USU-based Utah Conservation Corps Program Receives National Honor

The Utah Conservation Corps’ Access to Service inclusive crew program, based at Utah State University, was selected by The Corps Network as the 2007 Project of the Year. The Corps Network will honor the program, which was cited for its “outstanding achievements,” during an awards ceremony Tuesday, Feb. 12, on Washington, D.C’s Capitol Hill.

Among the first corps sites in the nation to establish an inclusive crew program, UCC’s Access to Service crew enables people with disabilities to participate in UCC projects. Traditionally, the nature of UCC projects has required members to be in excellent physical condition, excluding potential members with disabilities, says UCC Director Sean Damitz. Through the Access to Service program, projects were carefully developed to include crew members with disabilities in a significant and meaningful way. 

 

“We did not want to have members with disabilities sitting on the sidelines, while those without disabilities completed project tasks,” says Kate Stephens, UCC program administrator. 

 

Fifty percent of the eight AmeriCorps members in the Access to Service crew self-identify as having a physical disability. Just one year old, the crew has completed accessibility surveys for eight campgrounds and two trails and developed ten Americans with Disabilities Act transition plans for the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. The crew also constructed an accessible fishing pier at Logan Canyon’s Second Dam and an accessible community demonstration garden on the USU campus. 

 

Another project goal, Damitz says, is to involve people with disabilities in positions of leadership. He notes crew member Andy Zimmer, who has quadriplegia, served as a crew leader and was an excellent role model for other AmeriCorps members.

 

“Andy recently finished a 1,700-hour AmeriCorps term of service he started in 2005 that was interrupted by a severe bicycle injury,” Damitz says. 

 

Access to Service is supported by multiple foundations, government agencies and non-profits, including the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF), the U.S. Forest Service, the Utah Assistive Technology Program (UTAP), The Corps Network, the Utah Commission on Volunteers, Boy Scouts, Logan City Parks and Recreation, and Common Ground. UCC is an AmeriCorps program based in USU’s Division of Student Services. 

 

The Corps Network encompasses the nation’s 113 service and conservation corps groups operating in 41 states and enrolling more than 23,000 young men and women who contribute 13 million hours of service every year.