Generosity for the Next Generation
Here at Generation Generosity we’re never happier than when we get to sing the praises of an organization making the generosity movement their own. This week we’re proud to recognize the efforts of the Boston legal community, whose members have recently partnered with education-focused, non-profit organization City Year Boston, in support of their mentoring initiatives designed to keep at-risk youths in school. Over 400 legal professionals gathered at a legal breakfast event on March 2, to learn about City Year Boston and how they can assist the organization’s efforts. “[E]ducation is the key to success in America,” asserted Mark Polebaum, legal event Co-Chair and Executive Vice President & General Counsel at MFS Investment Management, “and it’s critical to address the most fundamental risk in our society to our children attaining a quality education – the drop-out crisis.”
City Year’s corps members are high school graduates, college students or recent graduates, “near-peers” of their mentees, who provide a variety of services to the at-risk students they mentor, from tutoring to calling students who don’t show up for school. They serve for one year in a mutually beneficial arrangement – mentors learn as much as mentees, developing leadership and other skills that will help them later in whatever their chosen careers.
By sponsoring City Year teams, events and sites, law firms and legal professionals are investing in the future of these at-risk students, ensuring they have the best chance to receive the education they deserve and make something of themselves against tough odds. Some of these students are the lawyers of tomorrow, so how great is it that they’re seeing first-hand what generosity means and what it can do? In our book, pretty darn great.
Is there a City Year chapter in your area? Click here to find out, or let us know how your firm is giving to the lawyers and leaders of tomorrow.
