Student Conservation Association Highlighted by Washington Post for Summer Programs in DC Area

SCA Corpsmembers work at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, a National Park Service site.

The local section of The Washington Post published an article earlier this week about “service camps” for teens in the Metro DC Area. Among the programs highlighted are those of the Student Conservation Association (SCA).

One participant from last summer said, “You meet so many new people . . . and when you’re done with the work, you feel super satisfied, and that’s an awesome feeling.”

Kevin Hamilton, Vice President of Communications for SCA, explains that increasingly these types of experiences are resume builders for young people, especially given the more competitive climate for college acceptance and jobs.

Read the full article on The Washington Post.

Bruce Saito, Director of LA Conservation Corps, Receives the Spirit of Los Angeles Award


Bruce Saito receives the Spirit of Los Angeles Award from the mayor of Los Angeles, the Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa (photo from the LACC Facebook page)
 

Story taken from the LA Conservation Corps newsletter, At the Corps – Vol. 3, Issue 5

On Friday, May 10th, Bruce Saito, Executive Director of the LA Conservation Corps, was recognized with the Spirit of Los Angeles Award by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in a ceremony that started in City Council chambers and concluded with lunch and Asian & Pacific Islander American Heritage Month performances on the Plaza.

Bruce joined fellow honorees Jet Tila and LA18 KSCI-TV at a special reception at City Hall before being led into Council Chambers by a Maori tribal dance. Numerous supporters including Board members, current and former staff, former corpsmembers, partner organizations, family members and friends all gathered to honor Bruce’s 27 years of service to the LA Conservation Corps. Each of the Councilmembers congratulated Bruce and spoke of his enduring legacy not only to the youth of Los Angeles, but also to the residents, communities, schools, parks, and the rivers and beaches of Southern California that have benefitted from his efforts and service for almost three decades.

Following the formal City Hall ceremony, Bruce and his fellow honorees were presented with Certificates of Appreciation from the City of Los Angeles as part of a community celebration that included musical and dance performances from a variety of Asian cultures and was presided over by ABC News anchor, David Ono. Congratulations to Bruce on receiving one of the City’s highest honors. To see more photos of the event and to leave a comment for Bruce, please visit the LACC Facebook photo album.

CCC Alumni Receive President’s Call to Service Award

Story and photos from Maine Conservation Corps 

2013 marks the 80th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC was a work-relief program instituted in 1932 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Over the eleven years of the program, three million young men served in the CCC. In Maine, they worked in the woods, built roads, cut fire trails, and performed all types of conservation work. They were paid $30 per month, of which $25 had to be sent home to their families. On Thursday, May 16, 2013, at Camp Mechuwana in Winthrop, a recognition event was held by the Maine Conservation Corps (MCC) to honor the service of the CCC members in Maine.

The MCC is an AmeriCorps program that performs conservation work throughout Maine. The MCC continues the CCC’s tradition of conservation service. This year is the 30th anniversary of the MCC.

The honorees in attendance at the event were Ralph Bonville, John McLeod, Philip Gouzie, and Anne Madore, Peter Madore’s widow. All the CCC Boys in attendance served in the armed forces in World War II after leaving the CCC. Eighty-five percent of those who served in the CCC across the country went on to serve in the military during World War II.


 

Other speakers included MCC Director Jo Orlando, Congressman Michael Michaud’s Deputy Chief of Staff John Graham, Jr., Maine Commission for Community Service Director Maryalice Crofton, Bureau of Parks and Lands Director Willard Harris, and Supervisor of Outdoor Recreation Mick Rogers.

Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry Commissioner Walter Whitcomb presented each of the honorees with the President’s Call to Service Award. This highest level volunteer service award is for extraordinary service, at least 4000 hours over a lifetime. They also received the service award pin and congratulatory letters from President Obama and  AmeriCorps director, Bill Basl.

Ralph Bonville, age 94, joined the CCC after high school because of the lack of other work. He served in the “Far East” CCC camp in Princeton, Maine. The CCC built part of the Stud Mill Road in that area to aid in firefighting. His job was shoveling. Often the ground was frozen and had to be dynamited. After leaving the CCC Bonville served in the Army. He went on to become a 2nd generation painter.


