Urban Corps Graduate
Dionte Floyd Receives Price Scholarship
Urban Corps of San
Diego County recently held commencement
exercises for 40 young Corps members
graduating from the onsite John Muir
Charter School. Among the graduates was
Dionte Floyd, recipient of a $10,000
Price Scholarship Award. “At
first I never wanted to go to college,” said
Floyd. “Now I have a son so its time
to do something new. I want him to get
older and see that his dad went to college.
I want the best for him; I don’t
want him to make the same mistakes that
I did.” Floyd is leaning towards
using the scholarship funds toward attaining
a bachelors degree in business management,
however he currently remains undecided.
Floyd will attend San Diego City College
downtown and will transfer to a four-year
university with his associates degree. “I
will know by the fall what I will major
in,” he says. “I want to do
something related to corrections or probations.”
For
the Urban Corps Class of 2008, graduation
doesn’t come with the regular pomp
and circumstance. There are no limos, no
proms, no Grad Night at Disneyland. The
students are ages 18-25 who have faced
too many of life’s challenges, too
soon. They are high school dropouts, often
young parents, many with past stories of
drugs, gangs, and abuse. Urban Corps graduation
marks a huge turning point in the lives
of these at-risk youth. San Diego Padres
pitcher Chris Young was on hand as keynote
speaker. Also in attendance were other
Corps members, Urban Corps staff, families
and local officials.
The mistress of ceremonies
was Kimberly King, formerly of KNSD/TV.
The mission of The Price Scholarship Program
is to increase the self confidence, cultivate
the competence, and strengthen the character
of deserving students in San Diego by supporting
them in furthering their educational, professional,
and career readiness skills. The Price
Scholarship Program assists students from
San Diego to complete an Associate Degree
and/or Certificate Program at San Diego
City College in two to three years. The
assistance provided for students comes
in many forms: financial assistance, seminars,
individual counseling, mentoring, a program
retreat, and social events. In exchange
for this assistance, Price Scholars are
required to perform 200 to 300 hours of
community service or internships in the
community each year they are enrolled in
the program. “Not only is it a wonderful
thing to see a young person to begin to
unlock their true potential but for them
to have an opportunity such as the Price
Scholarship makes it even more special,” said
Dan Thomas, Director of Education for John
Muir Charter School at Urban Corps. “Many
young people end up altering their life
dreams due to economic hardship and opportunities
such as this truly enable them to ‘make
dreams come true.’”

The Price
Scholarship Program helps prepare students
for the job market by encouraging and assisting
them in obtaining a Certificate of Completion
or an Associate Degree. The program also
provides them with valuable experience
through structured job shadowing, community
service assignments, and internships with
local community agencies, schools, and
businesses in the City Heights, Balboa
Park, and the local community of San Diego.The
Price Scholarship Program is made possible
by Price Charities. The Urban Corps offers
youth job training and an education while
putting them to work in the environment.
Corps members plant trees, clean up graffiti,
restore urban watersheds and gather recyclables
from throughout the county, including collection
services following Padres games at Petco
Park.
Urban Corp’s recently renovated
its headquarters and charter school making
every effort in building construction to
foster energy-efficiency. This green-building
will be a fully integrated, green modeled
state-of-the art learning laboratory designed
to expose Corps members to the latest technology
available within the burgeoning environmental
industry. Urban Corps also has plans for
a LEED certified recycling education center
which will serve as a training facility
for Corps members and the citizens of San
Diego County. The new center will accommodate
a growth of up to 50% annually. The center
will also serve as a multi-purpose resource
for the entire San Diego region for educating,
training and demonstrating the benefits
of recycling and conservation.
Urban Corps Youth Get
Tips on Going Green from Washington,
DC
In an effort to showcase
the Capitol building in Washington, DC
as a model of environmental responsibility
for future generations, Congresswoman
Susan Davis and House Chief Administrative
Officer Dan Beard recently addressed
a group of young Urban Corps members
on the progress and lessons learned from
the “Greening
of the Capitol Initiative.” Beard
and his team began implementing the initiative
late last year and have since reported
a variety of accomplishments. According
to Beard, the replacement of old light
bulbs with energy efficient florescent
bulbs is resulting in an annual reduction
of $120,000 in the House electric bill.
