Service Alternatives history

City Year co-founders Alan Khazei and Michael Brown in original City Year sweatshirts. (1988)

Since 1990, Service Alternatives has experienced the benefits of increased employee satisfaction, professionalism, and quality of work as a result of prioritizing training.

1993: President Bill Clinton creates a new federal agency, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), to administer federally-funded national service programs.

Two years later, Girl World is founded as an initiative of ASAP. In 1994, EdgeUp is established as a partnership of schools, businesses, trade associations, and local social service providers.

In 1995, a Mediation Center is established at Senn High School and Mayor Daley’s Region One YouthNet Center – a City initiative to use public facilities to provide a “safety-net” for young people during after school hours.

In 1996, the students from YouthNet create the first Peer Jury (now call Restortative Justice) in the Chicago Public Schools.

Comments of Visiting Professor Yossi Klein Halevi on Matt Ronen's final college pager on the creation of the "Service Year Fellowship". (March 5, 2004)

In 2006, the Bricolage project completes the new mural façade of the 4730 building.

2012: General Stanley McChrystal, in a conversation with television journalist Bob Schieffer at the Aspen Ideas Festival in 2012, made widely publicized remarks on the potential civic benefits of large-scale national service.

On November 29, 2013, Matt officially launches the Service Year Movement to disrupt the college-to-corporate career path with a year of full-time service.

In 2014, Alternatives’ Board of Directors approves a strategic plan that includes opening a centralized youth center on Chicago’s South Side.

Matt Ronen speaks at Citigroup headquarters to internship class. (July 22, 2015)

On May 14, 2016, Matt Ronen launches ServiceCorps.