[Video] Watch 200 Montana Conservation Corps AmeriCorps Members Take Oath to Serve
Video featured in their newsletter.
Video featured in their newsletter.
Story written by Caelan Keenan, Food Security VISTA with Vermont Youth Conservation Corps and featured in VYCC’s newsletter.
The moment Winooski High School students hop off the bus at The Farm at VYCC is hard to describe but easy to feel. Their fervor for growing, exploring, and being together infuses the entire campus, and lights up The Farm for what it is: a true center for education.
“I learned that the outside is my new classroom,” said Ledonia Taylor. She is one of twenty Winooski High School interns on the Farm at VYCC.
New this year, students can earn science credit. For many, this is a chance to learn and succeed outside of the classroom. Nancy Keller of Winooski High School, summarizes the program this way:
“[Students] learn about the basics of agriculture and food science by planting and raising crops, caring for animals, and cooking food. These practical experiences provide the foundation for understanding key science concepts, such as the flow of energy and matter in organisms and ecosystems. However, the Food and Farm Program at VYCC is more than learning science. It is also about building community–being with friends, meeting other people, and sharing food.”
Students’ field work is matched with reflective journaling and observant note taking. It isn’t uncommon to find students standing at the foot of a vegetable bed scribbling planting information, or paused in front of the hen house taking notes.
“Planting is my favorite job,” writes a student in her journal. “I feel like I have a happy life when I am planting. It is fun to be here. The mentors are nice and I also learn how to cook other cultures’ foods, and I have a time to share my culture’s food, too. I can practice my writing, and this helps me a lot with my English. I think it is great being here…My favorite job is to work with natural things. When I am outdoors, I feel so good.”
Each week, a small group of students prepares a fresh snack for their peers. Their work in the kitchen culminates with a large community meal on “Share It Fridays” in the West Monitor Barn. Students design and execute the menu – often preparing their family’s cultural dishes with produce and poultry from the farm. Share It Fridays are a time to celebrate the week’s work, discuss scientific observations, and recount lessons learned.
Every student who participates in The Farm at VYCC program will receive a weekly share of vegetables and poultry this summer. The Share begins long after school is over. Imagine the smiles and understanding, then, when students finally see and taste the vegetables they seeded, transplanted, and cared for months earlier.
Featured on MCC’s blog
“This rock I ascended and from its top had a most extensive view in every direction on the Northerly Side of the river high romantic clifts approach & jut over the water for some distance both above and below.”
Over 200 years ago, William Clark of the famed Lewis and Clark expedition etched his name into the sandstone cliff 30 miles east of present day Billings, Montana. And in the backdrop of the last remaining physical evidence of the expedition, a group of MCC Field Crew Leaders went to work improving habitat for the wildlife species that continue to call eastern Montana home.
The 4,500 acre site was acquired by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) in 2007. Formerly a ranching operation, FWP began transforming it into a Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in 2009. Situated in semi-arid sage brush country, it’s easy for expedition fanatics to overlook prospering habitat.
“The Yellowstone WMA is unique in that it borders several thousands of acres of Bureau of Land Management land and roughly five miles of river front habitat,” said FWP Wildlife Research Specialist Jay Watson. “Since work began, I’ve seen meadowlarks, fly catchers, vireos, warblers, and gold finches in the area.”
One priority of this project was to construct areas that would help establish upland bird populations by constructing brood plots. The plots function as a feeding and nesting area for these species. By planting native vegetation, the birds are afforded winter habitat, cover during nesting season, and an area to raise chicks each spring. The plots are constructed in such a way that they actually encourage insects to move into the plot, providing critical nutrition to hatchlings.
And while the Yellowstone WMA is managed for upland birds, Montana’s system of 77 WMA’s covers just about anything you could hope for in Big Sky Country. According to the FWP website, WMAs provide habitat for bear, bighorn sheep, birds, deer, elk, furbearers, moose, mountain goats, and wolves.