 

John McLeod, age 89, joined the CCC in 1940 and served in Camden Hills camp. He helped build Camden Hills State Park, from the buildings to the trails to the picnic area by the water. He then served as a camp hospital orderly, which paid and extra $6/month. After the Camden camp closed in 1941 McLeod was transferred to the camp in Bar Harbor, where he continued to serve as a hospital orderly until the CCC program ended in 1942, when he assisted in the final inventory. After the CCC, McLeod worked as a shipyard welder, a skill he learned in the CCC, and then he served in the United States Marine Corps.

Anne Madore spoke about her late husband, Peter. He was the 8th of 13 children. Their mother had died young, and the father was raising the children by himself. Many of Peter’s siblings also joined the CCC. He served in the Princeton camp, where he learned how to fell trees, use dynamite, build stone walls, and all type of construction work. These skills served him well for the rest of his life as he pursued a career in construction. He had many of the skills and knowledge that his younger coworkers did not, and he taught them everything. After leaving the CCC, Peter Madore served in the U.S. Army in the South Pacific, where he was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism.

Philip Gouzie, age 90, is a Former Vice President of the National Association of CCC Alumni, CCC Legacy Board Member, President of CCC Legacy Chapter 111. He served in the 1124th CCC Company, in Bridgton, Maine. The Bridgton camp was administered by the Forest Service with a focus on insect and disease control. Gouzie talked about looking for gypsy moth egg clusters and painting them with creosote to kill them. He talked about how the boys searched the treetops using ropes and looked under barns, etc. He also delivered food to the boys serving in the field, helped maintain the motor pool, ran the movie projector at the camp, and also served as a helper to the camp doctor. He served in the Navy, in the Submarine Service, during and after World War II. 

Colorado Youth Corps Association Participates in Natural Resources Career Fair

Story and photo taken from the Colorado Youth Corps Association (CYCA) Facebook page.

On Wednesday, May 15, more than 75 students, eight teachers and nine natural resources organizations gathered at the West Generation Academy in Denver for the Exploring Natural Resources Careers Fair. The goal was to inspire youth to pursue natural resources careers and educate “career influencers,” such as educators, school counselors and nonprofit staff about these exciting career paths. Tony Dixon, national director of the U.S. Forest Service Job Corps, kicked off the event by giving an inspiring speech about his early exposure to the outdoors and his rise in the field. 

Unlike typical job fairs, students had the opportunity to circulate in groups and spend 20 minutes at each of four stations designed to engage students in interactive activities. Students had the opportunity to take distance measurements, look at survey equipment, and pass around fossils and examples of types of dinosaurs found on public lands. At the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service station, students participated in an interactive card game related to career qualifications. Stations were hosted by the Colorado State Forest Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Forest Service – Job Corps, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Bureau of Land Management, Southwest Conservation Corps, Ecotech Institute, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Colorado State University. 

The students were impressed with the setup. When asked what he learned, one student exclaimed, “I learned that I can get paid for having fun!” We love hearing this kind of feedback – and find it to be true ourselves! 

Katie Navin, executive director of the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, which was instrumental in the implementation and creation of this fair, said, “Nationally, we know we need to engage more students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), but rarely do we think about natural resources professionals in that category. This is such a unique opportunity for students to get an interactive look at a day in the life of natural resource and STEM-based careers, and help students build a pathway to pursue those opportunities.” 

This fair was hosted as part of the Careers in Natural Resources Initiative led by CYCA and the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education.

Work Boots Made By Inmates Donated to Urban Corps of San Diego


photo from the Urban Corps Facebook page
 

Story taken from CBS8.com, San Diego, CA

Officials from the Donovan Correctional Facility donated 1,000 pairs of work boots to the Urban Corps of San Diego County Thursday.

The boots were made by inmates at Donovan’s shoe factory.

The steel toes make them perfect for the Corpsmembers, who receive job training in recycling, urban forestry and green construction.

The donation also frees up funding that can be used for other corps programs.

“It’s going to relieve a tremendous amount in our overhead in allowing us flexibility in putting more resources towards other programs such as our job placement and our career counseling services that we provide to our corp members while in our program,” explained Robert Chavez the Chief Executive Officer of Urban Corp of San Diego.

