July 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 51

In Kansas City, Missouri, Forest Decker, natural resources manager for the department of parks and recreation and whose grandfather worked for CCC, says a
Kansas City Conservation Corps has leveraged parks
department staff with the many willing volunteers to do
work that would not otherwise get done; the corps was
started late in 2009. A small crew of three parks department staff was chosen based on interviews and their interest in environmental issues. The idea, Decker says,
" was to leverage volunteers to do work beyond dayto-day maintenance. That would include installing new
rain gardens and invasive species control.
" We sent them to do a specialized training in construction and maintenance of natural resources, " Decker continues. " Now they work with volunteer groups of
all kinds-from corporate groups doing a day's work
to neighborhood groups who might work year round. "
In 2010, the program's first year, Decker says, " we
had 6,000 volunteer hours. " This year, he said the department is projecting 700 volunteers putting in between 8,000 and 9,000 hours.

Get It Started. Keep It Going.
Parks professionals are determined to maintain the current momentum of youth conservation corps and build
on it. The efforts described in this article are only a
small part of what is going on around the country. Some
are the continuation of former state and local extensions
of CCC, while others are being launched every day.
Levi Novey, a spokesman for The Corps Network,
which represents community-service organizations
around the country, estimates there are more than 160
corps in 46 states-many doing extensive conservation work but with " the common thread of allowing
young people to have an experience to personally

develop while meeting the needs of the community. "
Says Coleman, " We need to work to get a sound,
sustainable level of federal funding for youth conservation work. All levels of government need to cooperate to leverage the federal funding. And that might be
matched by state and local dollars, as well as private
or even corporate funding. "
" The CCC, " Coleman says, " should never have
gone away. We should have found a way to make this
a sustained part of our civic life.
" The CCC showed us how we could renew the
environment and the economy, " Coleman adds. " Today we see that we can also renew public health, help
people with addiction and mental health issues. We
can show how we can help economically through
jobs and through smarter fiscal priorities. Investing in green is the most cost-effective way to prevent
crime, counter illiteracy, and reduce obesity rates. "
Partnerships are crucial toward achieving those
goals, says Mukri, adding, " A lot of people want to
do good things, but don't know how to do it, You can
have a Nike or a Warner Brothers who might want
to do a park cleanup-but without an infrastructure
in place, sometimes that's more work than it worth.
Now that's changed. We sit down with them and we
have staff who know how to deal with this. And a lot of
those companies come back again and again.
" You have to be creative, you have to be nimble, you
have to take risks, " Mukri says. " Some things just don't
work. My gut feeling is that volunteers and partnerships
will carry our parks for at least the next 10 years. "

Members of the
original CCC
attend the 2010
dedication of
a memorial
recognizing their
work in Missouri.

Harvey Chipkin is a New Jersey-based

freelance writer and occasional contributor to Parks
& Recreation.

www.NRPA .ORG

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July 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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