“It gave perspective to what all goes into the survival of these species,” said MCC Crew Leader Megan Woodruff. “We helped reestablish livable conditions for the wildlife and saw firsthand how it strengthens Montana’s ecosystems from insects on up to mammals.”
Fighting rain and cold, the crew pressed on until the call was made to temporarily suspend efforts. But as soon as the clouds rolled out, leaders rolled back in to pick up where they left off. In just four days the crew was able to make significant strides, but the project is part of an ongoing effort.
“The project, as it stands, is about two-thirds complete. In about three years we hope to have the entire area converted. However, it will still require maintenance like burning and mowing to maintain biological diversity,” Watson said.
Projects on this scale take considerable planning and support to come to fruition. FWP and MCC would like to thank The Montana Chapter of the Safari Club International, Yellowstone Valley Chapter of Pheasants Forever, the Billings Rod & Gun Club, and the Bureau of Land Management for their contributions and commitment to improving this area for both wildlife and public use alike.
To learn about accessing the Yellowstone Wildlife Management Area, please visit the following link:https://fwp.mt.gov/fishAndWildlife/wma/siteDetail.html?id=11181201
Posted by MCC on their blog
Clay Skeens and Jim Dyson are far from being newcomers to leadership. Combined, the two carry nearly 25 years of military experience and have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women and men from the Army and Marine Corps have undoubtedly benefited from the drive of these two men. This time around, Skeens and Dyson are once again answering the call to serve, this time in communities and public lands in the Northern Rockies. While they aren’t from Montana originally, the opportunity to lead fellow Service Members and Veterans for Veterans Green Corps was too enticing to pass up.
Jim Dyson served in the Army for the last 20 years. He’s enlisted in all three components of the Army—active duty, reservist, and currently as a guardsman. He’s completed multiple tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan and holds numerous specialties, including field medic and military police. Dyson joined MCC in 2012 as a crew member and says he looks forward to not only leading his crew but gaining conservation knowledge from a wide variety of projects this season.
Clay Skeens joins MCC fresh off receiving his Forestry Degree from the University of Montana. Originally from Florida, Skeens decided to move west after serving two tours in Iraq with the United States Marine Corps. Skeens has kept at his passion for serving active and former service members through activities like serving as President of UM’s Student Veterans Association. Skeens says he is excited to join MCC and looks forward to being a voice for Montana Veterans.
If you or someone you know is interested in joining Veterans Green Corps, there are new positions available for a fall-term.
Term dates: Aug. 18 – Oct. 31
Compensation: $650 bi-weekly
Full details of the program and benefits of serving with MCC are available here:https://mtcorps.org/positions/veterans/vet-corpsmember
For more information contact: Kyle Martens at [email protected] or 406-587-4475
Press Release issued by the Sacramento Regional Conservation Corps
The Sacramento Regional Conservation Corps’ (SRCC) 17th Annual Breakfast on the River Event Celebrating 30 years of serving Sacramento’s young adults, ages 18 – 25 was held on Friday June 6th at Discovery Park where the Sacramento and American Rivers merge.
Guests visited interactive display booths show casing the paid work experience projects and education and training the corpsmembers receive while working on projects that benefit the community. They heard success stories from four SRCC Alum and two current Corpsmembers were awarded the Corpsmember of the Year Award. One from the Sacramento Main Center and one from the SRCC’s City Citrus Heights Satellite.
The Sacramento Regional Conservation Corps is Sacramento’s largest education and paid workforce training program for young adults. Established by the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the SRCC has been empowering young adults through opportunities for education and paid work experience for three decades. The Corps currently serves Sacramento, Yolo, El Dorado, Placer and eastern Solano Counties enriching lives and benefiting the Region.
To celebrate Father’s Day, from now through 6/15/2014, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate an extra $5 for each customer who makes an eligible purchase at smile.amazon.com in support of The Corps Network. This is in addition to the regular donation of 0.5% of the purchase price.
Click here to get started: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/52-1480202
Thanks and have a great Father’s Day!
