Community Programs

DC CLC High School Students Organize Over 100 volunteers and Take Out 1.5 Tons of Trash from the Potomac Watershed

By Ted Miller - High School Program Manager - Washington DC, CLC (Conservation Leadership Corps)

Normally, for a SCA sponsored service event, a program manager or staff would provide and introduction and safety talk. Last Saturday, that was not the case. Local volunteers' heard this instead, "Hello, my name is Caroline Hackett, and I'm a DC High School students and an SCA crew member, welcome to Kingman Island and thank you all for coming! Standing next to me are my five friends, also High School students, who organized this event and we will be your crew leaders for today. My friend Richard, also a High School student, will now give the safety talk". On Saturday April 4th Five DC High School Students, known as "Old Faithfull's" or second and third year students from the SCA DC CLC program organized 100 volunteers and facilitated a clean-up of 1 ½ tons of trash on Kingman Island as part of the Potomac Watershed Clean-Up Initiative.

The CLC High School students had to prepare all promotional materials advertising the event, solicit donations for bagels and coffee, complete a site assessment for the clean-up area, create direction signs to be posted at the metro, and on the day of the event give the introduction and safety talk and then facilitate a wrap-up discussion at the end of the day. All in all the five students were able to gather over 100 volunteers and take out 1 ½ tons of recyclables, not-so recyclables, and an exercise bike, from the Potomac Watershed.

The purpose of having students' facilitate the event was to give them a sense of ownership of the program and to gain leadership skills. Tommy Wells, a local council member from District 6, did not expect to see High School Students running the show, and was quoted, "DC students organized all of this? That's any amazing accomplishment for adults let alone High School students". At the end of the day, although exhausted, the five students, Tomas Deza, Michael Bokingo, Caroline Hackett, Richard Adamson, and Brenda Lopez, felt a tremendous amount of accomplishment and ownership. The CLC students where also quoted saying to the DC SCA staff, "we never realized what it takes to do your job as crew leaders and mangers and today we got a taste of that". The fabulous five won't be stopping here as they are currently helping the DC SCA staff plan for the Earth Day event only a few short weeks away.

During the summer, SCA runs a program in partnership with the Friends of the Forest Preserves to engage local students (ages 15-19) from the Chicago area in community conservation projects in the region. Students will provide hands-on service doing meaningful environmental work projects such as trail building and restoration, invasive plant removal, revegetation projects, construction, and be engaged in weekly environmental education activities. Field trips will also complement this 6 week program. The program is designed to provide employment and education to develop conservation and community leaders as well as local land stewards. Students receive a stipend for successfully completing the program but most importantly, they have fun!

Students and staff are recruited by FOTFP and SCA staff from local neighborhood schools, church groups and community centers in and around Chicago. Crews of ten will each be led by two crew leaders who will provide students with environmental education opportunities related to the work projects. Environmental education days and field trips will be conducted once a week in order for students to understand how their projects relate to conservation in their communities. Members will also complete Job Readiness Training (including building a resume) as a part of their participation in order to build job skills.

For more information or to apply, please email Sam Vergara

The Urban Forestry Corps (UFC) is a continuation of a successful program that started in summer 2008 in which SCA had a crew of six Seattle area students working in Seward Park, Washington Park Arboretum, and Cheasty Greenspace.  In 2010, SCA will serve 60 youth in partnership with Cascade Land Conservancy, King Conservation District, University of Washington Botanic Gardens, Seattle Parks, King County YouthSource, Highline School District, Auburn School District and Seattle Youth Employment. Work-skill training and service will include watersheds and water quality, urban forestry, horticulture, data collection and monitoring, conservation ethics, stewardship and green job readiness curriculum. Youth will provide over 12,000 hours of conservation service.

In the City of Seattle, site locations include: Washington Park Arboretum, Seward Park, Cheasty Greenspace, Maple School, and Madrona Woods.  There is a similar program in south King County at New Start School in White Center and Metzler Park in the Green River Natural Area near Auburn.  The New Start site is installing a raingarden, creating a native plant nursery and performing restoration work.  In addition to being paid, the students at New Start are eligible to receive one school credit for math or science.  King Conservation District funded the New Start project.  The UFC is a new and innovative program that addresses the needs of urban youth and provides a unique opportunity for students to gain real life work skills while connecting with the environment.