Leading by inspiration: Earth Conservation Corps' charismatic young president is passionate about helping young people connect to the environment and that enthusiasm is rubbing off.

Living alongside a river that has been polluted and neglected over the course of many years, it is impossible for the young men and women in Southeast Washington, DC, not to see an image of their own struggle within its waves and within the natural environment that has undergone simultaneous abuses.

Decisions upstream and in other parts of the city have placed severe limitations on human and environmental living conditions. But instead of resigning themselves to limitations, many urban youth are actively working to change their lives and their environment through programs offered by the Earth Conservation Corps (ECC). The ECC is a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 as a White House domestic policy initiative. Its mission is "to reclaim two of the country's most threatened resources: the environment and our disadvantaged young people."

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With projects like bald eagle habitat restoration, invasive plant removal, shoreline repair, and construction along the planned 20 miles of the Anacostia Riverwalk--all combined with GED training and job placement--the ECC gives participants tools to improve the natural environment, the built environment, and their family and social environments. The success rate is 85 percent for young men and women enrolled in the program. Since 1989, more than 800 Corps members have graduated.

The program's recent success rests in part on the charismatic leadership of president and CEO Glen O'Gilvie. Like many of the young people whom he now works with, O'Gilvie, 31, learned early on about crime and frustration.

"I started out as a young person growing up in an urban, pretty low income community on Staten Island, New York City," he says, "realizing the regular woes an urban person is faced with and trying to be as straight and narrow as possible. Fortunately, my parents put a lot of emphasis on placing a strong foundation and laying great values."

O'Gilvie says that his father pushed him into college before he even knew what he wanted to study. He initially picked business management but shifted his major to sociology after the first semester. The turning point for his professional goals came outside the classroom.

"I took on a lot of different jobs to support myself being there. There was a time I took one job, which I thought was a no-brainer, at a local group home for court-involved youth." While there, he says, a "light bulb" went off. "I realized that this was it, this was what I wanted to do."

His first job out of school allowed him to expand on that passion. O'Gilvie joined the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, a social justice organization in D.C. dedicated to carrying on Kennedy's vision and ideals. As national coordinator, he led the RFK Fellows Program, which trains and places college-age students in nonprofit organizations that serve urban communities. O'Gilvie decided to focus on DC and San Francisco.

"The San Francisco portion had a lot of involvement in environmental issues," he says. "Neighborhoods there were going through the environmental justice era, and low-income communities were becoming more aware of issues such as cancer. I began to do a lot of research and reading."

He moved on from the RFK Memorial to The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region's Youth Development Initiative, where he worked as programs officer. Among his responsibilities was awarding grant money to worthy nonprofits so they could continue their service and provide leadership to their peers.

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When he was hired by the ECC in 2004, he found himself in a position to inspire young people and challenge them to be the kind of leaders who would carry forward both environmental and community causes.

"ECC offered me a great opportunity to pull together all my experience and all my passion," he says. "I decided to fold up my notepads and folders and jump into the fire and show through leadership how this work should be done and how it should best be managed." O'Gilvie and ECC members were participants in AMERICAN FORESTS' recent National Conference on Urban Ecosystems.

The ECC superbly demonstrates how a close-knit group--13 staff members focused in specific areas, financed through a partnership of local communities and federal and private organizations--manages to effect an ever-widening circle of urban citizens. Corps members give an impressive 1,700 hours to cleaning the environment, protecting wildlife, and providing community service. They also work to implement detailed lesson plans in public schools so that more than 300 young people have an environmental education on a weekly basis.

By simply reminding their families and neighbors to be more environmentally aware, Corps members counteract the perception among some urban youth and adults that pollution and other environmental problems are unimportant and unavoidable. "Probably about 30 percent of the time, the 17- to 25-year-olds in our program have that attitude [that the environment doesn't matter]," O'Gilvie says. "But after about the third day of training--realizing that the fish in this river have the third highest rate of cancer of any river, and that one of their family members possibly fishes and eats the fish--that attitude is completely swept away. Their peers are unable now to drop trash on the streets or disrespect trees."

Corps members construct a network of community awareness that allows the ECC to host three environmental initiatives a month, including one geared towards religious groups. Though rooted in the community, these initiatives build momentum with help from peers and people in the corporate sector. Corps members have hosted 400 staff members from Price Waterhouse Coopers and 200 staff members from AARP for daylong works projects.

"We try to galvanize as many people as possible," O'Gilvie says. "If they see what we're doing and are part of cleaning up, they're likely to share the experience with those in their circles and continue."

As work along the Anacostia continues, the river itself is becoming the vehicle for progress. "We're transitioning young people to environmental careers and higher education focused on the environment," O'Gilvie adds. "We're building the next generation of environmental stewards who will continue on when we're gone."

For more on Earth Conservation Corps, visit www.ecc1.org/index.html.

Yale graduate William Clattenburg is a former American Forests intern.