News And Stories
Another Successful Summer
September 2007
This summer, 405 youth built retaining walls, staircases, job skills and pride in metro-area parks through Tree Trust's Youth Conservation Corps program - and had a good time doing it. Ninety-four percent of participants who responded to our survey rate their experience as good or excellent and say that they developed confidence in their abilities to complete a job as a result of their summer employment at Tree Trust.
Youth started work in mid-June and by the end of the program in August had completed over forty different projects around the metro area. They laid down wood chips and modular block and timber edgers; created trails; did landscaping, planting and maintenance and built boardwalks, timber and modular block walls and timber staircases. Ninety-nine percent of survey respondents recognize that they did work that is important to their community.
The projects these youth completed are not the only product of their summer that adds value to the metro area; the employment skills they learned will be reinvested for years to come as the youth put them to work in jobs in their communities. As one participant put it, "this job shown me what is expected of being a good employee and hard work pays off in the working society." Ninety-nine percent of survey respondents echoed this sentiment by saying that they learned what an employer expects of a good employee.
Many youth took away important life lessons from their experience that cannot be measured. One participant said that the experience "took a lot of my energy and stamina, but it gave me a job experience and belief that it is possible for me to do a job even like this one." Even the less positive aspects of their experience had value in helping youth plan for the future: "I learned that if I didn't get my butt in gear I would have to work for low pay in hot weather."
Tree Trust, through funding support from government contracts, corporation and foundation grants and individual donations, has been helping low-income, at-risk youth develop job skills and confidence for thirty years. Although we were able to place 405 youth in positions on our work crews and 333 in positions at individual sites, 530 eligible youth stayed on the waiting list all summer because we lacked the funds to support them.
Tree Trust
2350 Wycliff Street Suite 200
Saint Paul, MN 55114
Phone: 651-644-5800
Fax: 651-644-1469