In addition, 118 tons of garbage has been
diverted from the waste stream since December
of 2007. “You’re the first
group of people I have spoken to who actually
know what 118 tons of garbage looks and
feels like,” Beard said to Urban
Corps members, who collect recyclables
at both Petco Park and Qualcomm stadium
as part of a conservation services work-learn
program.
Additional changes
at the Capitol include a shift to 100%
recycled paper, compostable cafeteria
goods, a consolidation of servers to
reduce energy consumption by 40 percent,
duct sealing, and low VOC (volatile organic
compounds) carpeting. The Capitol also
makes fuel-efficient Zipcars and bicycles
available to House employees. Beard told
Corps members that his team has learned
five important lessons from the experience:
conservation is doable; carbon is a useful
measure; set deadlines; support must
come from the top, and “keep
on truckin’! It’s that spirit
of driving forward; you start out small
and build something.” Urban
Corp recently renovated its headquarters
and charter school, making every effort
to foster energy-efficiency, from skylights
to allow for plenty of natural light, to
low-flow sensory operated water features.
This green-building
will be a fully integrated, green modeled
state-of-the art learning laboratory
designed to expose Corps members to the
latest technology available within the
burgeoning environmental industry. “Our
impact on the environment is the responsibility
of all, and I am happy to see that the
Urban Corps of San Diego County is taking
the lead in ‘going green,’” said
Congresswoman Davis, who has been a friend
of the Urban Corps for years, and was instrumental
in helping the organization retain five
work vehicles. The Urban Corps also has
plans for a LEED certified recycling education
center which will serve as a training facility
for Corps members and the citizens of San
Diego County.
The Urban Corps currently
processes 500 tons of recyclables a year
from collections at Petco Park, Qualcomm
Stadium and a variety of restaurants and
businesses around town. The new center
will accommodate a growth of up to 50%
annually. The center will also serve as
a multi-purpose resource for the entire
San Diego region for educating, training
and demonstrating how recycling and conservation:
preserves natural resources; reduces pollution;
reduces waste hauling costs/expenses; and
employs at-risk youth.
The center will
include fun, hands-on educational exhibits
as well as demonstrations on closed-loop
recycling.

Foo Fighters
Support Trees for San Diego’s Fire
Damaged Areas!
Exercising their Eco-Friendly muscle
on tour, the Foo Fighters have chosen to
support local communities through TreeBank,
the online community fund for trees, in
every city where they have a concert promoting
their new album, “Echoes, Silence,
Patience & Grace.”
Fans
who want to help the environment and enjoy
a great concert can snag themselves excellent
seats while supporting their local Tree
Bank at the same time.A limited quantity
of premium tickets for the March 3rd San
Diego show at Cox Arena/SDSU are available
only through online auctions at TicketMaster.com.
Proceeds above the face value of these
tickets go directly to the local non-profit
Urban Corps of San Diego County. Funds
will be used to plant trees in areas throughout
the county burned during the October 2007
wildfires.
Urban
Corps of San Diego County Announces Capital
Campaign To Fund Growth and Expand Facilities
to Benefit San Diego’s At-Risk
Youth
Urban Corps of San Diego County announced
it is moving forward with an extensive
capital campaign to help fund continued
expansion of services and facilities at
their Midway Site. The completed capital
projects being undertaken will cost nearly
$6 million. Since 2003 Urban Corps has
quietly raised $3.9 million through an
innovative campaign combining public, private,
and earned income funding. The Corps has
set a capital campaign goal to raise $2.1
million of the total expansion costs within
the community over the next few years. Read
press release (PDF)

Urban Corps members help prepare for storms
in fire damaged area...
click
here to view NBC 7-39 News
video.
