UCC YouthBuild Helps Foster Greener Communities, Inclusivity Through DEP Program
Empowering communities can happen in more ways than one. For one group of young people, United Community Corporation’s YouthBuild program helped guide them this summer in forging a path toward a more diverse and inclusive green workforce.
UCC’s YouthBuild program recently led ten young participants through the state Department of Environmental Protection’s “Youth Inclusion Initiative,” a six-week program that provides learning and career development opportunities for underrepresented and underserved youth, aged 16-20, with a focus on communities that have limited access to open space and natural lands. Participants also earned a wage for their work through the program, receiving $600 per week.
Part of the initiative's focus is to assist young individuals in exploring careers in environmental stewardship, spurring a new generation of leaders dedicated to sustainability and equity in the Garden State.
“The program made me feel good about what I did because not only am I doing this for myself, but I’m also doing it for the community,” said Mesyah, one of the program participants.
Mesyah, alongside her program colleagues, spent six weeks learning about various environmental management processes and regulations, which included touring facilities and green spaces around New Jersey that utilize best environmental practices. These learning experiences also featured site visits to recycling centers, wastewater and wildfire management facilities, and local waterways. By visiting these types of facilities, participants were exposed to potential career pathways with a focus on environmental stewardship. In doing so, the program aimed to provide inner city youth with a chance to envision themselves in job fields they may not have considered otherwise before engaging in the initiative.
One of the participants, Kurt Wilson, said that the hands-on wildfire management activity sparked his intrigue. Following the experience, he said he is considering the idea of pursuing a career in the field.
“I thought it was cool that they get to go outside and do control burns to prevent larger firers. The job interested me. It’s something that I could see myself doing,” Kurt said.
Throughout the program, participants also experienced the great outdoors and everything it had to offer, from recreational activities such as fishing and kayaking to maintaining and preserving the environment. That meant more hands-on learning experiences in various skills such as environmental supervision and remediation, soil sampling, watershed and land management, air quality control, and more.
“I had an amazing experience with the program. I got to do stuff that I had never done before,” said another program participant, Dante Handford. “Joining this program opened me up to experiencing more wildlife and what to do when I get out there. This was my first experience doing a lot of these things.”
The program did more than just expose the participants to new skills and potential career pathways. They had to identify ways to make a positive impact on the environment in the community, too.
Part of the program called for the participants to perform a group project that would benefit their community. In doing so, the program participants decided to create community gardens at two locations in the city of Newark: Hope Village II, a transitional housing facility for the homeless which UCC provides case management and supervision at, and the Roseville Manor Assisted Living facility.
Through the community gardens project, the participants said they learned new skills such as planting and maintaining a garden. The young people dug out space for boxes, which they built, to house the gardens, and they added fertilizer to the soil to grow produce and herbs such as squash, bell peppers, parsley, and more.
For Dante, seeing the group’s efforts come to fruition left a positive impression on him.
“It was a team effort. I got to grow the tomatoes and green bell peppers,” he said. “It means a lot to me to have these gardens because I get to serve the community so that they can eat [from the garden].”
Recounting on her experience with the project, Mesyah said that the potential of feeding community members from the gardens gave her a sense of pride in her work.
“It made me feel good about what I did because not only am I doing it for myself, but I also did it for the community so that they can come and pick some fruits and vegetables when they want to,” she said.
“It was a lot of fun to do. We got to shovel, put down the soil and watch the plants grow throughout the week,” added Kurt.
The group’s efforts and experiences over six weeks culminated in a virtual presentation in August at the DEP’s office building in Trenton. The DEP and state officials hosted a closing ceremony for each Community Host Organization selected for the Youth Inclusion Initiative around the state for the participants to showcase what they learned and accomplished through the program.
The participants who represented UCC at the ceremony presented their work in front of a room packed with more than 100 people, including prominent state officials such as the state DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette and the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo.
The participants also heard from keynote speakers who highlighted the importance of being stewards of the environment and received certificates honoring the completion of the program following their final project presentations.
Reflecting on the ceremony, the program participants admitted there were some nerves heading into the final project presentation. However, those nerves were relieved by the excitement in spotlighting their accomplishments.
“It was kind of scary as I was walking up [to the front of the room] with my group, but I was able to push through it and let people know about everything we did,” Mesyah said.
“When we got to listen to other groups present, it was interesting to see how they used the program from a different perspective,” Kurt added. “Overall, that day was a lot of fun.”
Following the ceremony, UCC leaders said this experience promoted more inclusive opportunities for local youth in underserved communities to access a new range of workplace development skills and potential career pathways. They noted that they hope to participate in the DEP initiative next year to afford this opportunity to even more young people across greater Newark.
“It was a proud moment to see our group present and to see other presenters, too. We got to see where other groups went and what they did,” said Lauren Cullars, who served as a supervisor during the Youth Inclusion Initiative.
“It was impressive to see the DEP bring this program into Black and brown communities. It shows a lot about their willingness and eagerness to grow and to diversify the field. It is diversity, equity and inclusion in action,” said UCC Senior Director of Youth, Education and Employment Services Jacqueline Henry.
United Community Corporation
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