The Corps Network
Staff members from The Corps Network, including Vice President Marie Walker and Gulf Coast Restoration Corps Director of Development John Hosey recently had the privilege of visiting two members of The Corps Network in South Florida. Their time with Community Training Works, Inc. and Greater Miami Service Corps was a refreshing reminder about all the great work our network members are doing across the country making a difference in their lives of in the communities where they serve.
Community Training Works, Inc. crews work out of a number of locations across the state of Florida. Our staff members were pleased to get to know Chris Butler and his crew working in the Ft. Lauderdale area. The crew work for the local Department of Corrections and Department of Transportation repairing and installing security fences as requested. You don’t have to be around these young men long to see the difference this program has made in their lives. When asked why he choose this program, Chris said, “I want to provide a good living for my wife and children and I always wanted to find a place I could learn a trade and have a future.”
The Greater Miami Service Corps is also making a big difference in the lives of dozens of young adults every day. They have teams that work across the Miami-Dade County area on projects that are as diverse as the members themselves. The teams are made up of intercity youth (18-26) who come from a variety of culturally diverse backgrounds. Many of the members attend classes and earn a high school diploma and/or a degree from the Miami-Dade Community College system.
The Corps Network (TCN) wants to thank these wonderful Corps programs for all their hard work and accomplishments. Their success is based on a number of ingredients that come together to make something special. One of these special ingredients are the program directors and support staff. They dedicate countless hours and energy towards helping young adults succeed and find a productive place in their local communities.
As TCN continues to develop plan for creating the Gulf Coast Restoration Corps, John Hosey is traveling across the region introducing existing corps programs to the GCRC project. This visit to south Florida was such an effort as John and Marie met with the Directors for both programs. “We are always looking for ways to include existing Corps programs in our plans to start the Restoration Corps in the Gulf Region. This visit allowed us to see successful programs in action and identify some of their best practices that may be replicated in the new Corps” commented John Hosey.
Photos by The Trust for Historic Preservation and The Corps Network
On Wednesday, June 4th, members of the first HOPE Crew participated in a ribbon-cutting event at the historic Skyland Stables, where they had recently completed a variety of projects to restore the stables. Corpsmembers seemed immensely proud of their work, and the skills they had gained. Some even had bonded with horses, and planned to visit them again for a ride over the summer (Sugarfoot the horse seemed to have been particularly fond of the Corpsmembers).
The historic preservation project was made possible by a large number of partners, including The Trust for Historic Preservation, Delaware North, Citizens Conservation Corps of West Virginia, Harper’s Ferry Job Corps, Shenandoah National Park, and The Corps Network. Leaders from each organization attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
In addition to the earlier article about the project featured on 21csc.org, an article on nvdaily.com covered the story. Enjoy the before and after photos below and we look forward to additional HOPE Crew projects having similar levels of success.
Before
After
June 5, 2014
It’s graduation season! High school seniors across the country can celebrate the completion of 12 years of essays, tests and projects. They can rejoice in knowing that, with a diploma in hand, their futures are bright. After all, every graduate is one step closer to a college education, a good job and independence.
Unfortunately, not every student makes it to graduation. Though the dropout rate has declined over the past decade, it still hovers around seven percent. For minority populations, the situation is even bleaker; nearly one in two minority students does not graduate with his or her classmates. Lacking a high school diploma or GED means fewer options in the workforce and limited opportunities to earn degrees or credentials that could lead to higher-paying jobs. The sad truth is that dropping out of high school can mean a lifetime of struggling to make ends meet. Even sadder is the fact that many students who leave school don’t leave because they’re “lazy” or caught up in the wrong crowd; it’s because they feel like they don’t have any options.
Civicorps – Oakland, CA
Out of the approximately 7,000 students who dropout every school day, there are many young parents who need to work to support their families. There are teenagers who have no homes and no support network. There are many students who are new to this country and don’t receive the ESL services they need, as well as students who could benefit from one-on-one attention, but get lost in the shuffle. In other words, there are hundreds of thousands of very smart, capable young adults who choose or need to leave high school. These individuals are full of potential – they just need to have access to the right opportunities.
