About

Launched in 2009, Minnesota GreenCorps is a statewide program to help preserve and protect Minnesota’s environment while training a new generation of environmental professionals. This program places AmeriCorps members with local governments, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations around Minnesota, where they will serve for 11 months on focused environmental projects. The program is coordinated by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Minnesota GreenCorps is an AmeriCorps program. Funding is provided through a grant from ServeMinnesota and the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Highlights

Including the current program year, more than 75 AmeriCorps members have served with 46 organizations across the state. Former and current host site organizations include cities, counties, public schools, universities, watershed districts, and non-profit organizations.

Some results from the first two years of the program include:

• More than 20,000 community members engaged or educated by Minnesota GreenCorps members
• 11-57 percent increase in recycling at participating schools
• 48,187 trees inventoried
• 397,296 kWh avoided
• More than 90 green practices and technologies implemented by participating sites and partners

In the first two years of the program, our members have mobilized over 2,600 community volunteers on service projects around the state, including assistance with environmental fairs, community cleanups, waste sorts, tree inventory/citizen foresters, invasive species removal, tree plantings, gardening, rain garden building.

For more information

For more information, please e-mail: mngreencorps.pca@state.mn.us

Video

Member spotlight

Currently there are 28 Minnesota GreenCorps members serving at 25 host sites around the state.

2012: Member - Luke Hanson

Living Green Corps Member at Cycles for Change in St. Paul.

About me. After spending my formative years in Milwaukee, Wisc., I moved to the Twin Cities to pursue a degree in Urban Studies at the University of Minnesota. After graduating, I interned with Menomonee Valley Partners, an organization dedicated to the ecological and economic revitalization of Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley. Finding Minnesota just too alluring, I moved back after my internship and worked in music marketing for a few years before serving as an AmeriCorps employment coach with Catholic Charities in 2012.

About my service. Somewhere deep in my childhood (and I’m not exactly sure where), I decided that were I ever to quit my job as an astronaut, I’d become an urban planner. While I couldn’t quite articulate my rationale at the time, it was rooted in a desire to help improve my community. As the years passed, my hopes of becoming an astronaut slowly faded. But my commitment to improving my community only strengthened with time, and the Minnesota GreenCorps provided a perfect outlet to put this commitment into action.

Through GreenCorps, I am able to directly impact the communities I live and serve in, empowering them to become more ecologically and economically sustainable. I am able to connect with neighborhood organizations and local community members, and build professional relationships that are as educational as they are purposeful. For me, Minnesota GreenCorps is a natural fit.

Read more member features.