CONNECTING PARKS AND CORPS: A NEW ERA.

RETIRING BABY BOOMERS. MAINTENANCE BACKLOGS. MORE FEDERAL FUNDS FOR PARKS AND GREENWAYS. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT. WELFARE-TO-WORK. PARTNERSHIPS. DISABLED ACCESS. GLOBALIZATION.

Creating a meeting point for discussion and action on this swirl of seemingly disparate topics is a still relatively unknown but increasingly important parks and recreation partner -- the nation's state and local youth conservation and service corps. Corps have grown to employ 23,000 youth and young adults each year, providing paid conservation work experience, education, and career preparation along the way. Read on if you're concerned about where to find the parks and recreation staff of the future, how corps have improved their services since the last time you've read about them, or simply for an update on these premiere youth programs!

Indeed, there's no time like the present for parks and recreation professionals to beef up their links with corps. Corps can help address several pressing current realities -- Baby Boomer retirement expected to afflict over 50 percent of the current staff of parks and recreation agencies; the clarion call for governments at the municipal county, state, and federal level to leverage their efforts through partnerships; and changing population characteristics creating an urgent demand for a more diverse workforce and leadership ranks. Not incidentally, corps and the image they convey of youth at work for the community can also help build support among policymakers for more federal resources for state and local parks, and greater community engagement with National Parks.

Stronger linkages between corps and parks produce mutual benefits, as well as connections with broader policy and fund trends. For the parks and recreation field, corps offer an ethnically diverse supply of recruits familiar with park culture, experienced in park projects, who come from the very neighborhoods at which so many park agencies aim their outreach efforts. In the context of welfare-to-work, corps can manage transitional job programs in order to erase maintenance backlogs in parks and recreation and identify good candidates for permanent jobs, even as they ease the human resources management burden that might otherwise fall on parks and recreation staff. Current park staff, and the growing number of skilled retirees, can serve as mentors for corps members during training or as they enter parks careers. For young people and the corps in which they receive work experience and training, the park field holds the prospect of solid, often unionized skilled jobs -- without the Catch-22 of the requirement of a college education, which remains a distant dream for many corps members.

The corps of the 21st century focus more strongly than ever on meeting the needs of communities and young people simultaneously. This commitment engendered a major, ongoing professional development and training effort beginning in 1998 -- the Corps-to-Career Initiative. Thanks to the Initiative, corps now set out to deliver good services and training during the six-to-twelve month course of the program, and also provides post-placement support as corps members move on into their first jobs and the post-secondary education that will guarantee their ability to support a family over the long term. In addition, US youth corps are active participants in the international Conservation Volunteers Alliance, and are learning from their colleagues in Australia, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere about the most effective ways to meet the needs of park and greenspace managers, whether through contracts or volunteer management.

Service and Conservation Corps Basics

The conservation and service corps programs of today harness the energy and idealism of young people to meet the needs of communities, states, and the nation. Today's state and local corps build on the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s and the Youth and Young Adult Conservation Corps of the 1970s -- programs whose proud legacy includes creating and restoring numerous city and state parks and recreation facilities.

Corps programs engage young people, in paid, productive, full-time work, which benefits both the young people and their communities. Approximately 104 corps operate in 32 states and the District of Columbia. Some programs are statewide, most others are locally based. Most corps operate year-round, although some operate only during the summer. Some corps are community-based non-profits, others are arms of state or municipal agencies. Funding for corps comes from a variety of sources, including federal, state, county and municipal appropriations; fee-for-service contracts; foundations and corporations.

Participants in corps programs -- corps-members -- most often work in crews or teams of eight to twelve with a paid adult supervisor who sets and models clear standards for behavior. Youth corps crews undertake a wide range of work projects. Some are similar to the forestry and parks projects of the 1930s CCC, others fill gaps in the services of urban parks, renovate housing, and assist human service agencies. All corps projects meet community needs and allow young people to serve as community resources. Most corps members receive at least minimum wage for their work.

Corps-members devote part of each week to improving their basic education skills and to preparing for future employment. Most corps not only offer pre-GED, GED and college credit courses, but also offer classes focusing on essential life skills, such as budgeting, parenting, and personal health and well-being. Corps programs also encourage corps members to engage in tangible acts of citizenship, such as voting. Some corps offer educational scholarships or cash bonuses to corps-members who complete their term of service.

