Youth Corps Crew Leader: P-CREW

Sierra Institute’s P-CREW Youth Corps is an immersive, five-week, experiential work opportunity designed to offer employment on northern California’s public lands to youth from rural and urban areas around the state. P-CREW initially started as a collaborative program between the Sierra Institute and staff of the Plumas National Forest who wanted to connect rural youth from the top of the Feather River Watershed (Plumas County) to downstream urban youth (East Bay). As the program has grown, we have extended our focus area to include larger areas within the watershed. The program strives to develop the next generation of natural resource stewards through work experience, field-based education, personal growth, and professional development.

P-CREW encourages participants to embrace their role as stewards of our public lands by working on the landscapes of the northern Sierra and forming relationships with California’s headwater ecosystems. Since Euro-American settlement this region has struggled to concurrently sustain human livelihoods and ecological integrity, and despite shifting to multi-use and ecosystem-based management practices in the early 1990’s, management decisions still often fail to meaningfully address the scale of degradation on the landscape. Changing the approach to land management requires managers and communities to recognize the interconnectedness of ecological processes like wildfire and the inequities within human populations wrought by limited access to natural spaces and increasing vulnerability to climate change induced natural disasters. Shifting the culture and perspectives guiding land modern management requires youth to be exposed to the outcomes of past management decisions, taught to recognize and measure the continued impacts of current management activities, and participate in ecological restoration while concurrently developing a connection to place and dedication to stewardship.

P-CREW is uniquely capable of providing a formative and unforgettable experience for youth through immersion in the culture and communities of the Sierra Nevada’s largest watershed. Students will work closely with community-based organizations and the rural areas they serve during their time in the northern Sierra. Students forge unexpectedly strong friendships, develop leadership and job skills, explore diverse and wild forests, and build pride and confidence in themselves. We purposefully design crews to be balanced across geographies and gender identities to increase opportunities for exposure to different backgrounds, stories, and cultures among crewmates. P-CREW also encourages students to stay engaged with our program and community through continued workforce opportunities including our Alumni All-Star Assistant and Crew Leader positions, which are frequently filled by program alumni.

To learn more about the P-CREW program and view Crew Leader position descriptions please visit: https://pcrew.sierrainstitute.us