Conservation Corps: Terribly named small teams with a terrific purpose
The Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Employment must suggest to the government new ways to spend the taxpayers’ money.
Its goal is full employment and it worries about the 7000 school leavers for whom the future is “bleak”. Many in this group will drift towards long-term unemployment.
The government should resist the temptation to develop new schemes. Instead, it should back proven programmes such as the Conservation Corps. The corps motivates people. Six months after participation, four out of five entrants are in employment, employment-directed training or further education.
That is a good record because 59% of the participants have fewer than three School Certificate passes. A quarter of them have been unemployed for more than half a year.
The corps is a $4.7 million fund supporting 16 – 25-year-olds who work on environmental projects throughout New Zealand. Each project teaches skills, encourages self-reliance, and helps participants make decisions about their future. Nationally, 66 projects have catered for 846 people. Statistics support Ministry of Youth Affairs chief executive Catherine Gibson’s belief that the programme is “providing its worth”.
Fewer than half the applicants for projects win money from the fund. Resources are scarce and a professional approach to project management is expected. Amateurs with “bright ideas” do not make the grade.
Three councils now sponsor projects and other sponsor organisations include polytechnics, DoC offices, and community groups.
Auckland City Council’s last bid for funds said young people on the Hauraki Gulf Islands “succumb to boredom and frequently turn to drink, drugs and crime in order to alleviate the problem” and there was an “endless amount” of conservation work to be done.
At present $40,000 supports island projects for six months. Auckland’s contribution is worth about $25,000. Support from the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, the Auckland Regional Council and small organisations completes the package. Work done on the islands includes scientific research, rat eradication and fencing.
Wellington Regional Council became involved with the corps to pursue environmental goals. It stayed because of the effect on youngsters. “We came into it on the conservation side and then saw what happens to the young people. The effect on them is just amazing” deputy chairwoman Alison Lawson said.
Wellington’s 1994/95 contract is for $131,200 and the council’s contribution is worth $71,000. Other organisations, including local businesses, contributed about $58,000. WRC estimated the value of the work done each year at $105,000.
Ashburton District Council wanted to help youth and the environmental aspects have stayed as a secondary consideration. A management committee including people from DoC, NZES, Venturer scouts, and councillors run the project. Ashburton ratepayers pay nothing.
The taskforce’s interim report lists key principles that will guide New Zealand’s overall employment strategy. These included the need to individualise assistance, support for communities, and flexibility within training programmes.
Corps projects are small enough to focus on the needs of individuals. Small teams work and learn together. There are plenty of stories of teams supporting individuals with particular problems of disabilities. One team helped a member to learn to read.
Corps projects are initiated by communities. They address local environment needs and they are watched by communities. Flexibility in project design reflects the community links. Training packages can be tailored to people. Work done is not “busy work”. It is what the community wants done.
The taskforce cites the need to address Maori employment. Again the corps has potential. Maori and Pacific Island people make up 47% of corps participants. In the 1993/94 year 26.5% of the fund was given to iwi-based sponsor organisations.
Communities want to help their drifting youth. Local government conferences stress the need for community based projects. Money is seldom found and ratepayers squirm at the thought of supporting the unemployed.
All local authorities should apply to the fund. They should encourage government funding of the scheme. The government’s risk of wasting money through the Conservation Corps is small. The corps was based on an overseas model (hence the terrible name), and evaluated in New Zealand by KPMD Peat Marwick. Experience has refined the programme and the statistics show it works.
Peat Marwick in 1990 said the corps concept “has demonstrated impressive potential in the role of facilitating the development of young people”. The jargon is awful, but the conclusion was right.
Article published in the New Zealand National Business Review
“Opinion”, December 1994.
Robert Shaw is a Wellington freelance writer.