Great Partnerships Between Corps and the Parks and Recreation Field

Many mutual benefit partnerships already exist between parks and corps. The following are a few examples:

New York Restoration Project -- New York, New York: NYRP currently concentrates on improving the network of public parks and open spaces that wrap around northern Manhattan. NYRP launched on July 7th, 1995, when founder and board chair Bette Midler and over 100 volunteers carried away 20,000 pounds of litter, junked cars, and other refuse from Fort Washington Park, on the Hudson River.

In Fort Tryon Park, NYRP's field crew cleared away years of garbage and invasive vegetation, and, working with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, removed fallen trees and re-paved paths that had long ago disappeared. Today, children and families once again enjoy one of the city's most wonderful green spaces. NYRP has uncovered more than four miles of pathways previously buried in garbage and debris, removed hundreds of tons of abandoned automobiles and other trash, and instituted an ongoing maintenance program to keep the park safe and clean. Now NYRP conducts weekly educational bike tours through the park, and plans more projects, including concerts, recreation events and art installations, to make it a welcoming place for thousands of nearby residents.

In close association with NYC Parks and Recreation, the National Park Service Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, NYRP also hosted CorpsWork 2000. At this multi-day event, hundreds of corps-members from around the nation, led by NYRP participants and staff, restored a five-mile stretch of the Bronx River.

EarthCorps -- Seattle Washington: EarthCorps partners extensively with local parks. EarthCorps provides King County Parks with approximately 50 crew days of work each year. Corps-members complete trail and bridge construction projects, assist with ongoing habitat restoration efforts, and many other critical projects throughout the county. For instance, the corps stabilized and decommissioned an abandoned gravel quarry adjacent to Patterson Creek.

During these projects, the corps-members installed bioengineering structures to stabilize steep quarry cuts, assisted with road removal, installed large woody debris into the road, and replanted impacted areas. The corps has also designed and installed a 30 foot native timber bridge in Coal Creek as part of the Mountains to Sound Greenway trail; designed and built a 25 foot steel and dimensional lumber bridge adjacent to Marymoor Park; and planted 6-8 foot native conifers along the Green River shoreline to establish shade for salmon spawning areas in Metzler Park.

Earthcorps also carries out several hundred crew-days of project work each year in Seattle city parks. Seattle Parks, a local operating foundation, and a local public utility together provide the financial support for EarthCorps' efforts, which includes extensive habitat restoration and trail construction. While assisting the parks in meeting these pressing needs, corps-members engage local youth from social service agencies and public schools in a variety of projects.

Knox Parks Foundation -- Hartford, Connecticut: Knox Parks Foundation's new Green Crew conservation corps is getting its start through a strong partnership with Hartford parks. The corps helps maintain the lawn and garden beds at the Ancient Burying Ground, a colonial-era cemetery in the heart of downtown Hartford that is part of the Hartford Parks System, under a contract with the private Ancient Burying Ground Association. The Green Crew recently completed a substantial landscaping project in Pope Park in collaboration with the Parks Services Division of the Hartford Department of Public Works. The Garden Club of Hartford initiated and funded the project, which was developed in cooperation with the Friends of Pope Park. The corps also completed maintenance and improvement to perennial plantings they installed last year on traffic islands that serve as gateways to the Park River corridor.

Student Conservation Association -- Diversity Intern Program: The Student Conservation Association, a national career development nonprofit organization that operates numerous corps and volunteer programs, has been engaged in partnership projects to bring greater ethnic and racial diversity to the parks and recreation workforce over the past ten years. SCA's Conservation Career Development Program has been successful in recruiting minority and female high school/college students into recreation and parks careers. At the college level, support is building to develop or expand curricula that will focus on the preparation of a new generation of park rangers, biologists, historians, recreation service providers, environmental educators and field program leaders. For college students, SCA's Diversity Internship Program offers qualified college students paid, seasonal conservation internships throughout the US in a variety of stimulating disciplines. Placement opportunities are structured to provide a progression, of experiences -- from combined academic/professional, through structured professional terms, to independent student employment.

California Conservation Corps -- Backcountry Trails Program: The California Conservation Corps' Backcountry Trails Program offers a strong model of state-federal cooperation and career development. During its 23 years of operations, CCC's Backcountry Program has worked extensively in Yosemite National Park, Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia National Park, Pinnacles National Monument as well as Big Basin State Park and California Redwoods State Parks. Backcountry corps-members, who take on remote five-month assignments, have played vital roles in helping to build, maintain, and repair trails in some of California's most magnificent wilderness areas. Crews are assigned to log, brush, build new tread, clean waterbars and other drainage structures, reroute trails around fragile areas, repair damaged meadows, build and repair bridges, build waterbars, steps, rip rap, retaining walls and causeways out of rock, wood and other native materials.