Officials from Donovan say the donation is part of the prison system’s commitment to give back to the community.

Southeast Youth Corps Prepares for Launch

From Southeast Youth Corps

Last evening, May 28th, a small group of local teens and parents gathered at the new Southeast Youth Corps office in Chattanooga, TN.  The topics of the evening centered around preparing these young adults for their upcoming experience as Corpsmembers on this summer’s inaugural Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) crew.

In addition to taking care of the necessary paperwork business, we all took this opportunity to discuss gear, camping logistics and details of  a-day-in-the life of a Corpsmember.  Most importantly, SYC recognized these youth for being pioneers within the community, and applauded them for stepping out of their comfort zones to participate in this challenging, yet rewarding experience. These youth will help set the standard for future SYC crews, and create a legacy that future Corpsmembers and Crew Leaders will discuss around campfires for years to come.

June 15th marks the official beginning of the YCC season, so stay tuned to the SYC Facebook page and blog for weekly updates on what these amazing youth are up to.

Mayor of Baltimore Tweets About How Civic Works Helps “Grow Baltimore For Real”

From the Civic Works Facebook page

The Mobile Farmers’ Market – a refurbished newspaper delivery truck equipped with display counters – allows Civic Works to distribute fresh produce from their Real Food Farm to a diversity of people throughout Baltimore. One of the Market’s recent customers was the mayor of Baltimore, the Honorable Stephanie Rawlings Blake. What did the mayor think about the fresh, locally-grown collard greens she purchased? Check out this Twitter conversation…

Real Food Farm Tweet:
@MayorSRB how were those collard greens you got from our Mobile Farmers’ Market? #getreal

The Mayor’s tweet:
@realfoodfarm fantastic. Thanks. I was just bragging about your farm to my colleagues. Said you help me “Grow Baltimore” For Real.

The National Council of Young Leaders: On the Need to Increase Mentoring


National Council of Young Leaders banner, painted by council member Francisco Garcia
 

Created in July 2012 in response to a recommendation from the White House Council on Community Solutions, the National Council of Young Leaders is tasked with informing policymakers, business leaders and funders about the issues faced by America’s young people. The 14 founding council members, ranging in age from 18 to 34, come from diverse upbringings in urban and rural low-income communities across the nation. They represent our country’s Opportunity Youth: the 6.7 million young Americans who are neither in school nor working, but who pose enormous potential for our economy and our future if they are provided the opportunity to get on track and get ahead. Though each council member has overcome different kinds of obstacles, they all share in common their participation in transformative youth programs that helped them become the successful young adults they are today.

In the fall of 2012, the Council released its first publication – Recommendations to Increase Opportunity and Decrease Poverty in America. The report outlines specific actions that could help Opportunity Youth and their communities. One of highlights of the publication is the Council’s Six Recommendations for Immediate Public Action: 1) Expand effective comprehensive programs; 2) Expand National Service; 3) Expand Private Internships; 4) Increase All Forms of Mentoring; 5) Protect and Expand Pathways to Higher Education; and 6) Reform the Criminal Justice System.

We wanted to hear the Council Members describe in their own words why these specific Recommendations are important to them and important to the success of America’s young people. Below, find out why council member Francisco Garcia is passionate about Recommendation #4…

Increase All Forms of Mentoring:
“Expand mentoring programs and elevate both formal and informal mentoring as a core component for all programs serving opportunity youth. Young people need caring individual mentors to give us confidence, respect, and support in planning and working toward a productive future. We need mentors both from a similar background who have overcome familiar obstacles, and mentors from different backgrounds who can open whole new horizons.”
[Recommendations to Increase Opportunity and Decrease Poverty in America, p. 8]

(Parts of Francisco’s bio and his photo are from the YouthBuild website)

Francisco Garcia is a professional public artist and muralist based in Arizona and California. He is a student at Rio Hondo College and Art Center College of Design in California.

Francisco grew up in a Mexican immigrant community in Los Angeles. His family moved to Phoenix, AZ when he was 16 years old so they could escape the neighborhood gang activity and have a better opportunity to buy a house and start a business.

