By Sauda Jackson, GYF Program Manager

Who said getting dirty was bad? As a member of the Public Land Corps, that’s part of the job!

Greening Youth Foundation’s most recent Public Land Corps members spent three and a half weeks at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park (CHCH) in Ft. Oglethorpe, GA, not only getting dirty but also performing important work at the site. The African-American crew consisted of two Team Leaders and six Team Members, who worked from October 11 to October 28 on an initiative called the “Cultural Landscapes Improvement Projects.” The activities of the crew included training on conservation and restoration techniques, pressure-washing and walnut shell blasting procedures for those structures, and subsequent work on park monuments and artifacts. The crew also did some exotic plant control, landscaping and fence re-building projects.

GYF has partnered with the National Park Service to restore, protect, and rehabilitate our national parks. Trails need repairing, wildlife needs protection, historic structures are crumbling, and the job market is sinking. GYF seeks to change that by providing NPS jobs for young people ages 16-24.

GYF crews have broken critical ground on many levels to increase the diversity in National Park Sites. As the only Public Land Corps in the Southeast Region, GYF continues to train and recruit young people for these positions. At Chickamauga and Chattanooga, the foundation was fortunate to partner with Atlanta Youth Build to include some of the youth from its construction and leadership training program. Atlanta Youth Build allows youth and young adults to gain job experience and leadership skills as they work toward earning their GED.

The Chickamauga and Chattanooga crew was one of the hardest working groups GYF has had this year. The young people showed up prepared to work hard and do their best. “The crew sacrificed a lot to be able to work on this project,” said GYF Project Manager Mike Fynn. “They had to drive two hours one-way to the park every morning, but their desire to learn new things, help conserve the park’s resources, and get paid doing this made it worth it. They raised their maturity level right in front of my eyes over these three weeks. That is what the project was meant to do—create exposure and generate the interaction between diverse youth and National Park sites through a combination of education, conservation training, and service work at the park.”

Cannon and monument at Chickamauga

The GYF crew was initially taken aback by the very visible remnants of the Old South they encountered at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, which is celebrated in Confederate lore because it was the site of the last major Confederate victory in the Civil War. But the crew members did a great job in learning how to work in an environment that wasn’t immediately comfortable to them—and their presence also served to expose the park staff and visitors to more diversity than they are accustomed to seeing at the park.

“We were very glad to have them—at least I was,” said Park Supervisor Jerry Godfrey. “They helped us out a lot in executing much needed work at the park. We need crews like this here to help us with some of this conservation work.”

The team member all said they are looking forward to working with GYF again.

“If we attained a constant flow of crews and teams working in all of the parks in the Southeast Region, we will change the face and attitudes of a nation of park-goers and employees,” said GYF Program Manager Sauda Jackson.

Because GYF is in regular contact with an enormous pool of diverse young people desperate for these opportunities, the foundation is eager to get more projects from NPS to put these young people to work.

Trunk show attendees model the collection. GYF Executive Director Angelou Ezeilo (second from left), GYF International Board member Christa Sanders (third from left). All photos by Stephanie Allen.

Greening Youth Foundation is bringing a sparkly new twist to fundraising! In October, the foundation hosted an intimate fundraising event entitled “Pretty Little Things: A trunk show benefit for Greening Youth Foundation.”

When GYF’s international board member, Christa Sanders, who is the Associate Director for New York University’s Globalization program in Accra, Ghana, calls and says that she has an idea to support GYF, you listen! Christa shared scrumptious pieces of jewelry that she has collected, pieces that are known by the Smithsonian and the like as the Unknown Collection (unknowncollection.com). Attendees were able to add to their personal collections pieces from all over the continent, from such countries as Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania. The attendees were blown away by the gorgeous pieces, which were like works of art.

