BLM OR/WA – Youth Summer Employment Partnership for Public Land Resource Management and Education

The purpose of the Department⿿s employment efforts is to create the Next
Generation of Conservation Leaders. OR/WA BLM aims to support the national
goals by providing meaningful work opportunities for hundreds of young
people so that they have a positive experience that directly contributes to
conservation and that have lasting impacts on our Nation. The OR/WA BLM is
seeking to partner with youth corps organizations throughout Oregon which
serve young people from all backgrounds with a special emphasis on local
youth working in their local communities. The meaningful work experience we
are looking to provide includes: Well supervised; Hands-on tasks, Work
that advances our mission; Include some compensation, preferably a salary;
Long enough to be at a minimum of eighty (80) hours, ideally longer; and
offers quality learning opportunities among our participating youth.

Since 2010, OR/WA BLM Youth employment goals have been achieved largely
through the continued implementation of the statewide Assistance Agreement
with Oregon Youth Conservation Corps (OYCC), a state agency under the
Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development responsible for
working with all the youth corps organizations operating in Oregon. This
partnership has resulted in a streamlined system for 1) allocating youth
corps funds evenly across Oregon, 2) reaching numerous individual youth
corps organizations operating throughout the State – including school,
tribal, youth offender, and nonprofit organization crews, and 3) providing
meaningful work to local youths in all 9 Oregon BLM Districts. The OYCC is
a State agency, charged by the Legislature with the responsibility to
protect, conserve, rehabilitate and improve the natural, historical and
cultural resources of Oregon; and to increase educational, training and
employment opportunities for youth, for the purpose of improving work
skills, instilling work ethic and increasing employability ⿿ all of which
are mutual goals of the Federal government.

Working together, OR/WA BLM and OYCC have furthered the Department of the
Interior⿿s Youth Initiative employment goals while also building social
skills such as tolerance of diversity, team work, social responsibility,
appreciation of the environment and personal development such as improved
self-esteem. The OYCC Summer Conservation Corps (SCC) was established by
the Oregon Legislature in 1987, to provide a program to increase education,
training and employment opportunities for Oregon youth. The OYCC is able to
facilitate strong connections between the youth corps organizations and the
BLM to achieve positive work experiences, work skills, personal
responsibility, commitment to education and future employment for youth.

The objective of this program is to partner with an agency or organization
that has the ability to coordinate separate summer youth employment
programs within each of the OR/WA BLM⿿s 9 Oregon Districts in order to
serve young people from all backgrounds with a special emphasis on local
youth working in their local communities. These summer youth employment
programs are to provide Oregon youth, including underserved populations,
with meaningful, paid work opportunities, on public lands within their
local community in order to instill a sense of shared stewardship, and
provide them with education about the importance of public land resources
while developing their skills for engaging in outdoor activities in a safe
and low impact manner and increasing their awareness and application of
conservation ethics.