Conservation Corps puts troubled youths to work, celebrates Cesar Chavez
Felipe Campos, 15, of the San Gabriel Valley Conservation Corps (SGVCC), shovels marsh into a wheel barrel during a beautification project in honor of Cesar Chavez in El Monte on Friday, April 1, 2011. The SGVCC helps at-risk youth get on a job path and gets teens involved in community service. (SGVN/Staff photo by Rachel Luna)
SOUTH EL MONTE – Andrew Qui ones wanted his San Gabriel Valley Conservation Corps students to get a taste Friday of what it was like to be a farmer during the days of farm labor leader Cesar Chavez.
While they enjoyed barbecued hamburgers and fresh soy beans (if they snuck a few from the field), Qui ones had a different taste in mind.
"I want them to recognize these poor farmers across America that worked from sunup to sundown," Qui ones said. "I wanted them to break a sweat."
The San Gabriel Valley Conservation Corps is a program aimed at educating, training and finding work for underprivileged or troubled youths.
More than 50 of the program’s participants came to a community garden across from the Army Reserve Center on Lerma Road in South El Monte on Friday. They were there to recognize Cesar Chavez Day, which was Thursday.
Besides the farming exercise, the event included a barbecue and awards banquet.
The community garden is used in the program for education, but it is also maintained in part by the Conservation Corps. The produce is sold to members and the proceeds go toward funding the organization’s programs. Extras are sold by farmers or given to food pantries, Qui ones said.
The organization manages three programs: an academic program for young people ages 16 to 24, a Youth Build program that integrates basic education with paid job training, and a work service program.
"We work with high-risk, high-need" children and young adults, Qui ones said.
Participants can join the program based on referrals or word of mouth, he said.
Some participants are on parole and others on probation. Various youths involved have left their schools for one reason or another.
"Our students have been under-served," said English teacher Qiana O’Leary. "Many have aged out, dropped out or have been kicked out."
Despite their histories, the goal is to give each participant a new path, Qui ones said.
"My major focus is an improved lifestyle," he said. "Building of skills and improved social lives through values and ethics."
O’Leary said the school focuses less on homework and tests and more on tasks.
"You see their aspirations grow from hopeless to a vision of colleges or career paths," she said.
Anthony Bonilla, a 19-year-old from El Monte in the Youth Build program, said his grandmother asked him to join to stay out of trouble and turn his life around.
"It is a good opportunity for us youth who need to get our lives together … get us ready for the real world," Bonilla said.
Bonilla, who has studied plumbing and is now certified to use a fork-lift since joining the program, said the farming exercise helped him understand the history behind Cesar Chavez – who sought to improve the lives of farmworkers and helped found the National Farm Workers Association – on a personal level.