Austin, TX – On March 6^th, American YouthWorks (AYW) will host a Kazakhstani delegation that is visiting Austin, Texas, as part of the Library of Congress’ Open World Leadership Program, to research initiatives to promote environmentally friendly practices in Kazakhstan.  The group will first tour AYW’s Charter High School to get an overview of its green jobs training, education and service programs and will then tour Zilker Nature Preserve to learn specifically about youth involvement in invasive species removal and trail restoration, and to see how these projects provide education and job training opportunities for young people.

AYW has been involved in conservation projects at Zilker Nature Preserve and sites like it for over sixteen years.  Currently, AYW high school students enrolled in AYW’s Environmental Corps (E-Corps) program are improving the entire trail system on Zilker Nature Preserve, through a grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.  This Preserve wide project includes the restoration of a trail built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the late 1930s.  The CCC was a program of President Roosevelt’s New Deal that put hundreds of thousands of unemployed men to work conserving natural resources all over the country and is a model that E-Corps has emulated.  The CCC also constructed an overlook with a stunning view of Austin, that was reached by hiking on the old CCC trail.  Though the overlook is still there, the trail has fallen out of use and has become overgrown, but it is being brought back to life with this project.

“By working on a Civilian Conservation Corps trail, students at American YouthWorks have a unique opportunity to restore America’s history, and through this conservation effort, are building its future,” said Parc Smith, CEO of American YouthWorks.

The Open World Leadership Center is an exchange program of the U.S. Government that seeks to enhance understanding and capabilities for cooperation between the USA and the countries of Eurasia by developing a network of leaders in the region who have gained significant, firsthand exposure to America’s democratic, accountable government and free-market system.  The Kazakhstani visit is also hosted by Center for Safe Energy of Earth Island Institute.  The Kazakhstani Facilitator choose AYW as a model program that the Kazakhstani delegation could learn from as they further develop environmental efforts in their Country.

Mr. Smith also said, “We’re excited to share with the Kazakhstani delegates, our young people’s efforts at Zilker Nature Preserve that protect our environment and provide hands-on education and job training for youth.  We aim to demonstrate that a fundamental legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps, creating jobs by conserving natural resources, is still alive in our Environmental Corps program today.”

Media are invited to join the delegation and AYW staff and students for a tour of the Zilker Nature Preserve project site at 11:00 AM on March 6^th.  Though the schedule of the tour is not expected to change, we suggest media RSVP with Rachel Matvy, 865-540-1334.  Visit www.americanyouthworks.org for more about AYW and www.openworld.gov for more about the Open World Program.

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About American Youth Works

AYW is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Austin, Texas that integrates at-risk youth and AmeriCorps members to provide education, service and green jobs training. AYW operates a public charter high school, the Service Learning Academy, a GED program and green jobs and service corps programs, Casa Verde Builders, Computer Corps, Environmental Corps, and Green Energy Corps. AYW also offers on-site life services to help students overcome obstacles to their education, including a parent and child development center, academic coaching and counseling.  For more than thirty years, AYW has assisted thousands of local, at-risk youth and adult graduates from around the country in transforming their lives and gaining job skills through community service, education and a commitment to preserving the natural environment.

About Environmental Corps

E-Corps is a green jobs training and service program that allows at-risk youth and adult volunteers to build and restore the natural environment through parks and trails projects, forestry, and habitat restoration.  E-Corps integrates young adults from all over the United States with local youth to create a blended, transformative, cultural experience for all participants.

About the Open World Program

The Open World Program is a non-partisan initiative of Congress designed to build mutual understanding between the United States and Eurasia. Since its founding by Congress in 1999, the Open World program has enabled over 18,000 current and future Eurasian leaders to experience American democracy, civil society and community life; work with their American counterparts; stay in American homes; and gain new ideas and inspiration for implementing change back home.

AYW’s E-Corps was one of 20 AmeriCorps programs from across the country that deployed more than 300 AmeriCorps members to Joplin since the tornado.  Members took on key leadership positions within the AmeriCorps operation and efficiently organized thousands of volunteers, removed debris, put tarps on roofs of habitable homes and tapped into their conservation training to fell thousands of hazard trees.

A resolution, sponsored by Representatives Bill White (R-Joplin) and Charlie Davis (R-Duquesne), applauded the AmeriCorps program and their efforts in Joplin and Duquesne following the devastating EF-5 tornado.

