Fort Mason Center

Corpsmembers come from every San Francisco neighborhood to the Fort Mason Center to learn teamwork and leadership, perform hard work and service, and cultivate self-respect and responsibility.

Fort Mason (FM) Corpsmembers are young men and women between the ages of 18 - 26 who begin work at 7:30 a.m., rain or shine, to install play structures, restore native plant habitats, and maintain landscaping throughout the city.

For 22 years the Fort Mason Center has successfully contracted with public agencies and private businesses to perform projects that improve the quality of life in San Francisco. Everywhere they go, the FM crews tackle chronic urban problems while acquiring new skills on the job.

The one-year training program builds a mosaic of skills to prepare FM Corpsmembers for a career and higher education. They graduate confident and job-ready, with a strong work ethic and the potential to be leaders in their community. Next stop: a good job or college.

Work

Mayor's Office of Community Development Crews [MOCD]

For more than 15 years MOCD has supported theFort Mason Center Corpsmembers to perform community service projects in low income neighborhoods. Projects are aimed primarily at benefiting children and their families. Corpsmembers install handicapped-accessible play structures, safety matting, benches and perform basic landscaping for public schools and non-profit agencies.

"I've worked with the San Francisco Conservation Corps for several years now and I'm always impressed with them, their trustworthiness and the quality of their work. With the Corps' help our school received grants from the Mayor's Office of Community Development to build two large out door play structures. CST Crews from Fort Mason built them. They are beautiful-big orange, green and blue climbing structures with corkscrew slides and overhead ladders with rubberized matting for safety. The Corpsmembers who built them are just a wonderful group of young people." - Cleo Cummings, Principal, Sheridan Elementary School

To learn how your company or agency can get a crew of Fort Mason Center Corpsmembers to perform a community service project for you, email or call: Janet Gomes, Director of Service Projects jgomes@sfcc.org or (415) 928-7417 ext. 306

Learn

The Fort Mason Center program is not just about work; it's about learning, too... Work can be the vehicle to teach skills traditionally thought of as academic. Corpsmembers in the Fort Mason Center program learn critical thinking while on the job, including: geometry and math skills and logic problem solving. They also learn "hard skills" like how to safely and effectively use tools. But to succeed in the FMC program, Corpsmembers must demonstrate that they are applying this technical knowledge as well as cultivating a strong work ethic. So FMC Corpsmembers are also taught the "soft" skills essential to professionalism, including: effective communication with their fellow Corpsmembers, the importance of showing up to work on time and ready to be productive.

Project Orientation

Learning starts with the Project Orientation. Corpsmembers preview new projects and participate in the planning process. They visit the site, learn about the sponsoring agency, go over designs, plan the time line, and order the tools. This is when Corpsmembers take ownership of a project. They soon discover that careful planning saves time and money, and increases efficiency.

Earn

Corpsmembers are paid for their "hands-on" training. At the Fort Mason Center, Corpsmember trainees attend a five day orientation and earn a pay rate of $7.75 per hour for their service, which includes all hours for professional training as well as while they are working (for a maximum of 32 hours per week). Corpsmember trainees are then assigned to a work crew and at $7.75 per hour become fully fledged Corpsmembers. As Fort Mason Center Corpsmembers gain seniority in the program, their wages increase. There are also leadership opportunities for FMC Corpsmembers. Corpsmembers' hourly pay ranges are from $9.00 to $10.00 for 32 hours per week.

If you are interested in joining SFCC as a Corpsmember, please call the recruitment and hiring center at (415) 928-7322.

Academic Training

Fort Mason Center Corpsmembers develop their academic skills and job readiness by gaining computer literacy in the multimedia computer lab, working towards their high school diploma or GED, preparing for college, and completing a career development plan which serves as a guide in their pursuit of future education or employment.

The SFCC John Muir Charter School

The mission of the SFCC John Muir Charter School is:

• To challenge and assist Corpsmembers to reach their highest level of educational achievement, whether it is getting their high school diploma or GED, enrolling in college, or significantly increasing academic grade levels.
• To provide Corpsmembers with the tools and skills to conduct a successful job search.
• To re-awaken in Corpsmembers a commitment to life-long learning.
• The SFCC John Muir Charter School offers courses that focus on GED and high school diploma attainment, career development, job readiness, and computer and Internet literacy for young adults ages 18-26. Academic assessments are conducted on all adult Corpsmembers during an initial orientation period and at three-month intervals thereafter. Corpsmembers also attend a week of Orientation Class (which includes life skills, conflict resolution, values and personal responsibility), helping them with the transition into the education program. Upon completion of Orientation, Corpsmembers enroll in either high school diploma or Career Exploration and Development classes to meet their educational goals.
• The Career Exploration and Development Course is structured around the completion of a career development portfolio. The portfolio is designed to assist in career exploration and research, and consists of twenty different components such as a resume and cover letter writing, consumer math, application information, individual skill assessments, and documentation of achievements. Corpsmembers also benefit from mock interviews, field trips and guest speakers. Additionally, Corpsmembers develop job search documents in the Corps-To-Career computer lab. All Corpsmembers develop their computer literacy skills by taking computer courses. Corpsmembers also conduct on-line labor market research in their particular field of interest, and in so doing, gain fundamental Internet skills.
• Qualified instructors and community volunteers combine efforts to provide Corpsmembers with individualized attention to their learning needs. The SFCC John Muir Charter School staff prides itself on delivering as much personal attention to students as possible, and therefore the student to teacher ratio is never higher than 10 to 1 (with the exception of the Computer Lab which is equipped to handle 12 students at one time).

For more information about the education programs, please contact:

Janet Gomes, SFCC
Director of Corpsmember Services
415.928-7417

The SFCC is an equal opportunity employer.