thumbnail

Wyoming Conservation Corps Takes a Step Back in Time

A crew of eight students from the Wyoming Conservation Corps is working on rebuilding the Mason-Lovell Ranch at the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. The students got a taste of being a homesteader/rancher at the turn of the century, installing a large corral at the ranch that had become dilapidated over the years and was eventually torn down. Though they used an auger and other power tools to help with the construction, the students were performing essentially the same work that Lovell did when he designed the original corrals and hand-dug holes for the railroad tie posts. “Our vision was for state and other agencies to use them to do construction projects,” Harvey said, adding that another purpose of the WCC was to peak students’ interests in resource management. “So the students would come to love the land and through science learn what the land needed.” 

Read more in the Lovell Chronicle.

thumbnail

San Gabriel Valley Conservation Corps Greens Program to Receive Recovery Funding

 

San Gabriel Valley Conservation Corps just got some green to go green. The Corps is receiving $98,122 from the Department of Labor to help promote green job training. “This is going to kind of round out our program,” Executive  Director Daniel Oaxaca said.   “We  are already doing construction, so we figured why not teach them to do green construction?” With the money, the program will eventually expand its YouthBuild program from serving two dozen students to 35 students. And it will build the curriculum to include green construction techniques including solar panel installation and maintenance. Learn more in theSan Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Louisiana Green Corps Wins Sundance Award

 

This week, Sundance, the Independent Film Channel and Earthjustice announced that the Louisiana Green Corps won the top prize in a national short film competition in the “Spirit of Energy Efficiency” category.  Their rap video, Going Green, was created by Corpsmembers and filmmaker Julie Kumari Drapkin and features the Corpsmember rappers mixing rhymes about radiant barriers and door sweeps.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Corpsmember Derek Taplet. “This started off as something to do to show how interested we are in what we were doing – weatherizing homes – and to mix our talent and what we learned.” Huge congratulations to LA Green Corps for a job well done! Watch the full feature video, learn more at the Alliance for Affordable Energy website, and learn more about the contest at the Independent Film Channel’s website.

thumbnail

270 California Conservation Corpsmembers Provide Logistical Support for California Wildfires

 

Members of the California Conservation Corps from across the state are responding to the Station Fire in the Angeles National Forest and other wildfires throughout California. Currently there are 20 crews statewide — 270 Corpsmembers — assisting with logistical support at the fire camps. On the Station Fire, there are 12 CCC crews assigned from eight different locations: Camarillo, Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Watsonville. Along with the Station Fire, CCC crews are also currently dispatched to the Morris Fire in Los Angeles County as well as fires in Mariposa and San Bernardino counties.

 

So far this year, the CCC has dispatched crews to 23 different fires, under the direction of CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service. Corpsmembers routinely work 12-to-16-hour days at the fire camps, unloading and distributing supplies, checking in and replacing broken tools, and washing and rolling fire hoses. For more information about the CCC, visit www.ccc.ca.gov.

 

 

thumbnail

Milwaukee Community Service Corps Makes a Splash with Rain Barrels

 

With the ever-present threat of draught and the increasing cost of water, residents throughout many Wisconsin communities are installing Corps-made rain barrels to conserve and cut the cost of maintaining their yards and gardens. Corpsmembers at the Milwaukee Community Service Corps build these barrels out of recycled soda syrup drums-keeping the plastic drums out of landfills and creating an innovative water conservation device. Through a partnership with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), the rain barrels are distributed for sale throughout Milwaukee through MMSD, area natural foods stores, and nature conservancies. Recently, the utility manager for the city of Burlington, WI began ordering the rain barrels for her community-selling out even before her first supply of barrels arrived. MMSD has sold over 11,000 barrels since the program began four years ago, and in that time, Corpsmembers have learned the assembly and conservation skills that have made this program such a success. Learn more about the program and read about the impact the barrels have had in Burlington.

President Barack Obama Signs Serve America Act into Law

 

Tuesday, April 21, President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law. In a gathering at the SEED School in downtown Washington, DC, the president was joined by public officials including Senators Kennedy and Hatch, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Reid, General Colin Powell, Vice President Biden, President Bill Clinton, First Ladies Michelle Obama and Rosalynn Carter, and a small group of representatives from the national service community (including The Corps Network’s President and CEO, Sally T. Prouty).