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Joplin tornado was the nation’s deadliest in more than sixty years, killing 161 residents and destroying more than 7,000 homes, churches, schools and businesses.  Within eight hours, AmeriCorps members arrived in Joplin and over the past seven months, have performed vital services including managing a large-scale volunteer operation that has recruited, facilitated, and supervised more than 60,600 volunteers since the tornado. These volunteers provided more than 579,000 hours of service, totaling more than $17.7 million of donated resources as estimated by the City of Joplin. Together, AmeriCorps members and volunteers have provided disaster assistance to more than 2,000 households and continue to provide services to the people of Joplin, seven months later.

To see photos from the ceremony, visit our facebook page.

The CTWF, which is administered by the ACF, and was created in response to the devastating wildfires that struck Central Texas over Labor Day weekend, 2011. The CTWF supports the immediate and long-term efforts of nonprofit organizations working “on the ground” in those areas hardest hit. The CTWF gives grants to 501(c)(3) nonprofits that are helping individuals, families, businesses and the community recover, rebuild and return to the quality of life that existed before the fires began.  Other grants from the CTWF include money for volunteer leadership, family support, rebuilding homes and restoring safety.

“Bastrop State Park is a vital economic and natural resource.  The near destruction of one of Texas’ gems is devastating, but E-Corps and CVB members are honored that they can give back to their community by helping to rebuild it,” said Parc Smith, CEO of AYW.

Youth and young adult service Corps members have been providing relief to Central Texans affected by the fire since September of 2011.  These volunteers are members of AmeriCorps or YouthBuild, which are both national, community service programs that are hosted locally by AYW.  Participants include young adult volunteers from all over the country as well as students attending AYW’s charter high school.  As part of previous recovery efforts, AYW worked with Bastrop County, FEMA, and local organizations and individuals to create the Volunteer Reception Center, which provided a central location for volunteers to get involved.  They have also been working for several weeks in Bastrop State Park to help get the Park back to full operation.

In addition, to their experience in Bastrop, crews from AYW also assisted southeast Missourians following the devastating tornados earlier this year and in 2005 and 2006, they provided hurricane relief in New Orleans and East Texas.  Service Corps members at AYW are gaining valuable skills that prepare them to step into leadership roles, handle difficult situations, operate safely and work hard while giving back to their community!

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About American Youth Works

AYW is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Austin, Texas that integrates at-risk youth and AmeriCorps members to provide education, service and green jobs training. AYW operates a public charter high school, the Service Learning Academy, a GED program and green jobs and service corps programs, Casa Verde Builders, Computer Corps, Environmental Corps, and Green Energy Corps. AYW also offers on-site life services to help students overcome obstacles to their education, including a parent and child development center, academic coaching and counseling.  For more than thirty years, AYW has assisted thousands of local, at-risk youth and adult graduates from around the country in transforming their lives and gaining job skills through community service, education and a commitment to preserving the natural environment.

About Environmental Corps

E-Corps is a green jobs training and service program that allows at-risk youth and adult volunteers to build and restore the natural environment through parks and trails projects, forestry, and habitat restoration.  E-Corps integrates young adults from all over the United States with local youth to create a blended, transformative, cultural experience for all participants.

About Casa Verde Builders

CVB is a green jobs training and service program that teaches youth, ages 17-24, cutting-edge, green construction techniques. Participants build energy-efficient, affordable homes in East Austin for first time homebuyers and learn the construction process from foundation to finish. This award-winning program is proven to produce higher academic performance and consistent attendance for its participants and creates a foundation for youth to pursue quality higher education and job placement. In partnership with the US Department of Labor and YouthBuild USA, CVB is a nationally-recognized leader in combining green building with affordable housing.

Contact Rachel Matvy with questions, 512-744-1904.

A resourceful person, Aimee decided to look for self paced classes.  She found a lot of expensive options.  Then she found AYW.  

Each AYW student has a unique story, but many of them have significant obstacles to graduation.  Everyday, we help those who need it most, by reengaging them through service to the community while they earn their high school diploma or GED and learn job skills in our Corps programs.

Where would these young people be without the hope of a better life?  I don’t want to find out.

Now Aimee is attending Austin Community College where she is working toward a two year degree in Psychology and plans to transfer to a four year university.

With your help, we’ll have many more years of graduates!

If you have already sent us your donation, thank you so much!  If not, there’s still time to support at-risk youth as they earn their diploma and money for college, learn job skills and give back to their community.

