President Barack Obama, arguably the world’s most famous former community organizer, has called on all Americans to give up a little of their time to help others in need.

This recent call to action came into full force on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 19, when Obama asked Americans to spend their day off of work or school serving their communities in honor of the revered civil rights leader.

“[For Martin Luther King Jr. Day] we had so much interest that we didn’t have the capacity to accommodate all the volunteers,” said Johnny Barr, director of external relations for City Year Chicago. “We had to encourage people to look for other [service] opportunities after a certain point.”

That is something that has never happened for that kind of service day before, Barr said. Keeping the momentum going, keeping people engaged and inspired to serve is something City Year Chicago will work to keep doing, he said.

City Year, an Americorps program, brings young people from diverse backgrounds together for a year of full-time service as tutors and mentors in under-served communities.

The organization was founded in Boston in 1988 by two Harvard Law School students, Michael Brown and Alan Khazei, who felt young people in service could be a powerful resource for addressing social issues, according to the group’s website, CityYear.org.

Started as a 50-person pilot program, City Year has now expanded to 18 locations across the United States, and in 2005 launched a program in South Africa.

City Year came to Chicago in 1994 and has since graduated 777 corps members and served 8,545 children. Working within the Chicago Public School system, corps members focus on literacy development for elementary school students.

“It’s definitely a beneficial relationship,” said Patricia Rivera, manager of the Chicago Public Schools homeless education program, which City Year corps members work with.

“They have been excellent volunteers, and we wouldn’t mind having more of them, actually,” Rivera said.

Applications for City Year are up this year, which could be because of Obama’s call to service or simply better marketing strategies by the organization, Barr said. Normally, one corps member is accepted for every two applications, but so far this year, Barr said it looks like only one out of every three applicants will be accepted because of the increased interest.

Mark O’Brien, coordinator of student relations at Columbia, is a City Year graduate and a member of City Year’s Alumni Board. After graduating from Indiana University, he spent his year of service in Chicago working in a South Side elementary school.

O’Brien said he believes the current generation of college students are more inclined to care about volunteerism and community service, and that it’s something colleges and universities now look for in applicants. Having some background in service is increasingly becoming a part of the well-rounded student.

“City Year was an experience that allowed me to be immersed in a group of young people who were passionate, and we shared the same interest to make a contribution to the world to make a change,” O’Brien said.

This desire to help others and a passion for social justice was a uniting force that brought together a group of people who were very diverse in age, race, religion gender and sexual orientation, O’Brien said.

“[Before City Year] I hadn’t had such an intense, team-based experience with such different people,” O’Brien said. “And I think those experiences have certainly served me well in a lot of the work I continue to do, especially here at the college.”

O’Brien credits his City Year experience with helping him develop several skills he puts to use in his current career and in his everyday life. Learning how to work with a diverse group of people was one of the most important things he took away from the experience, he said, but he also learned other valuable skills such as program planning, learning how to organize people and getting others involved.

For more information about Obama’s service initiative, visit USAService.org. For more information about City Year programs, visit CityYear.org.