As part of his mission to revitalize Stockton, Mayor Michael Tubbs will announce during his State of the City address today that the city has launched a new partnership with AmeriCorps. It will be the first of its kind in the Central Valley.
Over the next six years Stockton will receive $12 million through the California Volunteers office to bring AmeriCorps programs to the city. Tubbs said the volunteer-based community service organization will help Stockton meet its goals of supporting kids to succeed in school, graduate and go on to college.
"What we're doing is really building a cradle-to-career pipeline of support for young people in Stockton, starting with some of our most underserved schools," he said.
Tubbs envisions using AmeriCorps to help younger students improve their reading skills. Another program would provide mentors to students who go on to local universities to increase their chances of graduating.
According to the Reinvent Stockton Foundation, currently just 35 percent of Stockton students are college-ready when they graduate from high school. Tubbs said the AmeriCorps investment will work in tandem with a local scholarship program that aims to send more kids to universities, community colleges and trade schools.
Ideally, Tubbs said, many of the volunteers who take part in the programs will be people from Stockton looking for a way to give back to their community.
The mayor is optimistic this partnership will demonstrate the city is evolving and growing.
"We haven't solved everything yet, but we're moving in the right direction," he said.