In his remarks, the president noted that this bill will offer increased service opportunities in a time when applications for AmeriCorps, Teach for America, and Peace Corps programs are sky-rocketing. President Obama described the rising generation of potential public servants, saying, “I’ve met countless people of all ages and walks of life who want nothing more than to do their part… They’re a generation that came of age amidst the horrors of 9/11 and Katrina, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an economic crisis without precedent. And yet, despite all this — or more likely because of it — they’ve become a generation of activists possessed with that most American of ideas, that people who love their country can change it.”

The Serve America Act will expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots to more than 250,000 in five years. Among the special Corps programs to be launched through this legislation is the Clean Energy Service Corps. As the president explained, “Because millions of Americans are out of school and out of work, [the Serve America Act] creates an Energy Corps that will help people find useful work and gain skills in a growing industry of the future.”

View Sally’s snapshots from the bill signing.

Read President Obama’s full remarks or watch a video clip:

 

thumbnail

The Youth Corps Act

Help Support the Youth Corps Act of 2011!

The number one goal of Service and Conservation Corps and The Corps Network is to see a dedicated funding stream established at the federal level to support Corps. With legislation pending in the House (H.R. 711), we’re closer to seeing that happen than at any other time in the past 25 years!

Congresswoman Mazie Hirono has introduced The Youth Corps Act of 2011, a bill that would create a home for Corps within the Department of Labor. Specifically, this legislation will create a grant program within the Department of Labor to provide funding for youth Service and Conservation Corps to access in order to provide education and job training to at-risk youth across the nation. 

Download “The Youth Corps Act” one pager to share with your members of Congress.

An impressive list of cosponsors is critical to moving this legislation forward. Current cosponsors include:

H.R. 711:

Rep Andrews, Robert E. [NJ-1] – 2/15/2011
Rep Blumenauer, Earl [OR-3] – 10/3/2011
Rep Boswell, Leonard L. [IA-3] – 3/14/2011
Rep Chu, Judy [CA-32] – 10/5/2011
Rep Cohen, Steve [TN-9] – 7/13/2011
Rep Connolly, Gerald E. “Gerry” [VA-11] – 7/6/2011
Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14] – 8/30/2011
Rep Costa, Jim [CA-20] – 2/17/2011
Rep Davis, Danny K. [IL-7] – 6/22/2011
Rep Doggett, Lloyd [TX-25] – 2/16/2012
Rep Fattah, Chaka [PA-2] – 8/19/2011
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7] – 2/16/2011
Rep Gutierrez, Luis V. [IL-4] – 7/25/2011
Rep Hanabusa, Colleen W. [HI-1] – 7/8/2011
Rep Kildee, Dale E. [MI-5] – 2/16/2011
Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9] – 9/23/2011
Rep Lewis, John [GA-5] – 6/15/2011
Rep Lujan, Ben Ray [NM-3] – 3/8/2011
Rep Matsui, Doris O. [CA-5] – 2/15/2011
Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes [DC] – 10/3/2011
Rep Polis, Jared [CO-2] – 3/19/2012
Rep Price, David E. [NC-4] – 9/23/2011
Rep Richardson, Laura [CA-37] – 6/13/2011
Rep Velazquez, Nydia M. [NY-12] – 6/15/2011
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] – 9/13/2011

The Youth Corps Act of 2011 is a win-win-win youth workforce building solution.

thumbnail

California Conservation Corps and Marin Conservation Corps Honor Civilian Conservation Corps

 

Three “CCC boys” were honored last Saturday as part of a 75th anniversary celebration for the Civilian Conservation Corps (original CCC), held at Mt. Tamalpais State Park in Marin County. Members of the California Conservation Corps and the Marin Conservation Corps (now Conservation Corps North Bay) joined together to help clean up the magnificent rock amphitheater built by the original CCC in the 1930s and is still in use today. Representatives from California State Parks presented a proclamation from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the California Conservation Corps’ (CCC) Jimmy Camp read a letter from CCC Director David Muraki.

To learn more about the event, visit the Marin Independent Journal website.

Director David Muraki also published an op-ed about the original CCC in numerous California newspapers. To read David’s op-ed, visit the Santa Monica Mirror website.