Page Summary

• • Small diverse teams, trained leaders, projects that matter, education, standards, discipline
  • Personal responsibility, self-resiliency, education, service-leadership, conservation
  • Corps create multiple outcomes per $1 spent!
  • Billions of dollars in deferred public land maintenance, devastating disasters, and unemployment of young adults are just a few reasons to bet on the future of corps

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What Do Corps Do, Exactly?

Corps members work in small teams called crews, which are typically six to eight members, led by two trained crew leaders. The crews are diverse by design, uniting individuals of different backgrounds, ethnicities, social status, heritage, and gender — in other words, they reflect the diversity of our society. Crew members are paid for their work, and they use both traditional and modern tools to complete their work projects. They serve for a designated amount of time ranging from a summer to an entire year or beyond.

The highly-trained crew leader is typically a college graduate. For CCCUSA, they will have completed a stint at the CCC National Leadership Academy to become a “credentialed” crew leader. This certifies that they have the technical, educational, and crew management experience and skills to successfully lead.

The cost of the crew is primarily paid for by charging a fee for the work completed. In addition to paying a lion’s share of the local Enterprise’s cost, charging a fee assures the work projects are a priority for the community, and is work that truly needs to be completed. Work is often labor-intensive (versus machinery or high-skilled) and requires a high degree of teamwork versus technical skill.

Traditional conservation corps work projects, particularly where there are federal lands, will center around natural resource projects such as trail maintenance, small bridge building, fire suppression, tree planting, water quality, and just about anything else that needs to be done related to land, forests, and water.

However, a majority of CCCUSA crews will be located in urban areas. The work here will also include city parks, urban forestry, but will also include recycling centers, reclamation and cleanup of property, restoration of historical buildings, installation of rain gardens, urban agricultural, and of course national and natural disaster work from floods, tornados, and hurricanes.

We anticipate our crews will be in hospitals, schools, emergency centers, and wherever there are important projects needed to be completed by a small, well-led, and highly-efficient team.

A new concept we plan to study further is to develop ReUse stores similar to what Habitat for Humanity has created. Ours would be called “Conservation Closets” and would accept used household goods, organize them on a retail floor, and resale them to community — think large-scale, seven-days-a-week garage sale. Similar to H4H sites, the Conservation Closets are expected to net as much one million annually. Enough to fully pay for more than ten local CCCUSA crews.

Corps are dynamic, life-changing individual development organizations that provide cost-effective labor for our nation’s public lands and communities while instilling values such as hard work, service, education, leadership, and self-reliance in their enrolled members. Currently, corps around the country are performing mission-critical work for our nation’s communities, natural resources, and infrastructure by harnessing the power and enthusiasm of America’s young adults.

Reasons to Bet on the Future of Corps

FACT: Federal Public Land Management Agencies have reported that backlogged maintenance needs total more than $25 billion…and this is only one corps crew project market.

• Corps have proven to be a cost-effective way to complete important public work. Often times, corps are the only workforce option that public agencies can find, or can afford, for certain work that the public demands.
• Each dollar spent achieves multiple goals and creates numerous societal impacts. High-valued public work is able to be completed on time, be of high quality, and be economically attractive, all while young Americans have a safe environment to learn, develop skills, socialize, serve their community and earn income. It’s an ideal scenario for federal and state agencies and municipalities, and the reason why they have historically been in favor of funding local corps. At the end of the day, corps are a public policy winner.

FACT: Natural disasters, resource shortages, mass migration and homelessness have seen an uptick over the last few decades. With CO₂ levels at their highest in 650,000 years, ongoing catastrophes are expected.*

• Corps are nimble and flexible. Their on-the-ground operational model is applicable to nearly any project an imagination could uncover.
• Corps operating under consistent and united operational guidelines can join forces to operate as one large entity to tackle any challenge, no matter the size, including helping communities prepare for, and react to, the challenging realities of our time.

FACT: Americans ages 16-24 are currently experiencing unemployment rates over twice the national average** and roughly a million young Americans, 5.9%, drop out of high school every year — with 65,000 dropouts annually in NYC alone!***

• Corps are wildly popular with young adults, as the corps model is unique in how it combines real-work and earnings, leadership, skill development, and community service.
• Corps are praised by families who often see firsthand the life-changing results of members after a stint in a corps crew.

Remember when…the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was largely built by the CCC. Workers from 23 camps built hundreds of miles of roads through difficult territory, in addition to bridges, buildings, fire towers, and campgrounds.

Inspired by History »

*Earth Observatory, “The Rising Cost of Climate Change on Natural Disasters,” NASA
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/RisingCost/rising_cost5.php

**”Employment and Unemployment Among Youth Summary,” Bureau of Labor Statistics
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/youth.nr0.htm

***”The Condition of Educations: Status Dropout Rates,” National Center for Educational Statistics
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_coj.asp