SCI Americorps Develops Leaders with Perkins School for the Blind

Published by Kylee Sawyer on March 25, 2025March 25, 2025

SCI AmeriCorps Develops Leaders with Perkins School for the Blind

This past fall, we partnered with Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA to offer the SCI Developing Leaders program to both cohorts of AmeriCorps members. In a reciprocal exchange of teaching and learning, SCI AmeriCorps has hit new strides as we expand our programming to be ever more inclusive and accessible, with many thanks to our partners at Perkins!

We encouraged peer-to-peer exchange between the two cohorts by incorporating community building practices such as restorative justice circles into our program facilitation. With special thanks to the Suffolk University Center for Restorative Justice, many authentic connections were cultivated not only between AmeriCorps members but with their host sites as well.

In addition, members gained experience practicing new program management tools and strengths-based communication techniques alongside their peers. Many AmeriCorps members stated that the more they engaged with the professional development modules, the more relevant and salient the topics became within their service activities.

As we close this chapter of the SCI AmeriCorps program year, we are looking forward to seeing what adventures our SCI AmeriCorps Fellows will choose to embark on as they set their sights on their Social Capital Youth Project capstones!

SCI’s mission is to strengthen the community by connecting diverse individuals and organizations through civic engagement initiatives. We envision a community where individuals are strongly connected to their neighbors and play an active role in shaping the destiny of our community. This increase in ‘social capital’ will result in a community that is safer, healthier and more vital.

SCI AmeriCorps Fellows facilitate volunteer engagement, youth enrichment programs and community outreach activities at their nonprofit host site placement. Fellows are placed at youth-serving organizations in Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, and Woburn.

During a service term, SCI AmeriCorps Fellows gain professional nonprofit experience as well as: leadership training program through SCI, access college / graduate credit through an exclusive partnership with Merrimack College, and earn federal dollars towards higher education. Since 2007, over 300 Members have served local Greater Boston communities with SCI AmeriCorps.

SCI AmeriCorps is an AmeriCorps national service program and receives fiscal, in-kind, and technical support from the Massachusetts Service Alliance (MSA).

SCI Americorps Develops Leaders with Perkins School for the Blind