Empowering young adults through conservation efforts in Colorado

Oct. 25, 2023

Video

Mile High Youth Corps in action

Video transcript

A mountain covered in evergreen trees gently rises into a blue sky. A blue banner appears in the bottom left-hand corner of the view, with white text inside:

ONSCREEN TEXT: Evergreen, CO
Berrian Mountain Park

Gentle guitar music plays. On the mountainside, a person in safety equipment and a hardhat uses a noisy chainsaw to cut down a tall tree. They step back and shout “Falling!” as the tree slowly topples to the forest floor.

Now a young adult with black hair wears ear protection around his neck and speaks by a pile of logs. A blue banner in the left-hand corner shows his name and attribution:

ONSCREEN TEXT: Mikey Pazen

Mile High Youth Corps

MIKEY PAZEN: The goal of this project is to make sure that if a fire does arise in the area, the evacuation route is still accessible for people so that they are able to safely escape the flames.

Mikey uses an axe to strip branches off a felled tree. Elsewhere in a city, a woman with large, round earrings speaks outside by a bright mural. A blue banner appears in the lower left-hand corner with white text inside:

ONSCREEN TEXT: Kia Abdool

CEO, Mile High Youth Corps

KIA ABDOOL: Mile High Youth Corps is helping fill a need in many ways. Our youth are getting workforce development training on skills that maybe are not offered outside of Mile High Youth Corps, whether that’s socialization skills, interview skills, or even—like you viewed today—just some of the technical skills training. It allows them to go into the workforce more prepared.

Two young people in the forest clean chainsaws in a bright beam of sunlight. A group of youth walk together through the trees. A blue filter slides across a view of the mountain range, and white text fades over it:

ONSCREEN TEXT: A grant to the Colorado Youth

Corps Association helps promote

employment and leaderships

opportunities through land conservation.

Clouds float high above the tree line. Young people use saws to cut saplings and logs, wearing hard hats, safety glasses, and ear protection.

KIA ABDOOL: The grant helps us empower youth in many ways, like providing mental health support, and really thinking about how do we encourage our youth to be advocates for themselves and to give back to their communities.

One young person with short black hair points to a log and instructs the other youth.

MIKEY PAZEN: Nessa is an incredibly confident leader.

Nessa smiles in front of a pile of branches in the forest. They wear a grey bandana around their neck. A blue banner with white text appears beneath them:

ONSCREEN TEXT: Nessa Castro-Lopez

Mile High Youth Corps

NESSA CASTRO-LOPEZ: Before this program, I was a little bit more impatient, honestly, and maybe small-minded in the sense of, I didn’t get to appreciate the outdoors.

Kia smiles brightly as she talks outside the mural.

KIA ABDOOL: Nessa walked in a little bit more quiet, and a little bit more reserved, and I’ve seen their leadership excel in ways that, I think, outside of Mile High Youth Corps they may not have been provided with opportunities that really allowed them to showcase their strengths.

Nessa chops at a tree with an axe, and teaches other youth at work in the forest.

NESSA CASTRO-LOPEZ: Being able to grow as a leader in a role that I never thought I would have—going from being scared to feeling pretty confident and teaching others—has really just made me feel one with the saw. Just being able to put a small impact within the community as a starting step for a lot of people.

They saw into a tree and jog away as it falls. Mikey talks with his hands, gesturing to the forest around him.

MIKEY PAZEN: The people that are not always out here in these kinds of environments, like we can take those kinds of people and we can train them up and give them all of us this knowledge about forests, and ecology, and environments.

Mikey cuts down a tree.

MIKEY PAZEN: Falling!

Youth chop down trees and swing axes in slow motion, wearing grey work shirts with “Mile High Youth Corps” printed in white on the back.

NESSA CASTRO-LOPEZ: This program really picks people up and gives them the patience and support to further grow, test the waters within the professional environment that they’re getting into. If they’re in a challenging situation, this organization is more than welcome to provide supportive services to anyone that walks in that door.

A huge evergreen plunges down toward the view in a blaze of sunlight. Now a white background appears, and the blue UnitedHealthcare logo zooms into the center: a U with three stripes on its right-hand arm. As the music fades, blue text pops out to the right of the logo, and a blue surtitle fades in beneath it.

ONSCREEN TEXT: United
Healthcare

There for what matters

Berrian Mountain Park in Evergreen, Colorado — about 40 minutes away from Denver — might not be the first place one might think of when it comes to “community.” But in a wooded and isolated place abundant with wildlife, a crew of young adults with Mile High Youth Corps are a close-knit group hard at work, clearing out trees in a fire mitigation effort.

Here, invasive trees that burn quickly are removed in overgrown areas of the forest, in order to help prevent the spread of a wildfire.

The work requires constant communication and feedback to make sure everyone is safe. And underneath the surface, job skills and on-site tools training give young adults a roadmap for a future career in an industry in need.

Nessa Castro-Lopez, a leader of this crew, has seen the impact Mile High Youth Corps can make first-hand. The organization connects young adults ages 18-24 with opportunities to earn while they learn and develop skills in a number of meaningful career pathways, such as land conservation, energy and water conservation, construction, and healthcare.

“This program really picks people up and gives them the patience and support to further grow, but also kind of test the waters within the professional environment that they're getting into,” Nessa said. “If they're in a challenging situation, this organization is more than welcome to provide supportive services to anyone that walks in that door.”

Rocky Mountain Health Plans has pledged $5 million to support nonprofit organizations that offer mental health support and services to empower youth. Of that grant, $1.8 million went to three Corps accredited by the Colorado Youth Corps Association — including Mile High Youth Corps. Other grants included:

$1,500,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs in Colorado to expand programming and serve more youth across the state
$500,000 to Sources of Strength to expand access to youth suicide prevention programs in schools
$400,000 to The Center on Colfax to support career counseling and empowerment for LGBTQ+ young adults, as well as mental health services and the development of Saga
$400,000 to The Place to increase stability and support for youth experiencing homelessness in El Paso County

These grants take a holistic approach to what “community health” means – beyond what goes on in the doctor’s office. Employment and educational opportunities are both key social drivers of health, meaning increased support in those areas can help improve overall well-being.

At Mile High Youth Corps, participants in the program are paid and may earn a GED and technical certifications, but also personal growth and confidence with new learned skills. Corpsmembers can receive an education in environmental stewardship, healthy living, career readiness and more.

"Our program is really one of developing whole people,” said Kia Abdool, CEO of Mile High Youth Corps. “People who are ready for a challenge and people who are ready to go in and advocate for themselves. In addition, people who are ready to step back into their communities and be leaders — and know that they themselves are an important part of the community that they live in.”

For Nessa, the program with Mile High Youth Corps has allowed them to receive scholarship money to continue their education, along with job skills and invaluable opportunities to lead a team and provide mentorship for others.

"I think that learning to grow with my team has been the best part of leadership,” Nessa said. “No two teams are the same. Finding respect in gaining the ability to give feedback within each individual has really improved my learning style.”

That sense of leadership is not only challenging Mile High Youth Corps to rethink its programming to better advocate for populations disproportionately impacted by social and racial inequities.

“I feel like Nessa is just really good at knowing when to step into a situation — how to really get to the point where whoever she’s working with gains a greater understanding of the task or themselves or of the skills required,” said Mikey Pazen, a corpsmember on Nessa’s team. “I think she’s very skilled at building all of us up together.”

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