“When I got to Arizona I started hanging out with people who were doing breakdancing and graffiti and rapping. It was really positive, but you do graffiti in the street. Graffiti is very dynamic. It has pros and cons. Illegal graffiti has more cons than pros, so that’s when I got into trouble,” said Francisco. “I got jumped by another graffiti gang and then I went to jail twice; once for graffiti and once for driving under the influence, I’d been smoking weed. I was just making bad choices in my life because I didn’t have mentors and my relationship with my dad at the time wasn’t that good. So I was kind of trying to find my identity and I wanted to be someone. Graffiti was that vehicle I used. It gave me recognition and a little bit of fame and I met a lot of friends through graffiti. So at the time I felt like it was okay.

Then I got invited to a church group. I was suffering from depression and anxiety attacks at the time. So I went to the church and it was a youth night. The guy was preaching and that night I accepted Jesus in my heart and ever since then my anxiety attacks went away, my depression went away. Little by little I started leaving behind the negative things in my life and I started leaning more towards the positive. Then that’s when I met my mentors and I had other opportunities to create murals in the community and work with young people and mentor them.”

Since 2009, Francisco has been a mentor to emerging graffiti artists. He teaches them the benefits of creating art for the community and social change.  He credits a number of programs, including AmeriCorps, Chicanos Por La Causa, Public Allies and Youth Leadership Institute (YLI), with having a positive influence on his life. 
 

Why is this Recommendation important to youth in general, or to you specifically?

I think mentoring is important because when I was headed in a negative direction in my life, everything started changing when I was introduced to different nonprofit organizations. Many of my counselors and case managers from those organizations actually became my mentors and if I didn’t have those mentors in my life I think that I would not be where I’m at today.

What role should a mentor play in a young person’s life? What do you think a good mentor should be able to do or provide?

Whenever you mentor it has to be done in love, because if you do it in love I think that it’s more effective. You can connect to the mentees more. If it’s not done in love, then the kids are not going to connect…

The mentors that I think helped me out the most were able to identify my weaknesses and the areas I needed help in. For example, I needed some support in education, support in gaining experience in the field that I was interested in, and support in actually planning goals for myself – like going to a university one day. I didn’t see myself going to school, but when I had those mentors they pushed me to think outside the box and actually think about going to school for art. I do art as my major in college now.

They also provided resources for me. So they weren’t just talk, they actually connected me to resources. They connected me to an internship where I had the opportunity to be an art instructor and I was working under another art instructor who became my mentor, as well. I learned so much from that experience that now I’m able to get jobs and projects working for schools. Now I’m mentoring students. I feel like that torch has been passed on to me and I want to pass it on to the next generation.

Can you talk a little bit about your own experiences mentoring youth?

I know that what I was taught worked for me. I went to jail twice and I was getting into fights and getting kicked out of high school. My life changed when I was being mentored. My mentors used art as a tool to give me empowerment to learn about my history and my culture and get closer to God. So what I’ve done is I’ve taken all those different avenues and I’ve tried to expose the youth to those things, too. I try to expose them to faith and hope and I encourage students to learn about their heritage. I pretty much use the same principles that I was taught by my mentors and I offer it to the students.

The students take whatever they take from it, but I have seen the fruit of my labors. For example, I have a friend who, when I met him, he was an upcoming artist and he was trying to go to school but he wasn’t documented. So he was really discouraged about going to college. So I had him come over to my internship where I was doing artwork. I told him my story and about how my life was changing and I started mentoring him. We became friends. He ended up receiving the same scholarship that I received from Phoenix College. It was an art competition and this year he got first place for sculpture and painting and he got the Eric Fischl Vanguard, which tops all the other first place awards. 

I’ve encountered other kids like that, too. Many of them are taking Chicano Studies. Some of them are taking painting. I’ve mentored graffiti artists and I’ve been connecting them to programs like the Water Writes project; it’s a foundation that goes around the world painting murals about human rights and clean water. They actually came to Phoenix and I helped organize that. We had over 20 different artists and some of those artists came from my kind of background. And now they’re becoming leaders in their own communities and their teaching kids. So it’s like a pattern or a cycle.

One of the things I learned through being mentored is that mentors always follow up. They would call me, we would do an assessment of goals. So now, sometimes I sit my friends down when I see that they’re trying to do better, but they’re struggling. I’ll them, ‘this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to write down your goals. We’re going to write down your short-term goals and your long-term goals.’ I treat them as I was treated when I was being mentored and it works. It really works.