In addition to providing valued service to the national and state parks, the CCC-Back Country program provides parks with cohorts of young people who have extensive skills in trail building and maintenance. Following the rigorous backcountry experience hiking between two and 20 miles per day and working through a curriculum that includes native fauna and flora identification, natural history classes, wilderness survival training, career development training, community development meetings, and health and safety meetings these young people are highly Sought after as employees by knowledgeable park managers and administrators. Indeed, former Backcountry corps-members are sprinkled throughout the trail crews and line management of parks and forests in California and several other states.

The examples above only begin to hint at the partnership possibilities for corps and parks. As organizations that serve individuals and communities, corps have a broad range of uses:

* Corps accomplish tangible, visible, work projects that often improve recreational facilities and the environment. Corps work in a variety of project areas. Some examples include:

1. Stream and wetland restoration -- For park agencies that manage flowing waters, corps have proven invaluable for labor-intensive stream-bank stabilization and restoration projects.

2. Facilities restoration and rehabilitation -- As recreation and park agencies face ever more constricted workforces, corps have increasingly assisted with restoration of picnic shelters, disabled access ramps, boat ramps, fireplaces, walls and fences, rest rooms, and many other facilities.

3. Greenways and rail-trails -- Corps have played important roles in developing new facilities across the nation.

* Corps are tools for outreach into urban communities. Many corps recruit and hire staff and corps-members from urban communities, provide on-the-job environmental education, and through hard work, develop corps-members appreciation of public park resources -- a value that corps-members pass along to their families, friends, and children. Additionally corps attract community volunteers to participate in their projects. The community volunteers tend to take ownership of the projects in which they participate.

* Corps are effective workforce development programs. Corps-members whose career vision and work ethic are shaped by participation in the corps are eager to explore "the real world" and corps are increasingly interested in developing programs to place graduating corps-members in a variety of positions in parks agencies. Youth corps could be the answer to the question, "Where is the next generation of parks and recreation staff coming from?"

* Corps are youth development programs. Corps engage young people in work that is meaningful to the community in a context of positive peer pressure, while providing opportunities for career exploration, educational enrichment, and hands-on work experience.

* Corps can also be partners in youth development. Several corps assist with mentoring and tutoring at-risk young people in their communities. Corps are also a linchpin in helping communities deliver after-school and summer programming for youth, including tutoring recreational activities, and structured volunteering.

The next time you see a wave of retirements coming in your park system, think of your nearby state or local corps. If you have a stream restoration project to complete in a hurry, a special event, or after-school program to administer, call on the corps. When the mayor or governor asks your park system to provide transitional jobs for welfare recipients, bring in the corps. And use corps projects and training curricula to develop a new, more inclusive generation of park rangers.

Corps and parks already work together in many different ways. For a referral to your nearest corps, for information about how to start a corps, contact the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps (NASCC). NASCC is an advocate, central reference point and source of assistance for corps nationwide, as well as a link to corps abroad. Reach NASCC at 202-737-6272 or visit the NASCC web site (www.nascc.org).

Michael Duplechain and Kevin Taylor wrote "Connecting Parks and Corps-A New Era", on page 130. Michael is the director of training and technical assistance for the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps (NASCC). His responsibilities call for him to provide technical assistance to service and conservation corps programs throughout the United States. Michael conducts trainings and provides consultations in the areas of program management, staff training and development, project development, organizational development, participant development, and recruiting and retention of participants. In the past, he has worked as the assistant regional director for the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps and job and life skills coordinator for the Maryland Conservation Corps. Michael has a BA in sociology from Louisiana State University and is currently pursuing a MA in policy studies at the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies. Kevin Taylor is the workforce development director of the National Association of Services and Conservation Corps, where he provides technical assistance to service and conservation corps programs throughout the United States. Kevin directs trainings and provides consultation in the area of career development for youth, program management, project ad policy development, labor force issues and program retention. Prior to joining NASCC, Kevin was director of career development for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas where he developed and implemented a job readiness program and supervised a youth-run non-profit business for the 11 Boys & Girls Clubs in the Las Vegas Valley. He as a BA degree in business administration from Temple University.