Learning, Learning, Learning

Day 5:

On Friday Tony took the VISTAs back up to the Greenwood site to watch the corpsmembers graduate from their fire training. We even got to watch a slideshow the crew had made for the members. The pictures were incredible and I can't believe what hard work the members did in just a few short days of training! After the graduation, Tony showed us around the site and introduced us to a few people. One of my goals for this year is to learn as much about the CCC as I can. The organiations history, values, and structure. I figure the more I know about the organization and its members, the better I can help them after their service years and I will have better insight into what they like to do. With that siad, I spent most of Friday talking to CCC staff and previous members about how the CCC works. I found that although the CCC is similar to NCCC in values, the structure of the program is quite different.

Here are some basic facts that I've learned about the CCC:

·         Members are 18-25, unless they are veterans, then they can be up to 29 years old.

·         Work on crews of approximately 8 individuals

o   There are many positions within a crew including corpsmembers, crew lead (I and II), C-1 (conservationist 1, which corpsmembers can get to once they have completed a year with the CCC and take an oral exam)

·         The CCC has 27 different sites. 7 of these are residential, which means that members live at the location full time. At the other non-residential sites, members commute from their home to the site and then to work each day.

·         Residential sites often send their crews on “spikes” which last anywhere from 4 to 14 days. These projects require crews to go to a remote location and work every day on the project.

·         CCC service terms are one year in length.

o   Teams do not all graduate at the same time.

o   Members join the program and join crews at intervals and graduate at intervals. Often times, three or four members- from different crews- will graduate at one time and then the crews where they have left will gain a new CCC member.

·         Because the California climate is vastly different throughout the state, Crews are trained in a variety of projects and the projects depend upon the location.

After we left Greenwood, we went back to the office and finished up our work for the day before taking off for the weekend. I learned so much about the CCC on Friday, but to be quite honest, I don’t remember every detail and even if I did, it’s so intertwined that it would be difficult for me to explain. A=I hope this gave you a little of an idea of how the CCC works and what it is all about.

Oh, also, the CCC motto is: “Hard work, low pay, miserable conditions… and more!”

And no, that is not a joke. That’s the actual motto. It’s a pretty cool place.