A Local Community Corps Success Story: How Thomas Hark, CCCUSA President, turned a dollar into a highly successful, sustainable and multi-state conservation corps organization.
The Story Behind VYCC
In 1979, I (Thomas Hark) was a Junior in college looking for a summer job. I applied for positions in the federal Youth Conservation Corps. To my surprise, I was offered jobs at 19 of the 20 locations including such national parks as Yosemite, Glacier.
I received a call from Liz Cornish who was directing the camp at Young Harris Community College, Young Harris, Georgia. Young Harris was a small, out of the way community up in the mountains where Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee came together. I took the job and it changed my life.
I drove 24 hours in my Volkswagen bug and could not have been more excited that June of 1979 when I arrived to find a small enthusiastic staff. The first morning as I was getting breakfast, a big ole cook plopped some mushy stuff on my tray. The look I gave him said it all…and the cook in a thick southern drawn said “Boy, southern ice cream” … that was my first introduction to grits!
I was a Yankee, Catholic, federal employee, and I could not understand a word as folks didn’t say “ya’ll” but rather “ya’inns. The worst part was that as good as I felt being on a team with other young people, the staff I had was on a whole different level, being Outward Bound and NOLS course Instructors. After a week, I didn’t think I could stand another minute as everything seemed wrong. Liz, an amazing leader assured me I would be fine and I decided to stay.
It was the most amazing experience of my life. I thought I would come back and direct another YCC camp the following summer. However, in 1980 the federal program was shut down. I went back to school, graduated and could not get the YCC out of my head.
Thus, when Vermont decided to start their own program, the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC). The state had appropriated a dollar. They wanted 50% of participants to be at-risk, wanted Labor and natural resources to work together, and had permission to hire an entry level director! Being just 25 with no obligations I jumped!
The year was 1986. With that one dollar, no desk, no phone, and in essence an invisible entry-level state employee, with zero experience, and not knowing the herculean task I was up against, I began building.
That first year we scored a grant from Department of Labor and enrolled five youth and a leader. We doubled that to ten the following year, and kept doubling until seven years later we had 300 enrollees!
Outfitting them was a challenge but as time went on I secured an odd collection of tools from old forest service and park caches. In 1990 VYCC, Inc. was created, a non-profit to accept donations and hire staff. The nonprofit grew exponentially taking on full management of program which continued to grow.
In 2001 the organization had a crucial decision to make due to the enormous amount of logistics which were overwhelming. Should the VYCC shrink back to a more manageable size or continue to grow by finding a solution. It was unanimous, because of the incredible impact VYCC was having, and demand by young people, we needed to find a way to meet this demand and increase quality.
This lead to the purchase of a large historic old barn. Having never managed a capital campaign, we took on the project raising $3.5 million and creating a statewide training center. With 18,000 square feet, four hundred acres, a dozen new lean-tos, we had an incredible place for our $200,000 cache of tools and gear, offices for 25 staff, and most importantly a place to train hundreds of young people.
Starting in 2002 we became a year-round program. We added the now nationally renowned blind program and farm programs, expanded our programming to Michigan, New York, and North Carolina, and launched a 10-school dropout prevention program. The visibility along with added year-round programs created credibility which allowed even more opportunities.
The financial public-private model was a home run from the start. The VYCC was adept at combining a host of seemingly disparate public funds with private philanthropy. This unique model stretched everyone’s resources significantly. Instead of a dollar meeting just one goal, a dollar would accomplish three or four outcomes, expanding each public agency’s reach.
VYCC’s success is based on a highly traditional YCC model of small diverse teams, led by trained leaders, who completed important conservation projects, that oozed from every pore with learning and education. This simple model, along with its mission of teaching personal responsibility, was the glue that tied it all together.
Young people from the start usually applied because it was a job and an opportunity to do something unique and important. They left with a revived sense of pride that came from mastering a host of hard and soft skills, and knowing the work completed was impactful for the community. Conservation, Education, Service, Personal Responsibility, and Self-Reliance – all values that are at the heart of VYCC and will be at the heart of CCCUSA.
Remember when…the scale and impact of the CCC led to various nicknames, many still heard today: “Roosevelt’s Tree Army”, “Tree Troopers”, “Soil Soldiers”, “Cee’s”,
“3 C’s”, “Colossal College of Calluses”, and “Woodpecker Warriors.”