Youth Ecology Corp works to improve local park

Those taking advantage of pleasant mid-week weather on July 24 may have seen an intrepid group of local young people helping to enhance Healdsburg’s Badger Park. “Visit a Crew Day” presented an opportunity for community leaders to observe the daily activities that local youth engage in through Sonoma County Youth Ecology Corps’ (SCYEC) eight-week youth employment program.
Each summer, around 200 Sonoma County youth are provided with employment through the county-sponsored program, which provides career-development opportunities and environmental education in addition to hourly wages. At Badger Park, three teenagers representing Healdsburg and Windsor worked to improve the area surrounding the playground and community garden.
“We’ve been at parks, we’ve been weeding, we’ve been spreading mulch and helping the environment,” said 17-year-old Angelina Sandes of Healdsburg as she worked to trim back blackberry bushes near Badger Park’s community garden. In her second year of participating in SCYEC, Sandes said the program had taught her the value of taking care of the environment. “Because it is our environment,” she said. “If we don’t take care of it, it’ll be gone.”
The 2014 summer program began on June 17 and runs through Aug. 8, said Kari Lockwood, who is a marriage and family therapist and stewardship manager with the Center for Social and Environmental Stewardship, which joins with several agencies to hire and supervise youth for SCYEC. In total, the Center has employed 26 youth for the summer, including three youth from Healdsburg.
“These youth started working in Healdsburg,” Lockwood said. “They did work at the community center, they did work at Giorgi Park and then at Badger, and then they’re also working with the city of Cloverdale, doing renovation and landscaping on open spaces throughout the city of Cloverdale.”
Working in crews or in individual placements, youth employed through SCYEC range in age from 14 to 24, and earn $9 an hour for entry level employment or $10-11 for more specialized work. While the program accepts all young people, around 70 percent employed are at-risk.
“We target at risk populations,” said Kathy Halloran, who attended “Visit a Crew Day” and is a program manager for the Sonoma County Human Services Department, one of the organizations that provides core funding for SCYEC. According to Halloran, at-risk populations may include youth in foster care, those previously involved with the juvenile justice system and those that have barriers to employment.
In addition, SCYEC works to pair youth with jobs that meet their long-term career interests. “We look at the career pathways model, which looks to help you progress in education and employment,” Lockwood said. “We have two youth that are interested in early childhood education, so they are working this summer at the Boys & Girls Club.”
Through their work, Lockwood said the youth increase their investment in their local community. “They’re learning about that connection between themselves and where they live,” she said, “They’re also provided a service to the public and they’re very conscious of that.” In addition, she said SCYEC helps the young people learn soft skills that include time management, communication, responsibility and the ability to work effectively in a team or independently.
“We do lots of clean up of parks,” said 16-year-old Healdsburg resident Jason Giron, who swept up leaves and other debris around the Badger Park playground with 14-year-old Windsor resident Marcos Martinez. “We pull weeds, rake, mulch – stuff like that.” As a returning participant, Giron said that satisfaction in observing the broad impact of his work drew him back to the program: “It’s not only for me – it’s for my community,” he said. “It puts a smile on my face to see how my work improves my community.”
The Sonoma County Youth Ecology Corps began in 2009 through federal funding allocated to support the development of summer youth employment, according to Halloram. “We’ve been able to sustain it,” she said, “many areas had to shut it down within two years.”  
Halloram pointed out that in return, the community benefits from cleaner public facilities such as parks, waterways and creeks. “But the biggest success is the kids,” she said.