Cathy’s group of the week is the New Jersey Youth Corps of Phillipsburg, who work on a path to success

By Cathy Miller

On April 11, ten folks gathered in the Karen Nash Memorial Butterfly Garden at Memorial School in Washington for a couple hours of spring maintenance and clean-up. Tomás Gonzales, the garden’s designer and project manager, had reached out to Michael Muckle, director of the New Jersey Youth Corps of Phillipsburg, to arrange for Youth Corps participation. Rounding out the crew were Jennifer Fazekas, program coordinator, Kurt Ketchledge, environmental specialist, David Smith, crew supervisor, and Corpsmembers Katelyn Lerch, Leelani Rinehold, Jazmin Ortiz, Dakotah Hanuszak, and Dysheerah McClain.

The New Jersey Youth Corps (NJYC) was established in 1984 to engage young adults (16-25) in community service, help increase their academic skills, develop their career plans, and transition to employment, college, or further vocational training.

The New Jersey Youth Corps of Phillipsburg, founded in May of 1998, is one of eleven Youth Corps facilities in the state. It is Warren County’s only full-time Service and Conservation Corps, providing municipal support to Phillipsburg and Warren County, while giving youth the opportunity to earn their High School Equivalency diploma and acquire new skills through Youth Corps involvement. Mr. Muckle cited some impressive numbers, “Since 1998, we here in Phillipsburg have worked with 1,062 individuals, helping 440 of them get their High School Equivalency diploma. All told, our Corpsmembers have provided 275,083 hours of service to the community of Phillipsburg, surrounding Warren County, and the state of New Jersey. We’ve done everything from working at food banks to performing historic preservation projects. The value of those services is rated at $7.4 million, using the value of volunteer work at about $27/hour.”

The program operates year-round with three 16-week class cycles, called cohorts, within each year. Each cohort typically starts with 12 to 14 enrollees. There is no cost to participants, who receive a weekly stipend of up to $100.

When asked how to refer to those enrolled in this program, Mr. Muckle defused the confusion, “The official term is Corpsmembers. We refer to them colloquially as ‘students’ or ‘participants,’ but most often we affectionately refer to them as ‘our kids.'”

With a rigorous weekday schedule, community service “crew-based” projects are combined with academic instruction in a “service-learning environment.” It also provides employability and life skills development, personal counseling, and transition services. Addressing the transitional services administered by NJYC of Phillipsburg to their Corpsmembers, Mr. Muckle said, “A fundamental part of Youth Corps is helping our Corpsmembers get to the ‘next big thing.’ Whether it be college or a part-time job to make money to help out at home, we work with our Corpsmembers to ensure that their placement post-Youth Corps is a successful transition. The relationships that we form with our kids last for years after they’ve left our program.”

Mr. Muckle went on to explain the Youth Corps’ concept of service-learning. “We use the natural world as a great outdoor classroom to reinforce what Corpsmembers learn in the classroom. For example, if we are studying about ecosystems, we’ll take a break on our worksite and find an opportunity to reflect and tie the subject into our conversations. If we’re studying about social studies, maybe we have a conversation about how having access to public lands is an asset to the community. As we are seeing increased development, our human experience and interaction with the natural world is diminished more and more. We would then talk about the value of preserving open space, talk about the process of how that happens (levying taxes, public referendums, etc.) and how they can advocate for (or against) issues that affect them and their community. We could have a math lesson by applying any mathematical concepts at a worksite, such as calculating length of a trail, acreage of a property, etc. The term we use for this practice is ‘Service-Learning’.”

With generous help from NJYC of Phillipsburg’s Program Partners, Corpsmembers receive hands-on training in landscaping and lawn care, cultivating their own food, ecological restoration, trail construction, personal finances, and much more.

“Over the past 3 years, we’ve developed a partnership with NJ Audubon that puts our Corpsmembers to work implementing riparian restoration projects.” Mr. Muckle noted as an example. He further detailed, “This work concentrates our ecological efforts in the specific clusters within the Delaware River Watershed Initiative to improve the riparian habitat along the Delaware and its tributaries. We have done work like this for 20 years, but the partnership with NJA designated NJYC specifically as their labor force to get this work done. Not limited to just plantings, NJYC was also tasked with the removal of non-native and invasive plants to provide a more desirable habitat adjacent to these waterways to avoid having a negative impact on other species, soil quality, and ultimately, water quality. Looking at this work through our ‘Service-Learning’ lens, we saw work ripe with opportunities to teach life lessons through metaphors observed on the worksites – stressing that the impact of our efforts upstream are directly proportionate to the positive effects downstream. It’s a particularly effective analogy when considering the life skills we are teaching to our Corpsmembers.”

Corpsmembers gain a sense of personal and civic pride while working on many diverse projects. They learn first-hand that bad practices can be corrected and negative impacts can be undone, but it takes time. The impact of their personal experiences, and the resultant effects of their hard work in the community, cannot be overstated.

Corpsmember testimonials attest to the worth and success of the program – “This is the best place for people who need a second chance at making the most of their futures,” – “The most important thing is that I learned how to communicate with other people,” – “It was an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime. This program has helped me in so many ways,” – “Youth Corps not only advances your knowledge of classwork, but it shows you how to get a job and what it’s like to have a job.” Living by the slogan they themselves created for the New Jersey Youth Corps of Phillipsburg’s new media packet, these Corpsmembers certainly exemplify “Success Starts Here” as they navigate their pathways to success.

The New Jersey Youth Corps of Phillipsburg is located at 1 Meyner Road, Walters Park, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865. Further information, including applications, may be found at their website, or call 908-859-2969.

When it comes to the people and happenings of Warren County, you can count on award-winning photographer Cathy Miller to be there to record the moment.

Updated April 19 8:50 a.m.: contact information added