After spending the past year leading listening sessions with America’s Youth, and as part of an ongoing initiative by the US Department of the Interior, led by Ken Salazar, a new website called YouthGO.gov has been launched. The goal? To help encourage, and enable youth to get outside, get involved, and get jobs that will lead them to become the next generation of conservationists.
In case you haven’t been following the Great Outdoors Initiative, here’s a great recap:
Key initiatives of this website:
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- Employ thousands of youth to protect and restore our environment, and revitalize our communities
- Educate millions of youth about our lands, waters, wildlife, culture, and heritage
- Engage youth from all backgrounds and all walks of life
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“Get A Job”: In 2010, more than 21,000 youth were hired by the Interior’s Youth in the Outdoors office (45% increase over 2009). To continue that trend, there are nearly 600 jobs currently posted in the Job Listings area of the site, many of which are in departments such as the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. Also listed are employment programs with 21st Century Conservation Service Core Programs, and a wide variety of internship opportunities. As youth today are struggling to land jobs at McDonalds, just to make a dime, one would hope that they would quickly turn their efforts toward more enriching and rewarding job opportunities like these!
“Get Smart”: The Education area of the website offers nearly 70 links to sites that offer outdoor & conservation educational resources.
“Get Out”: The Places to Go/Events portion of the site lists a ton of great ideas for those who are just looking to get outside, get involved, get some fresh air, and have some fun!
Want more??? Yeah, of course you can also find Youth in the Great Outdoors on Twitter (@YouthGO), Facebook (facebook.com/YouthGO.DOI), and YouTube (YouTube.com/user/YouthGOdoi). Duh.
The Yukon Charlie’s team will, most definitely, be sharing this site with our families…how about you?
