues and the people and
communities we serve,
to provide excellent service,
to lead by example and be a role model to children,
to celebrate the diversity of people, ideas and
cultures around me,
to serve with an open heart and an open mind,
to be quick to help and slow to judge,
to do my best to make a difference in the lives of
others, and
to build a stronger community, nation and world,
for all of us.