Your gift can make all the difference…to our young people, their families and our community.

We can accept donations via a check sent to

American YouthWorks

1901 E. Ben White Blvd.

Austin, TX 78741

Or you can donate using our secure online cart.

At the kickoff workshop, guest speaker Sgt. Felicia Williams-Dennis, of the City of Austin Police Department, served as an example of how prioritizing and goal setting could help the young women overcome obstacles to their education.

The Austin Capitol City Business Women sponsors Youth Power.  Mary Kastl, business owner, will speak at the next workshop.   If you would be interested in speaking or attending one of the events, contact Margarine G. Beaman at ole050@hotmail.com or 512-921-1625.

Chelsea Bodamer, an E-Corps member, shared the experience thus far for the AmeriCorps teams.

“Since our arrival in Bastrop, we have worked hard to establish a long-term system for volunteering and collecting donations.  Part of this system involves working closely with Bastrop County to streamline the tracking of volunteer hours.  These hours will help to off-set the cost of recovery to citizens throughout the County.

The goal of the AmeriCorps teams is to work with the community to create efficient, long-term systems to aid in the long road to recovery.  Although recovery efforts are quickly progressing, a great deal of cleanup must take place before rebuild begins, and at this point, debris removal is expected to take months.   

We are excited to be a part of the relief effort here in Bastrop.  We are moved by the strength of the community and organizations of all different backgrounds coming together for a common goal.  We look forward to seeing community members come forth who are willing and able to become long-term volunteers and help lead the community towards rebirth.  Bastrop is an incredibly strong community and there is no doubt they will come back bigger and better than ever.”

The E-Corps and CVB members, working together with other AmeriCorps groups and local organizations, have established a Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) at the Bastrop Calvary Baptist Church.  The VRC gives give the public a central location where volunteers have the opportunity to learn about and sign up for volunteer opportunities throughout Bastrop County.  You can find more information about volunteering on one of our previous blog posts or on our facebook page.

Design Corps seeks to teach young people the “art of living” by inspiring them to be good stewards of the world around them.  This project is a perfect learning opportunity for students in the art program as they will participate in creating a sculpture designed to increase awareness of the natural environment and inspire people to take action.  In addition, by working with a professional artist who started with a vision, created a plan and saw the plan through to fruition, they will gain a greater understanding the process of realizing their own visions of getting a high school diploma, planning for college or getting that perfect, high wage job.

The sculpture will be unveiled at 2:00 PM during the Austin Green City Festival on October 23^rd.  Many groups are helping with the volunteer effort.  You can get involved by coming to the unveiling, helping the artist prepare the caps or collecting plastic caps from peanut butter jars, Gatorade drinks, jelly jars, mayonnaise jars, etc.  For more information, see the website for the sculpture.

For immediate release

American YouthWorks sends AmeriCorps members to Bastrop County to Aid in Wildfire Relief Efforts

September 28, 2011 — BASTROP, Texas – The Bastrop Calvary Baptist Church is serving as a Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) for those interested in providing assistance to the Bastrop County fire relief effort.

Local AmeriCorps members participating in American YouthWorks’ (AYW) Environmental Corps (E-Corps) and Casa Verde Builders (CVB), along with AmeriCorps members from Washington State, were called upon to establish the center that gives volunteers the opportunity to learn about, and sign up for volunteer opportunities throughout Bastrop County.   Partnering with groups and organizations working to provide disaster assistance, the center provides the public a central location for getting involved.   Upon registration, volunteers will be matched with opportunities based on interest and availability.

Individuals and groups interested in volunteering should call the VRC at (512) 332-2607 or visit 3001 Loop 150 E. Monday – Saturday between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. and Wednesday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.   Those interested can also register online at http://www.bastroprelief.org/volunteer.

In addition, homeowners in need of recovery assistance can stop in the Disaster Recovery Center (DRC), located at 1602 Hill Street, Bastrop between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, to fill out a homeowner intake form and be provided with volunteer support through affiliated agencies.

Chelsea Bodamer, Outreach Coordinator for AYW’s E-Corps program said, “We are excited to be a part of the relief effort here in Bastrop.  We are moved by the strength of the community and organizations of all different backgrounds coming together for a common goal.”

