community training works! (ctw) - ctwfl.com

Vol 6 2015 NewsletterIssue 1

FDOT & CTW Getting Things Done!While CTW/YACC has expanded into the national forest and is preparing crews forGulf Coast restoration projects, our primary client and most ardent supportercontinues to be the Florida Department of Transportation. 2014 was another excellentyear as far as production on FDOT contracts was concerned. After seven years inbusiness CTW topped $1,150,000.00 in contract monies with notable performances byall crews lead by our veteran admin staff and skilled field supervisors. Here’s a recap:

Delete text and place photo here.Welcoming Back Leslie McDonald agraduate of CTW is returning to supervise the St.Augustine crew handling vegetation, sign washing,and guardrail.

Success StoryCTW OJT Program at Work

Christopher Shannon, a 2014 graduate ofour vegetation training program in West PalmBeach obtained a full time permanent positionwith a local landscaping company. Within fivemonths of employment, Chris was promoted toSupervisor of his own crew and was givenmultiple raises in a short time on the new job. Hewas able to utilize the skills and knowledge heacquired training on our FDOT roadsidemaintenance crew to take his next step. Chrisworked closely with our Youth DevelopmentCoordinator to write his resume, search for openpositions, and go on interviews to obtain thisgoal. CTW was able to partner with theemployer to provide reimbursement through ourOn the Job Training program, which pays for ½wages for the first 6 weeks when hiring a CTWgraduate for a full time permanent position. Weare proud to have worked with Chris (picturedbelow) and commend him for progress in hisnew career!

Advancing Staff Congratulations to KevinByers on his promotion to Field Area Manager.Kevin will be heading up a new contract in District5 as well as overseeing the District 2’s St.Augustine contract. Kevin came to CTW withextensive experience in roadside maintenance.

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Community Training Works! (CTW)Young American Conservation Corps (YACC)

Kevin Byers,Field Area Mgr(L) andLeslieMcDonald,Supervisor (R)

CTW’s West Palm Beach Youth Work Experiencecrew, headed up by Supervisor Stephen Young, is in itsseventh year of maintaining primary and state roads.They are on track for expending all the monies in theircontract this fiscal year. Even though the district ismaintained by an asset maintenance company, FDOT’sPalm Beach engineers and inspectors have set asidework for the youth corps. Pictured here are RicoFerguson, Spencer Britt and Courtney Smith on a welldeserved break from mowing, edging, blowing, andweed eating.

District 7, Tampa Vegetation Crew

Field Area Manager, Dean Ison and crew have kept the busy Tampa roadwaystrimmed, edged and swept for the last five years. The Tampa crew is well liked andgiven consistent praise for their work ethic including the quality of work performed.Tampa recently had a $150,000.00 addendum added to their contract. Great jobguys!

District 4, Ft. LauderdaleFencing Crew

Ft. Lauderdale has miles of chain linkfence, older fence in need of repair,emergencies from roadside accidents on I-95 as well as new installation. These arethe daily tasks of CTW’s Youth WorkExperience fencing crew. Supervisor ChrisButler with his team (pictured) Dante,Shaq and Crew Chief Geoni have managedto spend most of this year’s 300K contractin just over seven months on prioritylocations with high approval ratings frominspector Wavie McCoy. Way to go Chrisand Crew! In its 7th year Ft. Lauderdale isone of CTW’s longest ongoing contracts.

District 2, St. Augustine Vegetation Crew

In historic St. Augustine Field Area Manager Kevin Byers is now in charge of 2contracts. The St. Augustine crew is in its 5th year handling the widest variety ofpay items in the company and in District 5 Ocala a new mitered end replacementcontract. We’ve hired 3 new CIT’s, purchased a sturdy 2001 F350 diesel andbrought back Leslie McDonald as a supervisor on the St. Augustine crew. A flurryof activity, positive growth, and a win-win for CTW and FDOT.

