Duwamish Valley Youth Corps Program
In response to requests by the community of the Duwamish Valley, Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition/Technical Advisory Group (DRCC/TAG) developed the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps (DVYC) as a youth engagement program focusing on environmental justice and job skills. The circumstances in the Duwamish Valley have produced a vacuum of engagement opportunities for the youth, and DVYC is intent on filling that vacuum. The Valley is geographically isolated, bounded by highways and the River and poorly served by public transportation. Most of our youth are children of color, most are members of low-income households and attend low-income schools, and many are immigrants and/or non-native English speakers. Finally, the Duwamish Valley itself is lacking in engagement opportunities—there are few job opportunities (besides which, many of our youth are undocumented and not eligible for legal employment), few entertainment venues, and a dearth of funding/programming at our Community Center. Attending college seems unattainable to many.
“The DVYC to me is more then just a program, the DVYC is a place where I gained knowledge about my community in which I realized the dangers in my community had. With DVYC I was able to become the change for my community. I, along with 30 and more youth members have cleaned the South Park streets, build and designed green walls, painted walls and created art murals. We have produced videos, distribute fans and filters, planted trees and so many other things that benefit the community and us as persons.”
Leilani G.
These variables produce a subset of our community with untapped potential. The DVYC is designed to address all these needs. The high-school aged Youth meet 3 times per week—twice for lessons about environmental degradation, environmental justice, and their role in these concepts as they relate to the Valley. They also meet twice per week for outdoor work—tree planting, neighborhood cleanups, restoration and maintenance work, invasive weed identification, rain garden construction, air quality projects, green wall construction and implantation, etc.
By providing experiences and lessons that are unavailable to the youth at home or school, the purpose of the DVYC is to enrich and build upon their own lived experience. We believe that providing more, and more thoughtful, curriculum and hands-on activities will give our youth the arena they need to grow and achieve.
Click below to see our youth in action!
Our Mentors
The DVYC Mentorship program is filling a need in the Valley which is not addressed by any other program. There are no ongoing programs of any kind in the area, especially not those that serve undocumented youth. We are providing a unique opportunity to gain job skills, speaking skills, advocacy skills, environmental action and organizing skills, the list goes on. The youth will be better prepared for any experience that they find going forward, whether social, educational, or employment-oriented. They will also be part of a web of community members, both within and without the Duwamish Valley. This web both keeps a watchful eye on them as well as potentially opens doors and makes connections for them. They will be part of the fight for environmental equity as they see the world through eyes that have been opened to the pollution in their own home and how it affects their health and well-being.
The results:
Because this program serves youth who are underserved in many ways by the infrastructure of our culture, it genuinely provides access to pathways and connections to move beyond the confines our community, which in many ways is stunted and unsupportive of true growth. Drawing on their DVYC cohort experience and scaffolding it with a Mentorship opportunity produces more worldly, effective, confident and ambitious youth in our community
For more information, please contact us at dvyc@drcc.org or (206) 816-2856
““I was shy, I was quiet, I would never be able to [speak to an audience like this]… Paulina gave me a voice… gave me a sense of purpose, gave me a safe place to do what I love to do which is to be an environmental activist for my community… in South Park and Georgetown.” These were the words of Daniella, a youth leader from the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps, speaking about her mentor, Paulina Lopez (who later received an award for youth mentorship from the City Habitats network). Voices and stories like Daniella’s took center stage at this year’s 3rd annual Green Infrastructure Summit as we continued a quest to make green infrastructure into a force for equity and environmental justice. A big part of that quest lies in making sure that as the Green Infrastructure sector grows, new jobs and career pathways become accessible and attractive to diverse and brilliant minds from communities disproportionately affected by pollution and environmental degradation.”
Everything I’ve been through with the program has helped me through life. I’m an okay presenter now, when I used to not be able to speak to a group of 5 people. I’ve been built well by all these kind, loving, and supporting people. If it was any other way, I feel like my life would be a total disaster and I’m grateful right now that it is not. Not to mention the Port of Seattle invited me back for an ambassador’s program for 10 weeks which is amazing because I love working there so much. I feel for everyone who needs a good program to help them get on their feet and keep them up and I can’t wait to see the program teach more youth about environmental justice and help them out of a hole if they are at risk youth like I was” Shelina Lal, 16 DVYC mentor.