The Colorado Youth Corps Association (CYCA) is a statewide coalition of ten accredited youth conservation corps that engage and train youth, young adults, and military veterans on land, water and energy conservation projects. Youth corps is a proven strategy for engaging young people in service to their communities and stewardship of their environment while cultivating valuable skills to meet the challenges of the 21st century. CYCA’s mission is to advance the Colorado youth conservation corps movement. CYCA creates opportunities for young people to participate in high-quality youth corps statewide by providing independently operating youth conservation corps with technical assistance and resource development services. CYCA helps to garner private, federal and state fee-for-service and grant funds and manages an accreditation program to assure uniform principles and practices across all the youth corps programs. There are currently 10 accredited youth corps in the state that serve 1,800 young people annually. Organizational information can be found at www.cyca.org.