Corps offer an alternative. Young people who enter a Corps without a high school diploma or GED have the chance to go to school while also developing tangible job skills. Corpsmembers attend class for part of the day, or part of the week, and then go out into the community to gain hands-on work experience by participating in service projects. For their service, Corpsmembers receive a stipend and often earn scholarship money. Essentially, the Corps model allows young people to make money while furthering their education.
Conservation Corps North Bay – Marin County, CA
Corps generally offer smaller class sizes and more personal attention. Most programs also have onsite counseling staff or relationships with local organizations that can help students with everything from transportation costs to mental health services and childcare. Not to mention, there are dedicated staff members at many Corps programs who were once Corpsmembers themselves; they understand and can accommodate the kinds of issues their students deal with outside the classroom.
Last year, out of nearly 26,000 young people enrolled in programs of The Corps Network, nearly 60 percent came from families below the poverty line and some 30 percent were not in school and lacked a high school diploma or GED upon enrollment. These young people bring different, often additional, challenges than your average high school student, but Corps offer ways to ways to work with these challenges. The facts speak for themselves: in 2013, of the 10,500 young people who entered Corps without a high school credential, nearly 60 percent received a high school credential during their Corps enrollment, or enrolled in another diploma or GED program. Additionally, Corpsmembers earned nearly 12,600 professional certifications or credentials.
Education doesn’t end after a Corpsmember receives his or her diploma. Many Corps provide comprehensive college preparation and support students throughout their transition to postsecondary programs. Some programs have relationships with local community colleges, allowing students to pursue a postsecondary degree while continuing to serve at the Corps. As said by Candace Washington, a graduate of Civicorps in Oakland, CA who is currently enrolled in college, “I started the Corps without a diploma. I believe that just being able to be a part of Civicorps has made me stronger, helped me better serve my community, and has opened my eyes to all possibilities. My journey does not end here; this is just my stepping stone…I plan on graduating five years from now with my Masters in Psychology and starting my career. I am going to jump over any obstacles that may come my way.”
So during this graduation season, let’s not think about the dropout rate; let’s think about the graduation rate. Let’s focus on the positive and think about ways we can get more young people in cap and gown. Corps are one way to do that.
The Corps Network is hosting the FIRST ANNUAL Great Outdoors Day of Service in the Nation’s Capital!
In recognition and celebration of Great Outdoors Month, The Corps Network (TCN) will hold its first annual Great Outdoors Day of Service in the Nation’s Capital. We would be honored if you would join us for all or part of the day.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell (likely)
NPS Director Jon Jarvis (invited)
CNCS CEO Wendy Spencer (likely)
Following the kick-off event, Corpsmembers and volunteers will receive boxed lunches and be transported to work on a variety of service projects on the National Mall, at Fort DuPont Park, and other National Park Service sites throughout the District. Please join us for this event!
Despite the short notice, we are hoping to get representation from as many Corps across the county as possible. Please consider attending the Day of Service with several or many of your Corpsmembers.
We’ve already received confirmations from
For additional information, please contact:
Mary Ellen Sprenkel
President & CEO
The Corps Network
1100 G Street, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 737-6272
or Click here for The Corps Network’s GO Month Toolkit
Can’t Come to D.C.?
Follow the Great Outdoors Day of Service on social media:
Sample Tweets or Facebook posts:
On @TheCorpsNetwork #dayofservice, @CORPSNAME is removing invasive species #GreatOutdoorsMonth [attach photo]
Today we celebrate @TheCorpsNetwork #dayofservice by fixing a trail at XYZ Park #GreatOutdoorsMonth [attach photo]
For @TheCorpsNetwork #dayofservice, we celebrate our corpsmembers and the chance to #getoutdoors and serve. [attach photo]