Urban Corps Members
Help Fire Victims
Immediately after the
fires Urban Corps’ staff
and corps members worked with Qualcomm
management to assist the thousands of San
Diego residents taking refuge at the stadium.
Crews of corps members helped sort and
receive donations and collected recyclables
at the Q while others worked to help control
the traffic flow at San Diego High School.
After the 2003 wild fires Urban Corps
youth worked throughout San Diego County
on emergency response assistance to help
with erosion control and to restore fire
damaged habitat. The Urban Corps will begin
working with City and State officials to
help with recovery efforts as soon as it
is safe to do so.
Through
a grant from the Gary and Mary West Foundation,
Urban Corps Members work on fire relief
projects. Please click
here for a related slideshow. All
of us at the Urban Corps send our thoughts
and prayers to those who have lost their
homes and have been displaced by the fires.
Accolades – State
and local officials were on hand for the E.A.R.T.H. Awards, honoring
local businesses, individuals, and community organizations. Pictured
from left is State Director of the Department of Conservation,
California Resources Agency – Bridget Luther; Qualcomm Stadium
GM - Erik Stover; and Urban Corps CEO
Sam Duran.Mr. Stover was being honored on behalf of Qualcomm for
their recycling efforts. Based on a recycling program at Qualcomm
that is managed by Urban Corps, the total tonnage recycled during
the 2006 season was 66 tons, compared with 38 tons for the 2005
football season. On hand to present the awards were San Diego Mayor
Jerry Sanders, Councilmember Donna Frye, and Supervisor Pam Slater-Price.
Urban Corps Members work with architect James
Hubbell and the Americas Foundation on the Esperanza School Complex in
Tijuana, Mexico
James Hubbell’s llan-Lael
Foundation joined with the America Foundation to bring architects and
novices together for a construction project at the Esperanza School Complex
in Tijuana, Mexico. With the help of many hands and volunteers since
the project’s start in 1986, the Esperanza School complex now contains
classrooms for students grades K-12, administration rooms, a kitchen
and dining room, a ballet dance classroom, and outdoor showers to accompany
the playing field. Colonia Esperanza is located in what was once one
of the “irregular” zones or colonia.
Corpsmembers doing tile work at the Esperanza
School Complex in Tijuana, Mexico |
These zones are areas
of orchestrated invasion where the land is settled and heavily populated
before public utilities are installed. There is no running water, no
electricity, and no bathrooms. Most of the shanties, scratched out of
an old municipal dump, have dirt floors and no windows. Nine thousand
children, most of them poor, migrate to Tijuana each year with their
families. Sixty colonias and towns lack schools.
Classrooms and Play Area |
It is the need for schools
in this area that led to the establishment of the Americas Foundation. For this year’s project, the class and volunteers worked with James
Hubbell to help design and start a new amphitheatre.
The Urban Corps
sent two staff and two corps members to participate in this three day
workshop working alongside legendry artist and architect James Hubbell
and his son, Drew, on projects that gave staff and corps members a chance
to learn new trades while giving back to the global community. Volunteers
worked long hours to install tile mosaics and our more than five cubic
yards of concrete.
James Hubbell with school children from
the Esperanza School |
Corps members have had the opportunity to work with
Mr. Hubbell on a number of projects and CEO, Sam Duran, is presently
discussing the idea of having Mr. Hubbell guide corps members on tile
projects at the new Urban Corps facility in Midway. Stay tuned…
Urban Corps of San Diego County Receives National Award for
University of San Diego (USD) Collaboration
After months of sharing ideas, visiting each other’s campuses and planning, the Urban Corps of San Diego County’s on-site Charter High School and the University of San Diego’s
School of Leadership and Education Sciences have partnered to create the Urban
Corps Assessment and Counseling Clinic (UC-ACC).
This collaboration provides Urban Corps participants the opportunity to receive
both personal and career counseling services from Graduate Students in USD’s
Counseling Program. Under the supervision of Ronn Johnson, Ph. D., ABPP; Fellow,
American Board of Clinical Psychology, and Director of Clinical Instruction;
these USD students come to the Urban Corps of San Diego on a daily basis to assess
and counsel at-risk youth in the on-site UC-ACC office.
