Youth Employment in Parks (YEP)

The award-winning Youth The award-winning Youth
Employment in Parks program finished up its 5th year! Did you know...that 10 different language were spoken among our 25 YEP teens? And that they represented 13 Anchorage high schools? YEP proudly reflects Anchorage's cultural and ethnic diversity.

Click here to download YEP Crew Member & Leader Profiles and see the faces of the program!

What is YEP?

The Youth Employment in Parks (YEP) program is a program of the Anchorage Park Foundation and the Anchorage Parks & Recreation Department. The goal of the YEP program is to positively engage a new generation of diverse youth leaders with the environment and the Anchorage community through meaningful training, employment, and outdoor recreation.

Each summer, YEP hires Anchorage teens to complete park improvements and offer recreation programs in Anchorage parks. Teens learn valuable natural resource management and recreation job skills by building trails, restoring stream banks or leading neighborhood children in content-based play. In addition, youth learn from civic engagement and leadership training and participate in "Career Week" at the end of the program to link their new skills to future careers. YEP puts teens to work making a difference in their community!

YEP Goals

YEP seeks to:
1) Create a meaningful "first job" experience and career pathway for diverse youth to work in the outdoors and natural resources fields.
2) Expose youth to the outdoors and connect them with nature to support healthy lifestyles.
3) Provide youth with community action skills and character development so they may become effective citizens.
4) Build community through enhanced recreation opportunities, parks and public spaces.

2011 YEP Projects & Activities

Park and Play Program
June to August

The Park and Play program is a free program geared toward neighborhood kids 6-12 years old. The YEP staff had programs at Goose Lake and Mountain View Lions Park in Anchorage, creating content based play in a healthy outdoor environment. The program operated between one and five p.m., Monday through Friday, for six weeks this summer. The sites were also locations of the free lunch program where children could get a nutritious meal at no cost in the summer.
University Lake, Cheney Lake, Ship Creek
June 13-17

YEP crew completed stream-bank restoration work at University Lake under the direction of the US Fish & Wildlife Service and stream bank restoration experts from Moore Landscaping in Kenai. This erosion control effort will improve water quality and enhance salmon habitat in the Chester Creekwatershed. Crew members planted a total of 6,000 dormant willow swatches, dug and placed over 600 square feet of veg-mat, and completed bank restoration at three different locations totalling 220 feet of restored stream and lake bank.

The Cheney Lake project was designed to increase fish and bird habitat while stabilizing the bank and consolidating access for lake users. YEP crews worked at five locations on the west bank planting willow, native rose, and utilizing fencing to consolidate access and allow vegetation to re-grow, stabilizing the bank. A total of 190 lineal feet of bank restoration was completed.

The Ship Creek project repaired stream bank damage from accessing the creek by users. YEP crews planted native roses, willows and native grasses to re-vegetate areas that have been trampled by users. Fencing was also installed to enclose the repaired area and prevent damage to new vegetation while it was starting to take root. Re-vegetation took place over 450 lineal feet of stream bank.
Davis Park
June 20-24

The Davis Park project resurfaced a trail that connected the Mountain View Community Garden with the Davis Park ball fields and the Mountain View Lion’s Community Park and increase trail use by families and community members. YEP crews spread approximately 90 tons of D-1 gravel on an existing 2,250’ long, 5’ wide trail.
Harvard Park
June 27 - July 1

The Harvard Park project built a connecting trail between Harvard Park and Brown’s Point without having to walk on Harvard Avenue since there are no sidewalks. Therefore, 224’ of existing trail was brushed and another 761’ of new sustainable trail was laid out and constructed or old unsustainable trails were rerouted. Ptarmigan Ptrails laid out and/or rerouted the new 761’ of trail and the Youth Employment in Parks (YEP) crew brushed and/or constructed the new 24”-36” wide, full bench trail. The total length of the project was 986’. Natural surfaces were used in the tread.
Beaver Pond Trail

July 5-8

The Beaver Pond Trail is a connector between the Bird to Gird Bike Trail and Crow Creek Mine Road. The purpose of this project was to reroute a 222’ section of the trail to a more sustainable, passable location. Crews hauled supplies into the site. The supplies consisted of: 26 – 4x6x8’s, 54 – 2x12x3’s, 3 – 6x6x10’s, and 16 – 4x12x4’s, which had to be hauled in by hand. The YEP crew made trips from the California Creek parking lot to the site to get all the materials into the site. Once the materials were on site, the YEP crew began clearing the 222’ reroute 18”x24” wide and removing any roots. The YEP crew then constructed two (2) bridges – 1 – 8’x3’ and 1 – 10’x3’ approximately 18” off the ground as well as constructed a 36’x3’ boardwalk.

