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These zones are areas of orchestrated invasion where the land is settled and heavily populated before public utilities are installed. There is no running water, no electricity, and no bathrooms. Most of the shanties, scratched out of an old municipal dump, have dirt floors and no windows. Nine thousand children, most of them poor, migrate to Tijuana each year with their families. Sixty colonias and towns lack schools.
It is the need for schools in this area that led to the establishment of the Americas Foundation. For this year’s project, the class and volunteers worked with James Hubbell to help design and start a new amphitheatre. The Urban Corps sent two staff and two corps members to participate in this three day workshop working alongside legendry artist and architect James Hubbell and his son, Drew, on projects that gave staff and corps members a chance to learn new trades while giving back to the global community. Volunteers worked long hours to install tile mosaics and our more than five cubic yards of concrete.
Corps members have had the opportunity to work with Mr. Hubbell on a number of projects and CEO, Sam Duran, is presently discussing the idea of having Mr. Hubbell guide corps members on tile projects at the new Urban Corps facility in Midway. Stay tuned… Urban Corps of San Diego County Receives National Award for
University of San Diego (USD) Collaboration The UC-ACC program is now written into Dr. Johnson’s course curriculum syllabus and enables him to place his students in a working clinical environment, exposing them to practical (non textbook) situations involving real young adults facing real-life issues. “This partnership represents an exciting start for what should be a mutually rewarding clinical experience for USD students and Urban Corp participants.” Said Dr. Johnson “The ultimate goal of the Urban Corps is to equip disenfranchised and at-risk youth with skills to excel in life, not merely survive. Coupled with our extensive vocational training and education, the counseling component adds an additional layer of service that is greatly needed for many of the young adults in the program who face multiple barriers to success” said Dan Thomas, MST, and Director of Education for Urban Corp’s Charter School. “There is enormous mutual benefit in this collaboration for both organizations and it has great potential to evolve into other areas that benefit both the students in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at USD and the young people and staff at the Urban Corps of San Diego County.” Sam Duran, Urban Corps’ Chief Executive Officer, was delighted that the partnership was being recognized on a National level. “The beauty of this collaboration is the experience it provides these master’s level USD students while giving Urban Corps members and the organization a valuable service that neither the corps members nor a typical non-profit could afford on a full time basis. Many of the USD students have also taken on the extra responsibility of helping our teachers in the classroom and of mentoring our students. They are truly helping us make a difference in the lives of the young adults in our program. Dan Thomas and Dr. Johnson deserve much of the credit for having the foresight to see the significance of this collaboration and I have nothing but praise for their work in making it possible,” said Duran. This partnership will be recognized with an award for Best Strategic Partnership at the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps’ (NASCC) Annual Forum in Washington DC. The Award Ceremony will be held on Capitol Hill on Tuesday February 14, 2007. State legislators are expected to attend.
NEW & EXCITING PARTNERSHIP Urban Corps is partnering with the UCSD/Scripps Institute of Oceanography in a new and exciting partnership to implement and fine tune Best Management Practices (BMP’s) in Storm Water Pollution Prevention. In just a few years, every sizeable facility along California’s coast, public and private, will be required to implement a Storm Water Pollution Prevention plan, and this pilot project may place Urban Corps in the forefront of a new and emerging industry to train corpsmembers in. Joining in this partnership is the Bank of America Foundation ($15,000 match towards corpsmember hours) and we anticipate the AT&T Foundation joining this partnership soon ($5,000 match towards technology for the project). CHOLLAS CREEK RESTORATION CONTINUES Now in our second year of restoration work on Chollas Creek, Urban Corps would like to thank and recognize the San Diego Foundation/Environmental for their continued support in providing $40,000 matching funds toward a project at the 252 Corridor Park at 38th and Alpha Street. These funds will go towards a much larger project, partnering with the City of San Diego (Planning Dept., Parks & Rec. Dept., and Storm Water Division), Groundwork San Diego/Chollas Creek, and the Sierra Clubs Friends of Chollas Creek group.
A SIGNATURE ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECT: If there is an axiom in action at the Urban Corps it is Learning, Earning, and Conserving—demonstrated on a daily basis by the Urban Corps Environmental Projects Crew. The story of Adobe Falls begins some years back when a once pristine area renowned for its hiking trails and natural vegetation became severely damaged by a sewer spill. Situated in a deep ravine that runs alongside Interstate 8 in the area of Del Cerro, the 3-acre site had become choked with giant bamboo, overrun with non-native vegetation such as pampas grass and Mexican fan palms, trash, and dead and dying trees. This once unspoiled spot had become an eye sore and a fire hazard. Contracted by the City of San Diego’s Metropolitan Wastewater Department to restore the site, the project was quickly identified as both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge would be to bring the project in on time and on budget. The opportunity would be to expose the young people of the Urban Corps to experts in their field--landscape architects, biologists, and environmental engineers and planners. Over a period of 18 months, corpsmember crews removed over 200 non-native and dying trees and filled sixty forty cubic yard dumpsters with invasive vegetation. The crews then re-introduced more than 5,000 native plants, planted over 200 native trees, and installed an irrigation system that covered a 480,000 square feet area. Complicated and labor intensive, corpsmembers became proficient in how to read blue prints as they installed hundreds of linear feet of irrigation line and sprinkler heads, and seasoned in heavy equipment use such as Bobcat tractor, chainsaws, and power wrenches. On a daily basis they learned how to systematically evaluate, prioritize and implement activities. If this story had a hero it would be the dozens of young people who worked to restore Adobe Falls to the pristine reserve it once was, and in the process gained an immense array of vocational skills, learned the importance of team work, and perhaps more importantly, will look back on this project with a sense of pride and accomplishment. The Adobe Falls environmental crew will go on to tackle habitat restorations at the San Diego River Park and non-native vegetation removal in Maple Canyon. “What an outstanding partnership opportunity for the City of San Diego's Metropolitan Wastewater and Urban Corps, to restore the Adobe Falls & Alvarado Canyon's habitat, resulting from Urban Corp's determination, commitment & resourcefulness. Together, we brought back the environment to what it was meant to be.” “At Adobe Falls the Urban Corps of San Diego has taken on a project too difficult for many other contractors, and delivered success! The crews and project managers have done outstanding work under difficult circumstances, and this unique riparian habitat that was so severely degraded is again a visible reminder of San Diego’s abundance of natural beauty. Thank you Urban Corps!”
