June 12, 2010-80 youth from all over the Northwest (and the US!) traveled to Lake Wenatchee to attend orientation this past weekend. This weekend marked the first 80 of the expected 180 youth this year that helped kick off programs at the new Northwest Youth Corps Stewardship and Education Facility near Wenatchee.
Traditionally youth wanting to join NYC programs had to travel from Washington to the Northwest Youth Corps headquarters in Eugene, OR. The new remote facility will make it more accessible for youth wanting to join NYC programs from Wenatchee and other parts of Washington. The Wenatchee facility will host hundreds of jobs annually and be a remote office for NYC staff.
With high teen unemployment rates and the green movement in full force, NYC felt it was important to provide job opportunities to local youth in Washington. With projects spread out from the Southern borders of Washington to North near the Canadian border, from the western coastline east to sites near Idaho; the facility provides an ideal focal point for many of the project sites around Washington.
The NYC crews will travel the Northwest completing important projects for land management agencies such as the U.S Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Projects may include building or maintaining trails, fuels management, fisheries improvement and habitat restoration. By the end of the program, the youth will have traveled thousands of miles around Washington.
All the youth have the opportunity to earn a non-taxable education stipend of $1,225 for their five weeks of work, plus the chance to live in the most beautiful parts of the Pacific Northwest, travel, make new friends, get into shape, and earn high school credit.