Tikishla Park
July 11-15

The trail in Tikishla Park connects to the Chester Creek trail and is used by the community to commute and recreate. The YEP crew repaired the aging trail by removing sections of asphalt that were uplifted and cutting out the cottonwood roots underneath. New patch material was placed in creating a safer and more enjoyable trail. YEP crews also removed an invasive species of European Bird Cherry. The scope of this project encompassed 1,900 lineal feet of trail and removed the European Bird Cherry over a six acre area.
Forest Health
July 18-22

Far North Bicentennial Park is located in East Anchorage at the foot of the Chugach State Park. The YEP crews removed 125 cubic yards of wood that was cut by the Fuels Reduction of Alaska for fire mitigation and assist in controlling the population of the spruce bark beetle. The total area treated by the project is 70 acres and the affected area is 420 acres. In addition to removing over 100 trees, the YEP crews planted 120 new spruce saplings.
Kincaid Singletrack
July 26 - 30

The YEP crews partnered with the Single Track Advocates to build a new nine mile singletrack trail. The new trail is a combination of improved existing social trails and sections of new construction that increase usability for groups and reduce user conflicts with other user groups on existing trails. The new trails are designed to be used year round and will make Kincaid a destination for singletrack users.

Environmental Education

Each week as part of the YEP program the crews participate in an education component. The lesson involves the larger picture of the world and activities that benefit from the projects teens are working on over the summer. The education lessons give the teens the opportunity to see past the end of their shovel and learn about the process and needs of the community that guides project selection for YEP. The subjects include:
• Stream bank Ecology & Habitat Restoration with David Wigglesworth of United States Fish and Wildlife Service
• Homelessness with the Municipality of Anchorage Department of Health and Human Services Homeless Coordinator Darrel Hess
• Water use issues in society
• Renewable Energy & Alaska’s Potential with Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP)
• Snow Sports, Snow Science, & Avalanches
• Food & Industrial Agriculture
• Service-Learning at Project Homeless Connect
• Youth Empowerment & Green Jobs with Alaska Youth for Environmental Action (AYEA)
• Building Sustainable Mountain Bike Singletrack with Singletrack Advocates (STA)
Civic Education

Teens participate in civic engagement training intended to empower them to become informed, active and engaged community leaders. Civic education sessions include:

• Making a presentation at an Anchorage Assembly Meeting
• Learning about community councils and the Assembly process
• Learning how to advocate about issues they care about
• Introducing staff to the concept of “ecological citizenship” in order to raise their ecological consciousness, environmental awareness, and get their minds in gear for the environmental stewardship work they’d be doing throughout the summer
• Service-Learning at Bean’s Café
• Politics and the US Electoral System
• The US Judicial System and Process
Mentorship Week

At the end of the summer program, teens participated in Mentorship Week, focused on connecting teens to successful futures through:

• Learning about proper workplace behavior and interviewing skills, as well as participating in mock interviews with the Youth Job Center.
• Resume building with UAA career services.
• Personal budgeting and financial literacy with Wells Fargo.
• Future education opportunities from the Anchorage Career Academy.
• Future career paths through the National Park Service, SAGA, USKH, and Anchorage Parks and Recreation.
• Presentations by Representative Bill Stoltze (R, Chugiak), cochair of the House Finance Committee, and Debbie Ossiander, chair of the Anchorage Assembly. This allowed the crew members to actualize the goal of becoming involved citizens, by sitting down with a local representative and discussing current events.
• A panel of interns (Meghan Cavanaugh from AYEA, Camrin Dengel from Alaska Marine Conservation Council, and Laura Mendenhall from The Great Land Trust) came to discuss their experiences as interns.
• Alaska Youth for Environmental Action came to speak about how to get involved with AYEA as well as AYEA’s “Green Jobs” Initiative.

2011 YEP Partners

YEP is a partnership between the Anchorage Park Foundation, the Anchorage Parks & Recreation Department and Alaska Youth for Environmental Action, a program of the National Wildlife Federation. YEP receives major support from:

projects - active

projects - past

Youth Employment in Parks (YEP)

What is YEP?

YEP Goals

2011 YEP Projects & Activities

2011 YEP Partners