BAYAC (Bay Area Youth Agency Consortium) is a National Service program of Bay Area Community Resources. BAYAC AmeriCorps Members commit to a year of service at partnering schools and community based organizations, providing youth in the San Francisco Bay Area with opportunities for meaningful engagement, skill building, and emotional and social development.
Many of the children and youth we work with are deeply impacted by the stressors and obstacles presented by poverty, disadvantaged neighborhoods and under-resourced schools. BAYAC AmeriCorps Members are an essential component in expanding our partners' capacity to meet the critical needs of our youth and community. Collectively, our Members will reach over 3,000 youth by the end of their term.
What has made my AmeriCorps Term meaningful has been connecting with families, connecting families to communities, connecting communities to school - I have never felt more connected.
My Regional Supervisor’s commitment has made my AmeriCorps Term meaningful!
My AmeriCorps Term has been meaningful towards preparing me for teaching. BAYAC has helped get me interested in teaching Latino populations at the elementary level. Team Days have benefited my development by improving my articulation and facilitation skills.
This term of service has taught me that my career is centered around connecting with and motivating youth through speaking and sharing my story of overcoming challenges.
Honestly, one of the most meaningful aspects of my OCASA Term of Service has been making small connections with students and supporting them as they learn how to treat each other with basic respect and express themselves in an assertive way rather than an aggressive way.
I serve because… I want to help youth understand and be understood. I want to give them purpose and insight as to why it is important to get an education and become great leaders in the future.
Having a great Regional Supervisor and Site Coordinator and working with a great staff at mt site has made my AmeriCorps Term meaningful. We’ve become so close it feels like family.
My service site has been very supportive. Staff and teachers have encouraged me to go to grad school in order to obtain my teacher’s credentials. Furthermore, they have offered a paying position as a tutor and teacher for summer school through the Fall semester of 2014. Life Academy has been great - I feel blessed and lucky!
BAYAC and my service site have not only allowed me to focus my career goals, but have also given me the skills to pursue those goals.
It was important for me to give back to my community because I was born and raised in Oakland.
Team Days have been very beneficial towards providing that extra boost I need to get through another week.
Building positive and loving relationships with students has made my Term of Service meaningful. I’m now sure I want to teach more than ever and Team Days have provided the space for reflection and support.
I applied to AmeriCorps self conscious that I was a career-confused environmental engineer who was considering becoming a teacher. AmeriCorps was my opportunity to explore whether working with youth was a nice thought or a future reality.
During my first year, I grew so much as a person, facilitator, and youth worker. At times I felt as though I was right where I belonged; other times I had to persevere through mess ups and flops to find what works. Through it all, the relationships I fostered with my students and site team as well as the support of my AmeriCorps regional team and supervisor kept me going. By the end of the year, after shadowing teachers and hearing about the diverse services that fellow AmeriCorps members provided, my career focus broadened from teacher or engineer to an array of professions within youth development.
During my second year, I served at the same school site, took on more responsibilities at my site and within AmeriCorps, and continued to invest in my students. Through the support of my school staff and site supervisor, I began to shadow speech pathologists, school psychologists, and counselors throughout Oakland Unified. Now at the end of my second term of service with AmeriCorps, I am leaving different from how I came-- assistant coordinator of my after school program and a hopeful, career-connected youth worker.