About Me

In 1992, a small group of unemployed youth from the Valley Green public housing community in Southeast Washington, D.C., volunteered to change their lives by restoring the Anacostia River. Motivated by the belief that their strong hearts, minds, and muscles could reclaim the Anacostia ,--America’s forgotten river — they banded together under an ambitious name, the Earth Conservation Corps. (more)In 1992, a small group of unemployed youth from the Valley Green public housing community in Southeast Washington, D.C., volunteered to change their lives by restoring the Anacostia River. Motivated by the belief that their strong hearts, minds, and muscles could reclaim the Anacostia ,--America’s forgotten river — they banded together under an ambitious name, the Earth Conservation Corps. By pulling on waders and climbing into the polluted Lower Beaver Dam creek those young people started an movement for the community youth to take back their River. Since then thousands of community leaders from the troubled neighborhoods near the Anacostia River — have become the cornerstone to the solution to the city’s twin problems of pollution and poverty. Founded in 1989, the Earth Conservation Corps (ECC) is a nonprofit organization that provides hands-on environmental education, job training and community service with an emphasis on serving disadvantaged and at-risk youth in the inner-city areas of Washington D.C. Our young people ages 17-25 serve as corps members to provide service to the Anacostia River watershed. The Earth Conservation Corps’ mission is: To empower our endangered youth, to reclaim the Anacostia River, their communities, and their lives.  (less)