Jayson is a longtime resident of Petaluma who first heard about CCNB through his work with the Sonoma County Youth Ecology Corps. CCNB is one of several nonprofits empowering youth through this project; Jayson joined a County Parks crew through Bounty Farms, a program run by Petaluma People Services Center. Working on this crew, he met staff and corpsmembers and was inspired to delve more into his environmentalism by joining the team in the fall of 2019.
Jayson loves being able to work outdoors in the natural environment and seeing the impact the crews are having on the lives of people in our communities. His favorite project in his short time here has been working with Napa County Flood Control to mitigate future flooding. Like many corpsmembers, Jayson enjoys being able to use a chainsaw on these projects: in addition to thinning out groves of trees, the crew collects and removes other plant material and runs it all through a wood-chipper, using the chips on other projects. He has been able to identify and remove invasive species of plants, protecting the ecology of the region from future infestation.
After completing the program at CCNB, Jayson hopes to start a career in welding. He looks forward to beginning an apprenticeship with a local union and working his way up. He hopes that future job sites have the same sense of community and camaraderie as he has found at CCNB. “Here, everyone works together really well. People don’t just work on their own thing and go home. We all work well together and have fun together.”