California Service Corps credited with wildfire and climate response as state expands paid service positions

A staff member said Thursday that the California Service Corps has been built up over several years with state funding and is now being deployed for climate action and wildfire response.

The speaker said the initiative consists of paid positions the governor has invested in to engage mostly young people in community service. "These are paid positions that the governor has invested in to call on mostly young people to serve their community," the staff member said.

The speaker described several programs under the broader service effort, saying, "We've created a climate corps where we have hundreds of people across the state taking climate action and doing wildfire work, protecting communities. We have a college corps giving debt free pathways to students who, serve while they're in school and other programs, the AmeriCorps and the youth jobs core program." The staff member characterized the climate corps as already active in wildfire-related work across the state.

The speaker provided a state website as a resource and thanked an individual by name: "Californiavolunteers.ca.gov. Josh Bridal, thanks for the work. We're gonna need it in in the weeks months ahead," the staff member said.

No formal votes or directives were recorded in the excerpted remarks; the remarks were presented as description of existing programs and the current deployment of service personnel.