Corps Grads to Help in Quake Recovery

Armed with newly acquired repair skills and the incentive of earning $7 an hour, 75 men and women ages 18 to 26 have graduated from a two-week Northridge Earthquake Recovery Corps abbreviated training course.

They will embark on a six-month assignment doing repair work for communities affected by the Jan. 17 tremor.

During the training, the graduates completed hands-on crash courses in various manual labor techniques, office work and recycling. They will be involved in retrofitting community clinics, fixing park irrigation systems, and recycling earthquake debris at schools.

The quake corps, funded by the federal Job Training Partnership Act, is sponsored by the California Conservation Corps. The program will span 10 months and employ 180 people.

Alberto Ybarra, project coordinator, said he is pleased at the high number of women among the graduates. “There’s a good crop of women: six per crew, and there are 15 (total members) per crew,” Ybarra said.

One of these women is Maria Martinez, 21, who will be working at the CCC office.

“I enjoyed learning how to work in a team,” she said.

Martinez said the skills she has learned will help her land a job working for the National Park Service when her six months are completed.