Northwest Youth Corps' Teens and Trails program features a highly interactive educational format. Youth participants spend four weeks camping, backpacking, and working on trail projects. Evening activities include an educational curriculum of environmental issues, job skills and money management. Coordinators spend several weeks, before the program starts, receiving training and developing resources to assist them in the implementation of technical project skills, environmental education, and on site team building exercises. During the summer, Coordinators camp with youth crews near project sites in Oregon for two four-week sessions.
Time off is limited.
There is a five-day break between sessions and two to three additional days off are scheduled each session. Coordinators put in long days and work shoulder to shoulder with teenage youth while helping coordinate the successful completion of a wide variety of manual labor projects. During their last two weeks of service, AmeriCorps members evaluate their leadership role and document the resources utilized in teaching in an experiential format, developing stronger educational programming for the program in future years. This resource also allows the AmeriCorps member to reflect upon and document their service term, adding to his or her personal career development portfolio. Experiential Education Coordinators serve an average of 40-45 hours per week at the beginning and end of their term, and long days during the summer months for a minimum of 900 hours during the program.