Rocky Mountain Youth Corps Partnership

Location:

New Mexico

What made this partnership possible?

While a simple partnership in many respects, there are several factors that smoothed the way for its success. First, the RMYC took time at the outset to clearly convey the purpose of their organization and its mission, objectives and accomplishments to Forest Service employees on the Carson National Forest. Carl Colonius, Executive Director and co-founder of the RMYC, explains, “…and then it was taking baby steps and identifying projects and being a responsive organization so that when feedback or suggestions were made we were able to incorporate those into our implementation.” Doing their homework on the Forest Service, and having specific ideas for how RMYC and the Forest Service could work together in ways that were beneficial to both partners, was helpful to the quick establishment of the partnership.

 

Colonius describes that for the RMYC “it was a matter of convincing folks that we are not a high school club or a fly-by-night operation, that we have a professional atmosphere that provides for technical project completion above and beyond expectations, that the power and skill set of our young people is certainly something to be respected and not taken lightly, and that is a relationship that has built up over time.” For the Forest Service, it was making sure they have good projects on the table for the RMYC, in every district, and that the crew understood the program objectives. Because the crews are comprised of youth they need more guidance than more experienced contractors. According to Romero, the RMYC does a great job supervising the crews, ensuring a professional job is completed that satisfies both RMYC and USFS objectives.

This site was developed by the Ecosystem Management Initiative through a partnership with the US Forest Service and the US Department of Interior. Read more.