CCClegacy

The Legacy Today

The CCC program became an inspirational model for the creation of team-based national service youth conservation programs such as the Student Conservation Association in 1957 (SCA), and the National Civilian Community Corps in 1993 (NCCC – part of the AmeriCorps program). The Corps Network was formed in 1985 and works to develop the corps movement throughout America as a central source of information on various corps programs.

Similar to the impact of the CCC in the 1930s, today's Corps programs provide young adults the chance to change their communities, their own lives and those of their families; providing a wealth of valuable conservation, infrastructure improvement and human service projects.

DCR-SCA MassParks AmeriCorps Program

DCR partners with Student Conservation Association in the MassParks AmeriCorps (MPA) program, a residential program headquartered at Dubuque State Forest in the Berkshires. The MPA serves Massachusetts’s public lands, completing conservation service projects across the state during the summer. Program participants spend the winter providing environmental education to children and working with educators at ten schools in the western part of the state.

Since the program was founded in 1997, MassParks AmeriCorps members have logged more than 300,000 hours of service, completing 300 projects on public and nonprofit lands, constructing and maintaining 300 miles of trails and delivering more than 7,000 environmental education lessons to school-age children. In recent years, program participants have also designed and run an annual Nature Camp and organized Park Serve Day (see below), which engages community volunteers in conservation projectsat DCR facilities each year.

For more information on the DCR-SCA MassParks AmeriCorps Program contact 413-339-6631.

Get Involved!

Every May DCR sponsors Park Serve Day when you can volunteer at your local Massachusetts State Park as part of a statewide initiative. Help clean beaches, pick up litter, paint outbuildings, plant flowers, clear trails and more. The goal of Park Serve Day is to provide the public with a chance to volunteer and give back to the parks in the spring and spruce them up for summer use.

National Public Lands Day This nation-wide annual day of caring for public lands keeps the promise of the Civilian Conservation Corps by building trails and bridges, planting trees and plants, and removing trash and invasive plants from parklands.

The DCR CCC Program Committee, honors, celebrates and preserves through public programming and special events, education, printed material, exhibits and partnerships, the legacy of the CCC. If you wish to contact the committee, please direct any inquiries to:

DCR CCC Program Committee

c/o Mount Greylock State Reservation

PO Box 138, Lanesborough, MA 01237

413-499-4262

For other stewardship opportunities in Massachusetts State Parks visit the Get Involved webpage.



	Today’s corps programs offer a chance for positive change in the community.

Disclaimer

Mass.gov Home