20 Groundwork Youth Leaders from across the country are traveling to a training camp in Harper, Texas, to strengthen their construction and leadership skills in environmental restoration work
Leader
Sara Smith Sell
Location
OK3 Ranch Harper, TX 78631
20 Groundwork Youth Leaders from across the country are traveling to a training camp in Harper, Texas, to strengthen their construction and leadership skills in environmental restoration work.The youth leaders lead teams of youth called “Green Teams” who work to build pocket parks, install community gardens, improve urban trails, plant trees, and green the landscape of their neighborhoods.These funds will enable our youth leaders to travel to Texas for the training, learn pertinent skills taught by professionals and build confidence to expand their work opportunities. Bringing our leaders together also connects and strengthens the Groundwork network by providing a forum for sharing knowledge and resources and for building enduring and life-long relationships.
Groundwork USA is a national network of 20 local non-profits (called Trusts), engaging residents, youth, businesses and government officials to revitalize distressed neighborhoods by transforming community liabilities into ‘green’ assets. Our model youth conservation program, the Green Team, works with (and pays) over 200 youth ages 14 to 18 each year, on community environmental restoration projects and leadership skills - in Bridgeport, CT, Buffalo, NY, Cincinnati, OH, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, Elizabeth, NJ, Jacksonville, FL, Las Cruces, NM, Lawrence, MA, Milwaukee, WI, New Orleans, LA, Portland, OR, Providence, RI, Richmond, CA, Richmond, VA, San Diego, CA, Somerville, MA, Washington DC, Wyoming County, WV, Yonkers, NY, and Newburgh, NY.
A team was created to survey the Youth Leaders and determine their strengths and weaknesses. Professionals have been recruited who will teach skills such as construction, grant writing, and working with teens, to help the Youth Leaders succeed.
With this funding the Youth Leaders, many of whom are low income or interns, will be flown to Texas March 7-13 where they will complete an intensive five day training. Each day the Youth Leaders will have the opportunity to complete workshops in trail building, laying forms and pouring concrete, masonry skills, and other necessary skills such as field first aid, knot tying, and even how to cook over a campfire.
Because of Groundwork’s affiliation with the National Park Service, we take youth across the US to work on parks, refuges, and forests doing similar kind of work to what they are doing in their home communities. This allows the youth to see the work they are doing at home as connected to the larger environmental movement and strengthens their commitment. The success of the “At Home/Public Land” approach has resulted in many diverse youth from poor neighborhoods actively continuing environmental work after their Green Team term and pursuing jobs and careers in these fields.
There are federal dollars that our Green Teams can pursue to work on public lands that we hope to better access by training our Youth Leaders to improve their skills around building trails, erecting stone walls and fences, creating community gardens that flourish, and completing landscaping projects to nationally accepted standards. We believe this training will help put organizations such as ours that work with inner-city youth, on a more level-playing field with the traditional and professional youth organizations that focus more exclusively on public lands, opening up new opportunities and experiences to low-income urban youth.