District 4, West Palm Beach Vegetation Crew

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Partnerships….Build Strong Young Americans

District 5 and Mitered Ends

CTW is pleased to announce our first YouthWork Experience program contract in FDOTDistrict 5, our home office district. After meetingwith Operations Director Alan Hyman and themaintenance engineers in District 5 weformalized a YWEP agreement beginning inJanuary 2015 to replace and repair Mitered EndSections in Marion County. Thanks to StevenFisher and Victor Lo Piccolo who wereinstrumental in putting together this contract.Our Field Area Manager, Kevin Byers, will headup the contract along with our senior CrewChief, Matt Turner.

January 2015 VOL # 6 ISSUE #1

Making Affordable HealthcareAffordable…

CTW’s Board Secretary, Allyson Holley, hasassisted us to formulate an innovative approach tohealthcare coverage. CTW is not mandated by thefederal government to offer health care to itsworkers but being aware that employees will beassessed a penalty if they do not have ACHAcompliant health care coverage, we looked intoways to help them. Allyson is meeting with allemployees, applying through the federal exchangefor healthcare or supplemental health coverage andhelping those electing to participate to sign up.This is individual health care reimbursementassistance that CTW will provide to employees andvolunteers for a portion of their cost of coverageabove any subsidy they qualify for through thefederal exchange.

Wedding Bells…Chelsea is our Youth Development Coordinator andAdministrative Assistant who does an excellent jobday in and day out at the CTW/YACC offices inMelbourne Beach. A heartfelt congratulation goesout to Chelsea and Justin Green on their recentmarriage this past November.

Welcome New Corps Members….Ashley Weiss, YACC Crew Dante Sanchious, District 4 FDOT CrewChristopher Wilson, YACC Crew Shaquille Gayle, District 4 FDOT CrewTroy Washington, District 7 FDOT Crew Spencer Britt, District 4 FDOT CrewSedrick Holmes, District 7 FDOT Crew Micah Atkinson, District 5 FDOT Crew

Community Training Works (CTW) and its offspring, Young AmericanConservation Corps (YACC) are forming partnerships to strengthen theirrelationships leading to additional opportunities for the young adults and veteranswe currently serve through youth work experience programs.

We have been diligently implementing the strategic plan. Expansion wasmandated by the board to expand & diversify maintenance services and createadditional on the job training opportunities for young adults and veterans. Toachieve these goals we have reached out and the response has been outstanding.

A highly productive partnership is underway with Framing Our Community(FOC), a nonprofit training organization with staff in Florida. YACC is operatinga back country infrastructure skills training for future crew leaders who arecamping out on 6-8 day hitches while maintaining the Florida National ScenicTrail (FNST). Framing Our Community has provided expert training lead by IanBarlow and Chris Doupnik. Four crew leader trainees are undergoingcomprehensive skills development based out of Wakulla County, FL. Plans areunderway for expansion next fiscal year.

US Forest Service’s Partnership Coordinator, Megan Eno, has activelycoordinated this partnership with FOC while also creating a partnership betweenCTW/YACC and the National Forests in Florida. Plans are underway to provide 3outreach education coordinators as well as expanding the crew leader training andinfrastructure maintenance along the FNST next year.

The Corps Network’s Gulf Coast Restoration Corps (GCRC) has launched theirfirst pilot project with Climb CDC in Gulfport, MS. We plan to partner withCLIMB to build resilient communities affected by the Deep Water Horizon OilSpill. Growing out of this endeavor is another partnership with ConservationCorps of the Forgotten Coast in Apalachicola to start a new conservation corpswith the goal of handling larger watershed restoration projects in the panhandlearea.

Discussions continue with the board chair of Limitless Vistas LLC, a nonprofityouth corps based out of New Orleans and Orlando. Plans are underway toprovide crew members to them in an agreement with BFA Environmental tohandle soil and water assessments in water management districts in Florida.

The Corps Network recently announced a 21st Century Conservation ServiceCorps Cooperative Agreement with the National Park Service! “This agreementallows TCN and its member Corps to serve a public purpose by promoting andstimulating education, job training, development and furthering the understanding,appreciation and conservation of natural cultural resources”. CTW plans to workwith NPS to perform habitat assessments and prescribed burns. Plans areunderway to place corps members in Big Cypress National Preserve in Floridaand other national parks in the Southeast region next year.