The UC-ACC program is now written into Dr. Johnson’s course curriculum syllabus and enables him to place his students in a working clinical environment, exposing them to practical (non textbook) situations involving real young adults facing real-life issues.
“This partnership represents an exciting start for what should be a mutually rewarding clinical experience for USD students and Urban Corp participants.” Said Dr. Johnson
“The ultimate goal of the Urban Corps is to equip disenfranchised and at-risk youth with skills to excel in life, not merely survive. Coupled with our extensive vocational training and education, the counseling component adds an additional layer of service that is greatly needed for many of the young adults in the program who face multiple barriers to success” said Dan Thomas, MST, and Director of Education for Urban Corp’s Charter School. “There is enormous mutual benefit in this collaboration for both organizations and it has great potential to evolve into other areas that benefit both the students in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at USD and the young people and staff at the Urban Corps of San Diego County.”
Sam Duran, Urban Corps’ Chief Executive Officer,
was delighted that the partnership
was being recognized on a National
level. “The beauty of this
collaboration is the experience it
provides these master’s
level USD students while giving Urban
Corps members and the organization
a valuable service that neither the
corps members nor a typical non-profit
could afford on a full time basis. Many of the USD students have
also taken on the extra responsibility of helping our teachers in
the classroom and of mentoring our students. They are truly helping
us make a difference in the lives of the young adults in our program.
Dan Thomas and Dr. Johnson deserve much of the credit for having
the foresight to see the significance of this collaboration and I
have nothing but praise for their work in making it possible,” said
Duran.
This partnership will be recognized with an award for Best Strategic Partnership at the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps’ (NASCC) Annual Forum in Washington DC. The Award Ceremony will be held on Capitol Hill on Tuesday February 14, 2007. State legislators are expected to attend.
 |
| Urban Corps of San Diego County is proud to have been chosen by Las Patronas as a Major Beneficiary for the 2007 Jewel Ball ARTRAGEOUS. Las Patronas is committed to providing financial assistance to non-profit organizations in San Diego county that provide valuable community services in the areas of health, education, social services, and cultural arts, and to continuing it’s tradition of service to enhance the quality of life in the San Diego community. |
NEW & EXCITING PARTNERSHIP
Urban Corps is partnering with the UCSD/Scripps Institute of Oceanography in a new and exciting partnership to implement and fine tune Best Management Practices (BMP’s) in Storm Water Pollution Prevention. In just a few years, every sizeable facility along California’s coast, public and private, will be required to implement a Storm Water Pollution Prevention plan, and this pilot project may place Urban Corps in the forefront of a new and emerging industry to train corpsmembers in.
Joining in this partnership is the Bank of America Foundation ($15,000 match towards corpsmember hours) and we anticipate the AT&T Foundation joining this partnership soon ($5,000 match towards technology for the project).
CHOLLAS CREEK RESTORATION CONTINUES
Now in our second year of restoration work on Chollas Creek, Urban Corps would like to thank and recognize the San Diego Foundation/Environmental for their continued support in providing $40,000 matching funds toward a project at the 252 Corridor Park at 38th and Alpha Street. These funds will go towards a much larger project, partnering with the City of San Diego (Planning Dept., Parks & Rec. Dept., and Storm Water Division), Groundwork San Diego/Chollas Creek, and the Sierra Clubs Friends of Chollas Creek group.
CULTURAL
EXCHANGE PROGRAM
Through a chance meeting in Washington DC in February 2004, Urban Corps’ Chief
Executive Officer, Sam Duran and Lucie Latulippe, President and General Director,
Office Québec-Amerique pour la jeuness (Office for Youth Services) began
the process of creating a cultural exchange program between the youth of Québec
and the young men and women of the Urban Corps. In
2005 the Office Quebec-Ameriques
pour la jeunes sent a crew
of 10 young adults and two
Supervisors to San Diego for
3 weeks and the Urban Corps
sent a similar crew to Québec
City.
