city connects
City Connects is a non-profit program within Boston College that provides evidence-based integrated student support services to K-12 students in high-poverty urban school districts, using school-based coordinators and the MyConnects platform to connect students and families with community resources.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2000
- HeadquartersChestnut Hill, United States
- Headcount—
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What city connects does
City Connects is an evidence-based integrated student support program operating within Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development, founded in 2000. The program addresses non-academic barriers to learning — including hunger, homelessness, family stress, and emotional distress — for K-12 students attending high-poverty urban school districts. Service delivery centers on school-based coordinators who conduct individualized student needs assessments and refer students and families to appropriate community-based resources, with the MyConnects platform used to track assessments, referrals, and outcomes at the student level. In the 2024-25 academic year, City Connects served 40,817 students and coordinated 402,603 discrete services. The program is funded through institutional grants and philanthropic donations as part of Boston College; it charges no fees to participating schools, students, or families. The model is supported by 25 years of peer-reviewed research claiming a 50% reduction in dropout rates and 20% improvement in student achievement, with a 96% principal recommendation rate among participating schools.
city connects firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- city connects
- Legal name
- City Connects (A Program of Boston College, Lynch School of Education and Human Development)
- Website
- https://cityconnects.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2000
- Operating status
- Operating
- Short description
- City Connects is a non-profit program within Boston College that provides evidence-based integrated student support services to K-12 students in high-poverty urban school districts, using school-based coordinators and the MyConnects platform to connect students and families with community resources.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
city connects industry classification
Industry- Product category
- K-12 Integrated Student Support Services
- NAICS
- Educational Support Services (611710), Elementary and Secondary Schools (611110)
- SIC
- Services-Social Services (8300)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Public K–12 Combined Schools (EDAJAAAE)
Keywords
Where city connects is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Chestnut Hill
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
city connects business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Grants and Donations: City Connects is funded through institutional grants and donor contributions as part of Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development. The program does not charge schools for participation.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels4 records
city connects product offering
Product offeringCore offering
City Connects is an evidence-based integrated student support program operated within Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development. It provides a systematic model for K-12 schools in high-poverty urban districts to assess student needs and connect students and families with appropriate community-based services and resources, using a dedicated site coordinator and a technology platform (MyConnects) to track services and outcomes.
Product overview
City Connects is a single core program—an evidence-based integrated student support model operated by Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development. The program centers on matching existing community services to each student's out-of-school needs through school-based coordinators. Key supporting offerings include MyConnects (a tracking/matchmaking tool for coordinators) and The Weekly Connect (a blog/newsletter). The portfolio is not a platform-plus-modules architecture; it is one program with ancillary resources.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- MyConnects: A digital platform used within the City Connects approach to track student support services.
Quantifiable outcome
- Students are 50% less likely to drop out of high school
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use city connects
Customer profileNamed customers2 records
Segments1 record
Ideal customer profiles1 record
city connects technology and API
TechnologyAPI detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature1 record
city connects partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- Boston College Lynch School of Education and Human DevelopmentcoreCity Connects is housed within and operated by Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development. The program is part of the Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children, providing institutional support, research infrastructure, and academic credibility to the program.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights3 records
city connects competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Communities In Schools: Communities In Schools is the largest U.S. provider of integrated student supports, placing site coordinators inside K-12 schools to connect students to community resources. It is the most direct functional and operational peer to City Connects, operating a near-identical coordinator-in-school model at significantly greater national scale.
- Say Yes to Education: Say Yes to Education combines wraparound academic, social, and health supports with scholarship and post-secondary access in partner school districts. Like City Connects, it pairs district-wide integrated student support with college outcomes and a research-driven impact narrative.
- City Year: City Year places AmeriCorps members inside K-12 schools to deliver attendance, behavior, and course-performance support, with measurable impact on graduation and dropout outcomes. It is directly comparable to City Connects as an embedded-in-school, evidence-driven student support organization with similar target districts and outcome metrics.
Broad incumbents
- United Way: United Way funds and coordinates community-based social services across health, education, and financial stability, often serving as the local backbone agency that City Connects coordinators tap into. It is a broader incumbent in the same community-support ecosystem but does not specialize in the school-embedded integrated student support niche.
- National Urban League: The National Urban League delivers a portfolio of education, workforce, health, and social services to urban communities through a national affiliate network. It is a broader incumbent serving overlapping populations with multi-service programming, comparable in mission and target demographics but operating a much wider scope than City Connects' school-specific support model.
Others
- Boys & Girls Clubs of America: Boys & Girls Clubs of America operates out-of-school-time programs that address many of the same out-of-school barriers (hunger, safety, family stress) that City Connects targets. It is thematically adjacent — providing youth and family supports — but delivers services primarily at club locations rather than embedded in K-12 schools.
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of America: Big Brothers Big Sisters delivers mentoring and youth development programs that complement many of the social-emotional and family supports City Connects coordinates. It serves overlapping student populations and addresses similar non-academic barriers to learning, but through one-to-one mentoring rather than school-embedded service coordination.
- Children's Aid Society: Children's Aid delivers integrated programs in education, health, and social services to children and families, including in-school community schools programming. It shares City Connects' wraparound-support philosophy and K-12 in-school delivery model, but operates as a direct multi-service provider rather than as a coordinator of existing community resources.
Emerging players
- Reading Partners: Reading Partners places volunteer tutors inside under-resourced K-12 schools to deliver literacy intervention with measurable reading outcomes. It addresses one component of the broader integrated student support City Connects coordinates, focusing on academic intervention rather than full wraparound service matching.
- KIPP Foundation: KIPP operates a national network of public charter schools serving predominantly low-income students, with a strong emphasis on college persistence and wraparound supports. It is comparable to City Connects in student demographics and outcome orientation, but delivers support as a charter operator rather than as a service layered into existing district schools.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
city connects social profiles
Digital presencecity connects financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
city connects leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
city connects funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
city connects M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about city connects
What does city connects do?
City Connects is an evidence-based integrated student support program operated within Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development. It provides a systematic model for K-12 schools in high-poverty urban districts to assess student needs and connect students and families with appropriate community-based services and resources, using a dedicated site coordinator and a technology platform (MyConnects) to track services and outcomes.
Is city connects a public or private company?
city connects is a private company. It is currently operating.
When was city connects founded?
city connects was founded in 2000.
Where is city connects based?
city connects is headquartered in Chestnut Hill, United States, in the North America region.
How does city connects make money?
One revenue line is on record: grants and Donations.
Who are city connects's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Communities In Schools, Say Yes to Education and City Year. Broad incumbents are United Way and National Urban League. Others are Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and Children's Aid Society. Emerging players are Reading Partners and KIPP Foundation.
Does city connects have an API?
No public API is recorded for city connects.
What industry is city connects in?
city connects's product category is K-12 Integrated Student Support Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAJAAAE, Public K–12 Combined Schools. Its NAICS code is 611710 and its SIC code is 8300.