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Urban
Corps of San Diego County is winning praise
across the board with several prestigious
awards garnered, the most recent of which
is the Bank of America Charitable Foundation’s
Neighborhood Excellence Initiative (NEI)
grant. The $200,000 contribution was officially
announced Oct. 28, 2009 at a luncheon ceremony
at the San Diego Children’s Museum
attended by Urban Corps staff, corpsmembers
and Bank of America representatives. “We
are honored by this recognition,” said
CEO Sam Duran. “As one of our earliest
supporters, Bank of America came to our
rescue and donated furniture to get us
started 20 years ago. BofA’s ongoing
support has been crucial to the non-profit
world of this state. Their staff donates
their time to serve on boards and in the
case of the Urban Corps they have also
been instrumental in teaching classes in
money management, and providing other support.
Now they are supplementing our program
at a time when other pools of funding – the
California bottle bill recycling funds – are
drying up from the State.” Urban
Corps was also a recent finalist for the
Sempra Energy Foundation’s Environmental
Champion’s Award for its planned
Rooftop Resource Garden. Urban Corps and
three other local non-profit finalists
were granted $50,000 and subsequently competed
for an additional $50,000 award. In September
Urban Corps was bestowed with the Best
Urban Forestry Program of the Year award
from the California Urban Forests Council
at its 2009 Urban Forests Conference in
Ventura. In August, the organization received
the 2009 Outstanding Recycling Program
award from the California Resource and
Recovery Association. 
Justice
Anthony Kline and former Congresswoman Lynn Schenk followed, speaking on
the inspiration behind and early years of the local Urban Corps. Final
program remarks by former Corpsmember Omar Majette garnered much applause,
and inspired a group of current Corpsmembers in attendance to near tears.
Majette, a civilian contractor for the Air Force who holds an MBA looked
straight at the youth and advised them to “take advantage of opportunities
when they arrive, because those opportunities will allow you to be in better
situations in life. Remember that you are capable of accomplishing many
goals. I know I used to be right there where you are. The sky is the limit,
and it all begins when you make the decision totake the future in your
hands.”
It was a monumental day for Urban Corps
recently as ground was broken on the San
Diego Recycling Education and Community
Outreach (ECO) Center. Local legislators
including Mayor Jerry Sanders and Council
President Pro Tem Kevin Faulconer, District
2, rubbed elbows with board members, corpsmembers
and staff to mark the occasion.
“What a fantastic day for a great organization,” said Council President
Pro Tem for District 2 Kevin Faulconer. “The work you do is vital,
this facility is going to be vital and it will be a showpiece for
people throughout California to see what we are doing in San Diego.”
Urban Corps of San
Diego County recently held commencement
exercises for 40 young Corps members
graduating from the onsite John Muir
Charter School. Among the graduates was
Dionte Floyd, recipient of a $10,000
Price Scholarship Award. “At
first I never wanted to go to college,” said
Floyd. “Now I have a son so its time
to do something new. I want him to get
older and see that his dad went to college.
I want the best for him; I don’t
want him to make the same mistakes that
I did.” Floyd is leaning towards
using the scholarship funds toward attaining
a bachelors degree in business management,
however he currently remains undecided.
Floyd will attend San Diego City College
downtown and will transfer to a four-year
university with his associates degree. “I
will know by the fall what I will major
in,” he says. “I want to do
something related to corrections or probations.” 
In an effort to showcase
the Capitol building in Washington, DC
as a model of environmental responsibility
for future generations, Congresswoman
Susan Davis and House Chief Administrative
Officer Dan Beard recently addressed
a group of young Urban Corps members
on the progress and lessons learned from
the “Greening
of the Capitol Initiative.” Beard
and his team began implementing the initiative
late last year and have since reported
a variety of accomplishments. According
to Beard, the replacement of old light
bulbs with energy efficient florescent
bulbs is resulting in an annual reduction
of $120,000 in the House electric bill.
In addition, 118 tons of garbage has been
diverted from the waste stream since December
of 2007. “You’re the first
group of people I have spoken to who actually
know what 118 tons of garbage looks and
feels like,” Beard said to Urban
Corps members, who collect recyclables
at both Petco Park and Qualcomm stadium
as part of a conservation services work-learn
program. 
Through
a grant from the Gary and Mary West Foundation,
Urban Corps Members work on fire relief
projects. Please 
Accolades
While
in San Diego at the Urban Corps,
the Québec students
worked right along side Urban
Corpsmembers on a wide variety
of environmental projects,
participated in English language
classes at the Urban Corps’ on-site
charter school, and in their
free time, enjoyed the hospitality
of San Diego and Southern California.
The Mayor and City Council
recognized the youth of Québec
in a special welcome ceremony
held in City Hall. The Urban
Corpsmembers who were part
of the Québec
exchange had the opportunity
to visit a different country—for
many of them it was the first
time they had ever flown—and
to experience the cultures
that unite our two countries.
They worked with the youth
of Québec on similar
environmental projects, appeared
on local television and were
given the opportunity to talk
to the people of Québec
about their experience through
a local radio station.