While
in San Diego at the Urban Corps,
the Québec students
worked right along side Urban
Corpsmembers on a wide variety
of environmental projects,
participated in English language
classes at the Urban Corps’ on-site
charter school, and in their
free time, enjoyed the hospitality
of San Diego and Southern California.
The Mayor and City Council
recognized the youth of Québec
in a special welcome ceremony
held in City Hall. The Urban
Corpsmembers who were part
of the Québec
exchange had the opportunity
to visit a different country—for
many of them it was the first
time they had ever flown—and
to experience the cultures
that unite our two countries.
They worked with the youth
of Québec on similar
environmental projects, appeared
on local television and were
given the opportunity to talk
to the people of Québec
about their experience through
a local radio station.
“The
opportunity of being part
of the cultural exchange
allowed me to learn enough
French to get around the
city and to meet new friends
and learn new cultures. I
also lived and worked with
ten other people, which was
a great
experience—especially
when it was my turn to participate
in the house chores! I learned
a lot of new responsibilities.
Since coming back from Québec
I am about to earn my high
school diploma, and after working
at the Hyatt Regency as a Recycling
Intern, I have just been offered
a permanent job! Going to Québec
was a fantastic experience.”
-Marcus La May, Corpsmember
To learn more
about sponsoring a youth for
the cultural exchange program,
contact Urban Corps’ Director
of Development at (619) 235-6884 |
A SIGNATURE ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECT:
ADOBE FALLS
If there is an axiom in action at the Urban Corps it is Learning, Earning, and Conservingdemonstrated on a daily basis by the Urban Corps Environmental Projects Crew.
The story of Adobe Falls begins some years back when a once pristine area renowned for its hiking trails and natural vegetation became severely damaged by a sewer spill. Situated in a deep ravine that runs alongside Interstate 8 in the area of Del Cerro, the 3-acre site had become choked with giant bamboo, overrun with non-native vegetation such as pampas grass and Mexican fan palms, trash, and dead and dying trees. This once unspoiled spot had become an eye sore and a fire hazard.
Contracted by the City of San Diego’s Metropolitan Wastewater Department to restore the site, the project was quickly identified as both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge would be to bring the project in on time and on budget. The opportunity would be to expose the young people of the Urban Corps to experts in their field--landscape architects, biologists, and environmental engineers and planners.
Over a period of 18 months, corpsmember crews removed over 200 non-native and dying trees and filled sixty forty cubic yard dumpsters with invasive vegetation. The crews then re-introduced more than 5,000 native plants, planted over 200 native trees, and installed an irrigation system that covered a 480,000 square feet area. Complicated and labor intensive, corpsmembers became proficient in how to read blue prints as they installed hundreds of linear feet of irrigation line and sprinkler heads, and seasoned in heavy equipment use such as Bobcat tractor, chainsaws, and power wrenches. On a daily basis they learned how to systematically evaluate, prioritize and implement activities.
If this story had a hero it would be the dozens of young people who worked to restore Adobe Falls to the pristine reserve it once was, and in the process gained an immense array of vocational skills, learned the importance of team work, and perhaps more importantly, will look back on this project with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
The Adobe Falls environmental crew will go on to tackle habitat restorations at the San Diego River Park and non-native vegetation removal in Maple Canyon.
“What an outstanding partnership opportunity for the City of San Diego's Metropolitan Wastewater and Urban Corps, to restore the Adobe Falls & Alvarado Canyon's habitat, resulting from Urban Corp's determination, commitment & resourcefulness. Together, we brought back the environment to what it was meant to be.”
Michelle Abella-Shon, MWWD Project Manager
“At Adobe Falls the Urban Corps of San Diego has taken on a project too difficult for many other contractors, and delivered success! The crews and project managers have done outstanding work under difficult circumstances, and this unique riparian habitat that was so severely degraded is again a visible reminder of San Diego’s abundance of natural beauty. Thank you Urban Corps!”
Scott Boczkiewicz
Biologist/Habitat Restoration Specialist
DUDEK and Associates, Inc.