What motivates you to mentor?

I think that one of the things that definitely motivates me is God. The other thing is just working with the kids because I see myself in them. It makes me feel like I have a responsibility to be an example for them. I know that I’m not perfect, but maybe if they can take something from my experience then I can feel like I did something good. I taught somebody to do something good.

Why do you think it’s important to have mentors who come from a variety of different backgrounds and have different life experiences?

I think it’s important because in my experience I grew up in a Mexican immigrant community until I was 16 years old. Growing up, I encountered a lot of prejudice. When I moved to Arizona I encountered Neighborhood Ministries, which was a church-related organization. There were a lot of Caucasians in the organization and they were helping out the Hispanic community and that to me was something new. I had never seen anything like that in my life. I had never seen Caucasians reaching out to a poverty-stricken Hispanic community. It really surprised me and it really opened my eyes to seeing that not everyone is prejudiced. It doesn’t matter what race or color you are or what type of background you come from. It showed me that what matters is what’s in your heart. I got to see peoples’ hearts instead of just judging them because of the background they came from. So that was a big eye opener for me.

It was really community-related and church organizations that helped me out the most. As an artist, it’s not like a regular job. I gained knowledge from something like ten mentors from different fields and it helped me to kind of blend all that information into creating what I’m doing now with art in my community. I do public art, but I do stuff that’s political, trying to get involved in different areas of education and schools. So gathering all the knowledge from all the different mentors, it helped me to know my dream and my career goals. Having multiple mentors would be the best situation so you can get different perspectives.

What do you think needs to happen to make this Recommendation a reality?

I think there just needs to be more research on programs that are actually working and maybe we could give some more money towards those programs. Maybe even hire young people, like myself, to work in the community and mentor others. I think there are a lot of young people that are hungry to teach others what they’ve learned, but because they need to also make a living they end up getting jobs that are regular 9-5 jobs and they’re not able to use their talents. 

If there were only more opportunities like Public Allies or AmeriCorps or other service jobs where young students can actually put their talents to use, I think that would be one way. The other way would be to advertise it in high schools and colleges. Really putting it out there and connecting mentors and mentees.

What do you see yourself doing in the future? Do you want to continue to mentor?

I see myself finishing school, getting a master’s and possibly being a professor at a university. I would like to introduce spray paint as a medium. Just like how some artists use acrylics or oils, I want to have a specific program for public art that would bridge the gap between graffiti and more traditional art. I want to show people who are doing urban art that it’s possible to make a career out of your art and be respected within the arts. We need more leaders that do urban art. I think by putting it at the university level it could be more respected or people could actually view it as a possible career and also as a tool to empower young people.

 

 

Video Features California Conservation Corps Veterans in Fisheries Work

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service has produced an outstanding video on a program involving former military veterans.  The veterans, working with NOAA, the U.S. Forest Service, the California Conservation Corps and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, are monitoring fish populations and restoring habitat.  The work has included completing 152 spawner surveys and surveying 228 miles of stream along California’s North Coast.

The video can be found here (in the event the embedded version isn’t working below).

California Conservation Corps Members Doing Ok after High-Speed Chase, Accident

From the California Conservation Corps Staff

The California Conservation Corps members hurt in a high-speed chase last week are all doing well, despite a harrowing experience.

The Fresno crew was working on fire hazard reduction project along the highway, not far from the Lake Tahoe area, when a state transportation worker alerted them to a car chase with the California Highway Patrol in pursuit.  Less than a minute later, the speeding car, traveling in a coned-off lane, drove up to the area where the CCC was working.  The driver lost control and went airborne.  The car grazed one corpsmember’s hardhat, before the vehicle flipped over and killed the driver.  The car came to rest just  feet from the CCC’s vehicle.

One corpsmember was airlifted to the hospital, but released that evening.  Several others were treated locally for minor injuries.

CCC Crew Supervisor Amy Duncan said the experience will likely draw her corpsmembers closer together.  “I think it will make them a lot stronger and closer as a crew. And probably nothing like this will ever happen again in their whole lives.”