January 2015 VOL #6 ISSUE #1

“It has been a great beginning to ourfirst YACC season working with FOC,

USFS, and FTA. I have learned a lotmore than I had anticipated in the first

three months. The entire team hasworked very hard to show what we

can accomplish.. I’d like to thank ourpartners for giving us this wonderful

opportunity to work in Florida’s backcountry. I’m looking forward to therest of the season and many more tocome. I can’t wait to share what I’ve

learned with future YACC crews!”-Abbey Toomer, Crew Leader

“ My experience with CTW/YACC hasbeen amazing. It is full of new

adventures, new learning opportunitiesand wonderful people.”

-Chris Wilson, Crew Member

“I’m very thankful to be granted thisopportunity to work for CTW/YACC.I’ve enjoyed working on projects as ateam and seeing them come together

as a finished product. Learning newskills and exploring possible career

paths has been a positive experiencefor me and I look forward to the rest

of our season!”-Ashley Weiss, Crew Member

“My experience with the crew hasbeen better than I expected. We arelearning trail and engineering skills

from FOC that have helped us workmore productively as a team.

Forestry Crew

WADERS IN THE WATER BASIC CERTIFICATIONSYACC corps members, Shane and Abbey along with trainer Chris Doupnik fromFraming Our Community were recently certified by Trout Headwaters (THI) inWaders in the Water Basic 1. Trout Headwaters, Inc. is an industry leader insustainable approaches to stream, river, and wetland renewal and repair. THI haspioneered approaches using natural materials and native vegetation that canreliably replace hard, invasive treatments that often damage our nation’s streamsand rivers.

YACC crew working at Kissimmee Prairie Reserve

“CTW keeps me busy working hard. I’veenjoyed working for them since my firstday. Since then, my life has beenprogressing; I’ve opened the doors to a newapartment and a better planned future dueto the amazing help from CommunityTraining Works.”-Troy Washington, CIT Tampa Crew

“Community Training Works helps me alot. It helps me with steady incometherefore I can pay my bills and take careof my responsibilities. They also keep meout of trouble; I can actually say sinceCTW, I’ve grown from a youth into ayoung adult.”-Sedrick Holmes, CIT Tampa Crew

FDOT CREW STORIES –NEW MEMBERS“I appreciate CTW for allowing me the opportunity for employment. WithoutCTW, I don’t know where I’d be. I’ve also learned and grown in so many wayswithin these past 7 months. I’ve improved my weed eating game, learned a lotabout responsibility and now I’m about to begin classes to obtain my CDLlicense to drive trucks. I couldn’t do it without CTW sponsorship”.-Spencer Britt, CIT West Palm Beach Crew

This season has increased my confidence as a crew leader by helping me see the importance of balancing out eachother’s strengths and weaknesses. I’m looking forward to working with different tools in different habitats across theState of Florida to make the FNST the best it can be! -Shane Murphy

Sedrick & Troy Pictured above

















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26 – Corps Members received OJT (On the Job Training) for 30,336 hours 26 – Corps Members have been provided Life Management Skill Training 24 – Corps Members received financial assistance (grants) totaling $4,347 22 – Corps Members received no interest loans totaling $19,458 15 – Corps Members received financial planning and credit counseling 14 – Corps Members received Maintenance of Traffic certifications 11 – Corps Members received scholarships and education assistance totaling $8,840 7 – Corps Members obtained full time jobs after graduation 4 – Corps Members received a GED certificate

“Learning by Doing” www.ctwfl.com


Community Training Works, Inc.Young American Conservation Corps3830 So. Highway A1A, Bldg 4 - #126Melbourne Beach, FL 32951

FDOT PERFORMANCERATINGS 2014Palm Beach crew did well thisyear and obtained a 93% overallrating with “Excellent” ratingsin 4 categories and“Satisfactory” ratings in 2categories.

Ft. Lauderdale crew had anamazing performance rating of100% with an “Excellent” ratingin all 6 categories!

Tampa crew had a great year.They obtained a 97% overallperformance rating with“Excellent” in 4 categories and“Satisfactory” in 1 category.

Above: Cody & Darien (left)-St Augustine; Dante, Shaquille, Geoni (middle)-Ft. Lauderdale, Troy & Sedrick (right)-Tampa

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