GYF would like to thank everyone who attended the trunk show benefit. The proceeds will be used to support GYF’s National Youth Corps and environmental education programs in the U.S. and abroad.  During these tough economic times, the GYF team understands how tight resources can be. As such, we take every donation and contribution made to our cause very seriously. Therefore, we continue to be lean and efficient so that a majority of the funds can go directly to our programs.

Stay tuned for our next intimate event during the holidays!

GYF interns

Ruth Kitchen works with students on building bird feeders.

By Ruth Kitchen, GYF Education Director

After an intense summer of overwhelming heat, we are experiencing the glorious days of fall, with its friendly temperatures, smells and sights. It is a time to take long walks amongst the fiery and vibrant falling leaves, to investigate, compute, explore, learn, grow and discover. Outside!

But instead, where do we find our children during this glorious time of the year?  Within four walls, behind a desk, quiet, in a straight line, and yearning to return home to play a favorite Xbox game. According to Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” “We need people who have both ways of knowing the world… Is education moving in that direction? Some schools are, but too many are putting all their eggs on one computer chip.”

Greening Youth Foundation’s C.L.E.A.N. (Children Living Energetically Advancing Nature) Program is off to a good start in our Atlanta Partner locations. Springdale Park Elementary, Centennial Park Elementary, M. Agnes Jones Elementary, Cook Elementary, Warren Holyfield Boys and Girls Club, in addition to several schools in Ghana, are embracing becoming Environmental Detectives by exploring the 3R’s, composting, tree discovery, and energy and water conservation through hands-on outdoor activities. Students enjoy taking reusable materials to make beautiful planters and birdfeeders. They meander under the canopy of different types of trees on their own school campus to incorporate literature, measurement, calculation, art, science, history, and music to freely make discoveries on their own.

Building bird feeders

Eco-Force Clubs are tending their school gardens and planting fall produce.

Grady High School students will be host to a bee keeper in the GYF Green Speaker Series in October and take a field trip to Chattahoochee Nature Center in November.

As Louv says, “Want your kids to get into Harvard? Tell ‘em to go outside.”

Greening Youth Foundation leads the way in encouraging outdoor learning through C.L.E.A.N. and Eco-Force programming at our partner locations in the Atlanta area and also abroad in Ghana.

Please consider supporting these efforts by contributing to our Public School Initiative Fund (click here to donate).

With generous support from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Corps Network has released a new publication that illustrates how to prepare young people for jobs, postsecondary education, and careers in a growing green economy titled, A Green Career Pathways Framework: Postsecondary and Employment Success for Low-Income, Disconnected Youth.

click here to download report: A Green Career Pathways Framework

The paper explores the extent to which this emerging green economy can offer a pathway out of poverty for low-income young people, many of whom have disengaged from school and are struggling to find a way into the economic mainstream. These disconnected youth — some six million strong — represent an untapped resource. Despite the fact that they have experienced difficulties in their personal lives or communities and may not have completed high school, many seek a second chance, returning to programs such as Service and Conservation Corps or other education and work initiatives in their local communities.

Given the right supports, these young people can be valuable assets for new green industries seeking to grow a skilled workforce and to the communities in which they reside. Further, youth involved in Corps and other work and service oriented programs can learn and practice skills that give them a “leg up” in terms of entering green industries or providing environmental or conservation assistance to a range of local institutions.

What these young people need to fulfill their promise and meet their life goals is an effective on-ramp to emerging green pathways. This paper offers guidance to youth programs, and those who work with and support those programs, about how to learn more about and access industry-driven green credentialing and career pathways development work within local communities or regions. It then discusses how, with this knowledge in hand, youth programs can work with employers and postsecondary partners to build on-ramps to postsecondary technical training programs and entry to green careers. The paper offers a multi-step Framework that outlines strategies for connecting to career pathway efforts and delineates a three-phase model design to inform the construction of on-ramp programming.

The Corps Network and several principal partners — Center on Wisconsin Strategy, Green For All, The Academy for Educational Development, Workforce Strategy Center and Living Cities — guided the development of the paper with additional support from numerous stakeholders.