Marion County honors NYC

The Marion County Board of Commissioners has honored Northwest Youth Corps with the 'Marion County Mary Pearmine, Outstanding Volunteer Group Award' for park construction and rehabilitation. NYC was nominated for the award by Marion County Parks. Thanks to a project partnership with Marion County, Oregon, youth crews made much-needed improvements to Joryville and Niagara parks.

Youth crew work was underwritten by the 'Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (Payco)' funding. True to the mission of the Act, NYC works with local communities to increase partnerships and expand service learning opportunities for area youth. Utilizing Title II projects and the Title III 'After-school forest related education' category, NYC employs youth to complete backlogged conservation projects across federal, state, and locally managed lands. Communities benefit from on-the-ground results of hard-working NYC crews, while youth gain an understanding of service, build a strong work ethic, and earn a stipend.

From the Marion County Volunteer Annual Report 2004:

'Youth workers from the Northwest Youth Corps (NYC) maintained more than one mile of trail, demolished and rebuilt a 20 foot bridge, installed nine feet of railing, and cleared seven fire pits and three picnic sites in Joryville and Niagara parks. The NYC program manager wrote a thank you letter to park staff at the end of the season with these thoughts about the experience for the youth participants: 'The skills learned and opportunities had by these program participants have introduced them to many resource management positions, economic issues, environmental concepts and have set them up for a lifetime of understanding-- understanding what it means to put in a good day of work, to complete tasks as a team, to accomplish what they set out to do (and then some!), to take responsibility for their actions, and how to live and work as a community.''

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