Earth Conservation Corps

In 1992, nine unemployed young men and women living at Ward Eight's Valley Green public housing community volunteered to change their lives by restoring the obscenely polluted Anacostia River. Motivated by the belief that their strong hearts, minds, and muscles could reclaim the Anacostia they pulled on waders, climbed into the polluted Lower Beaverdam Creek and started to prove that their river and their lives were worth saving. Their struggle launched a community youth movement to take back their Anacostia River. 

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Following their leadership, thousands of youth from troubled neighborhoods near the Anacostia River laid the cornerstone for a solution to the city's intertwined problems of pollution and poverty. Our vision is that every young person in the Corps and throughout the District not only survives, but also thrives. Our collective effort on behalf of disadvantaged youth is a down payment toward transforming our city's greatest assets: our young people and our natural resources.

Earth Conservation Corps is a nonprofit Youth Development and Environmental service organization. We use the challenge and promise of restoring the Anacostia River to engage unemployed community youth for a transformative volunteer year of environmental action and community service. 

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A small, but highly trained staff provides these year round volunteers with the leadership skills and environmental expertise to empower them to engage thousands of school children and adults in the restoration of the Anacostia River.