Conservation Corps Inclusion Toolkit Available

The Utah Conservation Corps (UCC) is one of the Utah Commission on Volunteers many AmeriCorps programs.  AmeriCorps is a national service program that provides opportunities for citizens to serve their communities.  As one of the many national service programs that come under the AmeriCorps umbrella, Conservation Corps provide meaningful work for young people between the ages of 16-25 from diverse backgrounds in managing natural resources, responding to disasters, and conserving energy.

Traditionally, all of the UCC’s projects involve demanding physical labor in remote, difficult to access outdoor environments.  The nature of these hands-on, remote UCC projects has required members to be in excellent physical condition, which often excludes many potential corpsmembers with disabilities. 

UCC has intentionally designed and developed projects to include crew members with physical disabilities.  Crew members are actively involved in all phases of the projects, adding a valuable perspective and feedback on accessibility information.

In 2009 the CPD partnered with the Utah Conservation Corps to develop training materials based on the accessibility information gathered.  The result of this partnership is the Conservation Corps Inclusion Toolkit.

The Inclusion Toolkit is designed to encourage other Conservation Corps and service programs to take intentional steps to involve more people with disabilities in their programs. In the Toolkit is a step-by-step guide for programs to follow to become more inclusive.  The guide consists of program models, lessons learned, a sample disability awareness curriculum, possible adaptive equipment that can be used by persons with disabilities, and additional resources and tools that can support a program in becoming more inclusive.

The Disability Inclusion Toolkit is available on the UCC website in a PDF form and can be downloaded for use by other Conservation Corps in the U.S.