The Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, in collaboration with NYC Parks and the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program, supports our park’s annual Conservation Corps program. The Alliance supplies all members with park-branded equipment like gardening belts, backpacks, SPF shirts, and gardening hats. NYC Parks and its Operations team here in FMCP administrate the program.
The Conservation Corps is a workforce development program that gives local youths a chance to learn valuable skills in environmental management, while getting paid for it! Growing each year, the 2024 cohort of the Conservation Corps grew to 17 members, up from 12 last year. Many members of our Conservation Corps come from the environmentally-minded John Bowne High School in Kew Gardens Hills.
One member of our 2024 cohort came back to the Conservation Corps for a second year. Returning to FMCP meant he could expand on his work experience from the previous summer, to start shadowing professional arborists and greenhouse gardeners while learning about all aspects of urban environmental stewardship.
Other participants are drawn to the program because of the opportunity to be outside. Rather than sitting behind a desk, Conservation Corps members can spend their summers getting daily exercise outdoors and keeping their community’s vital green spaces beautiful. One member of the Corps remarked that working hard out in the park was better than going to the gym!
A new partnership with the Ladders for Leaders program in the 2024 edition of the program, has allowed the Conservation Corps to bolster its educational curriculum and tailor it to the stewardship projects happening in the park.
Alumni of the program go on to study fields like Environmental Science, Agriculture Science, and more. Recent participants have been accepted to prestigious programs like Cornell University and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Some participants are even second-generation Parkies!
Funding for the Conservation Corps is generously supported by a grant from the Association for a Better New York.
Please contact us at info@allianceforfmcp.org with any questions about the program.
Check out some pictures from this year’s Conservation Corps cohort: