Dear Friend of the Corps,

Have you ever stopped to think about what gives you the strength to face your toughest challenges and believe you will succeed?

For young people like Natalie, it is the Corps. “The Corps to me is like a backbone,” she will tell you. When she came to the Corps, Natalie had big obstacles to climb. She was angry and disillusioned, but now she stands tall in her new career with California State Parks. We are so proud of everything she has accomplished, and we are grateful for the opportunity to help her develop that strength, maturity, and purpose.

Our goal is to give every young person the confidence and the tenacity to stand up for themselves and for their community. Every day, Corpsmembers show us their commitment. They face housing and food insecurity; transportation barriers; and medical, mental health and legal crises. Yet they still show up for work. They stand together on the work grade and say, “Today we are going to make our community better.”

We are so grateful for these young people who push us to be our best and to seek out new opportunities to serve. We are grateful to the partners who are working with us in new ways to tackle the complex challenges that we must confront in order to give Corpsmembers that backbone.

Standing tall for our Corpsmembers, our co-workers, our families and our friends is what the Corps is all about. We give each other the strength to keep our heads up and our feet moving forward. We lend a hand or a shoulder to lean on when someone needs support. We walk together over every bump in the road.

We know that with an extra boost of confidence and trust, Corpsmembers can do anything. As you will read, they are bringing cleaner air to a tree-poor urban jungle and healthy meals to those who have gone without. They are standing up for themselves, their neighbors and our collective future.

Finding the courage to change your circumstances can be difficult. Committing to the long hours and hard work can be daunting. Believing that you are worthy of something better can take your breath away. If we can be the backbone for young people when they feel they are falling down then we have succeeded.

Thank you for helping us build that backbone within our organization and within Corpsmembers. Thank you for standing with these amazing young people as they look ahead and declare that they are ready to change the world.

Sincerely,

Wendy Butts, CEO
Teresa Cisneros Burton, President & Chair of the Board
Bryan LeRoy, Past President