Hanley Sustainability Institute

By Libby Bornhorst

For the past three months I've been working for an organization called TeamWorks in Colorado. It was one of the most impactful summers I've had on a conservation crew.

Last summer, I worked on a crew in Utah, building fences and trails and doing ecological restoration work. I got to explore many new parks and feel truly connected, not only to the work I was doing, but also to the environment.

It all goes to show that when I was offered a job to share this passion with young adults, I was excited about it.

Every crew had half of its members from somewhere in the mountains and the other half from the city. I got to lead the Denver half of our crew. It was made up of kids who'd worked there in previous years, and some who'd never been to the woods. The work wasn’t easy, but it had a direct impact on the community and that affected the crew.

We worked on several fire mitigation sites all around Colorado, which also involved a lot of interactions with the public. The crew mostly mitigated neighborhoods doing things like removing extra wood that was lying around, trimming trees, cutting back weeds and building fire barriers.

At every project site people asked about our work. Crew members often stepped up to explain or talk with residents. One week, we worked in the neighborhood of Superior, which had been decimated by the Marshall Fire in 2021. The small neighborhood catered to low-income families, and it was a tight-knit  community. Some of the residents talked about the variety of people who lived there until the fire swept through and made it impossible to afford to rebuild their homes. You could tell the community had been through hard times, yet they stayed positive and were thankful for the barriers we built in the week we were there. Projects like this demonstrate the direct impact this work can have on communities. This was also my first outdoor job with people who understand the importance of the work, and that was one of many things that helped me grow this summer.

During the job, my goals were to make sure the crew was having fun, learning and enjoying the outdoors, which meant meeting people. I got to watch our crew grow into true friends and leaders, despite coming from many different backgrounds.

The TeamWorks program is made up of two different organizations, Teens, INC., and Lincoln Hills Cares. Both organizations have interesting histories. Teens, INC., is a program that builds connections between teens who live in the mountains. They also offer an alternative high school that focuses on real-world skills to help teens graduate and enjoy school.

Lincoln Hills Cares is based out of a historic Colorado monument in the town of Nederland, the only outdoor vacation resort catering to African Americans in the 1920s. The town has a long history of connecting young men and women of color with nature and giving them opportunities to learn new skills and leadership at their summer camps.

Teens, INC., and Lincoln Hills Cares combined to create a program that benefits teens, the environment  and even the people working there.

Learning about the history of the organizations I worked for was empowering and made me really happy to be able to support an organization that was trying to do so much good for the world. This program helped me develop into a better, more supportive leader while doing work I loved.

This job is a great example of environmental work that is more than just fixing the environment. There are aspects of environmental justice, community building, youth development and real-world skill development all in one program for the crews and their leaders.

Thank you, TeamWorks, for the amazing people I met and all of the growth I experienced.