sfcc

In 1983, then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein and the Honorable Justice J. Anthony Kline founded the San Francisco Conservation Corps, creating the first urban municipal youth corps in the nation. In that first year, 24 young adults joined the Corps. They received basic job training and worked on projects to conserve and improve San Francisco’s environment. The new Corps drew on the legacy of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps. Roosevelt founded the Corps in 1933 to create paid work for thousands of people struggling with unemployment during the depression. The San Francisco Corps also grew out of the model of the California Conservation Corps, a statewide Corps founded in 1976 with goals similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps. The California Corps is still going strong.

Since 1983, over 5,000 young people have taken the challenge to become Corpsmembers, working 5 million hours on hundreds of landscaping, conservation, recycling and playground renovation projects to enhance the environment and communities of San Francisco. Throughout this work, thousands of Corpsmembers have gained academic, environmental and work skills.