UPDATE FOR 2011

Federal funds for the Idaho Youth Corps are limited! The Department of Labor is soliciting matching funds from community organizations and agencies across the state to partner with the department in establishing local youth corps summer work opportunities that will offer Idaho’s young people beneficial work experiences.

Interested youth must meet Workforce Investment Act low-income and other eligibility requirements to be involved.

 

The Idaho Youth Corps was established in 2008 by the Idaho Department of Labor to harness and shape the energy, idealism and work ethic of the young people of Idaho through the completion of meaningful projects that will enhance their communities and the natural resources of our state.

Youth Corps programs nationwide still follow the core values that were set forth in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps to “bring together two underutilized resources, youth and our land, in an effort to improve both.” The department has been coordinating this effort statewide for three years, forming cooperative partnerships between local, state, federal agencies and school districts for Workforce Investment Act youth programs.

In 2008, the Labor Department conducted a pilot Youth Corps project with the Bureau of Land Management, hiring five young people and a crew leader using Workforce Investment Act Youth resources. During 2009 more than 840 young people were employed throughout the state in six to eight week summer work experiences. The great expansion of this effort from the 2008 pilot was due largely to the department receiving additional resources through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009.

Governor Otter has set a priority for Idaho to expand the Idaho Youth Corps by indentifying ways to continue to employ students and young adults in full-time summer work experiences across the state with employers ranging from local cities and towns to rangelands and national forests management agencies.