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Articles
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| Glen O’Gilvie and Earth Conservation Corps |
VOICE writes, " Glen O’Gilvie and Earth Conservation Corps
Restoring the Anacostia and young people’s hope
BY JOSHUA GRAY
On a brilliant late-summer afternoon, Glen O’Gilvie sees things in the Anacostia River that no one else sees. Where some find one of America’s most polluted waterways, and others a waterside ripe for development, O’Gilvie sees a training ground for disadvantaged youth, a springboard for higher achievement and education and a route out of dead-end lives. "
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Glen O’Gilvie is president and CEO of Earth Conservation Corps, an 18-year-old program designed to give disconnected youth a leg up on the harsh urban realities of violence, unemployment, and an embattled education system.
On a brilliant late-summer afternoon, Glen O’Gilvie sees things in the Anacostia River that no one else sees. Where some find one of America’s most polluted waterways, and others a waterside ripe for development, O’Gilvie sees a training ground for disadvantaged youth, a springboard for higher achievement and education and a route out of dead-end lives.
Glen O’Gilvie is president and CEO of Earth Conservation Corps, an 18-year-old program designed to give disconnected youth a leg up on the harsh urban realities of violence, unemployment, and an embattled education system.
From the dock adjacent to ECC’s Matthew Henson Earth Conservation Center on the Anacostia’s banks, O’Gilvie speaks about the Corps’ mission, a program that begins with environmental education, and follows through with greater goals of developing leadership and life skills.
O’Gilvie found his life’s work with young people unexpectedly. He’d taken up his studies at Virginia State University without much direction. Working his way through school, (“I worked every job you could think of — Jiffy Lube, pizza, security,” he recalls,) O’Gilvie latched onto an opening at a group house for disadvantaged youth. He started without any great expectations.
“I took the job because I considered it a no-brainer,” he laughs. “I thought it was an opportunity to hang out with young people with a similar background as my own, watch TV, and get my studies done.”
But immersion in these young, difficult lives had an unexpected influence. In these youth, O’Gilvie saw a darker mirror of his own experience growing up in New York City. And as he gave new focus to his young charges, they gave him a direction in his own life.
“I quickly realized that my ability to move them in the right direction was much greater than the other members who couldn’t really connect,” he recalls.
With his sights now firmly set on developing opportunities for urban youth, O’Gilvie entered grad school in the District, continuing to a burgeoning non-profit career. But there was something lacking, a hands-on element that he missed, even if he didn’t exactly know it. When an announcement of an opening at ECC crossed his desk a few years back, he almost ignored it.
“At a glance, I thought ‘No way, the air conditioning’s blowing, this is good,’” he laughs. “But as I continued to read, I saw an opportunity to jump into the fire, to model what true non-profit management should look like, to stop writing checks and telling people what they should do, and show them.”
What O’Gilvie demonstrates at ECC is a means of supporting both the health of the river and the welfare of the community along its banks. The program focuses on education, developing life-skills, and instilling leadership qualities through active service.
“We provide our young people with certifications and skills that can help them to compete in the workforce,” O’Gilvie enthuses. In addition to job skills like CPR, first aid, and what O’Gilvie calls “Green College Ops,” — the hands-on taskwork involved in restoring imperiled wetlands — enrollees also learn valuable lessons in financial planning, conflict resolution and anger management. Those in school are prompted to finish. Those who have dropped out are provided with tools to get a GED. Education is the program’s highest priority.
Participants also are cast as ambassadors and educators in the greater community. This year’s graduating class, O’Gilvie points out, numbered 55; through efforts in the schools and neighborhoods, these “core members” involved over 5,500 others with EEC’s mission.
Speaking of his program’s successes, O’Gilvie is just as proud of the young man who’s ascended to management at a local Wendy’s as he is of the two recent grads about to begin careers with the EPA. He privately dreams of a time when programs modeled on Earth Conservation Corps are available for all who apply.
From the Henson Center’s roof, looking out over a waterfront bound to reflect sweeping change in upcoming years, Glen O’Gilvie sees limitless opportunity to change young lives that might otherwise be lived in society’s margins.
Know of someone making a difference in your neighborhood? Let us know at editor@voiceofthehill.com.
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Posted on Sep 26, 2007 20:25pm.
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