In order for Bastrop County to continue to provide the most comprehensive volunteer support services, Bastrop County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Fischer requests that all volunteer agencies register with the VRC.  Volunteer hours, collectively, will help to offset the cost of recovery to the County and its residents. Agencies should call, visit, or send an e-mail to the VRC at bastropvrc@gmail.com.

For additional information please visit www.co.bastrop.tx.us/bcdisaster/ or www.bastroprelief.org or dial 211.

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About American Youth Works

AYW is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Austin, Texas that integrates at-risk youth and AmeriCorps members to provide education, service and green jobs training. AYW operates a public charter high school, the Service Learning Academy, a GED program and green jobs and service corps programs, Casa Verde Builders, Computer Corps, Environmental Corps, and Green Energy Corps. AYW also offers on-site life services to help students overcome obstacles to their education, including a parent and child development center, academic coaching and counseling.  For more than thirty years, AYW has assisted thousands of local, at-risk youth and adult graduates from around the country in transforming their lives and gaining job skills through community service, education and a commitment to preserving the natural environment.

About Environmental Corps

E-Corps is a green jobs training and service program that allows at-risk youth and adult graduates to build and restore the natural environment through parks and trails projects, forestry, and habitat restoration.  It is a program of AmeriCorps that integrates young adults from all over the United States with local youth to create a blended, transformative, cultural experience for all participants.  In the spring of 2011, Enviromental Corps members participated in disaster relief efforts in Joplin, Missouri and in 2005 and 2006 they provided Hurricane relief in both New Orleans and East Texas.

About Case Verde Builders

Casa Verde Builders, also a program of American YouthWorks, is a green jobs training service program teaching youth ages 17-24 cutting-edge, green construction techniques. Participants build energy-efficient, affordable homes in East Austin for first time homebuyers and learn the construction process from foundation to finish. This award-winning program is proven to produce higher academic performance and consistent attendance for its participants and creates a foundation for youth to pursue quality higher education and jobs placement. In partnership with the US Department of Labor and YouthBuild USA, CVB is a nationally-recognized leader in combining green building with affordable housing.

About Washington Conservation Corps

The Washington Conservation Corps is an AmeriCorps program based in Washington State.  Washington Conservation Corps crews perform environmental work for a variety of partners throughout the state.  Partners include the National Park Service, US Forest Service, Washington State Parks, county parks, nonprofits, and private landowners.  Washington Conservation Corps has proven to be a vital resource for emergency response. WCC Crews have been deployed to fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados and oil spills throughout the country.

The CVB program is made up of students seeking their GED or high school diploma while developing job skills in green construction.  Since 1995, students in the program have built almost 100 energy efficient, affordable homes.  Currently, CVB has a limited number of floor plans and the new designs will assist CVB with building and offering more housing choices to the community and will challenge AYW students by providing opportunities to gain new construction skills.

Currently, our young people are involved in the construction process from the foundation to the roof, but do not participate in creating floor plans.  The charrette was be a unique opportunity for AYW students to learn more about the design phase of construction and get exposure to potential career paths in architecture.

Design Voice is a committee of AIA Austin that enables the greater design community to connect and collaborate with organizations and individuals interested and engaged in housing advocacy, development and community building in Austin. We thank them for their service to AYW students!

The same report from the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction also lists some systemic changes schools can make to reduce drop out rates, the key change being a school that is adapted to the child it serves.  According to the report, the biggest threat to graduation for an at-risk youth is a sense of alienation from a student’s academic community.  This means creating small learning groups within the larger school where students can experience a sense of belonging and interact with each other as well as school staff.  In addition, schools can perform better by providing for the academic needs of their young people by maintaining high expectations and creating curriculum that is meaningful to adolescents and based on how students learn best.

What helped you do well in school?  A teacher?  Your parents?  We’d love to hear from you!  Click here to leave a comment on our facebook page.

At American YouthWorks, we strive to provide the best learning environment for our students.  Our Service Corps programs encourage academic and professional development and job skills training through small communities within the school that give students a hands on learning experience tied to their coursework.  In order to encourage personal interest and interaction between students and teachers we keep our school and class sizes small.  We have given thousands of at-risk youth a chance to help themselves and to become contributing members of society.  In July, nearly 100 graduates walked across the stage and they earned $230,000 in scholarships and education awards.  We were proud to invest in these youth and give them a chance to realize their potential.  This August, we will welcome 115 high school diploma seekers and 30 GED students to AYW.  To see pictures from Graduation, visit our facebook page.