History

 

Anam Duan was conceived as a visionary, strategic, entrepreneurial, systems-change youth, community development, and environmental organization in the mid 1990s. It was initially incorporated as a nonprofit organization in Flagstaff , Arizona in August 1999. Anam Duan received IRS determination as a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization in April 2000.

The first Board of Directors was assembled in the winter of 2000. The directors met regularly since incorporation to develop research-based strategies to address the most pressing social issues and prepare young people to assume responsibility and leadership in problem solving. The first initiative designed was the Association for Emerging Professionals. With the input and vision of young people, the AEP was designed to partner with corporations to focus on training tomorrow's business leaders in leadership and sustainable practices.  Unfortunately, the pilot project lost funding due to the tragedy of September 11, 2001 . About the same time, Anam Duan Officials was developed as a pilot program to train young people as leaders and referees for interscholastic sports and recreation programs. This was spun off as an independent nonprofit organization in 2002.

Anam Duan then received major funding from the State of Arizona to create a new rural youth conservation corps program to conduct ecological restoration on forests and watersheds damaged by the Rodeo-Chediski wildfire that hit northeastern Arizona in the summer of 2002. Anam Duan created the White Mountain Youth Corps to train and employ rural youth from the Fort Apache Indian Reservation and the greater White Mountains region. In the summer of 2002, Anam Duan set up operations in Show Low, Arizona .

In the Summer of 2003, Anam Duan engineered a program merger between the the White Mountain Youth Corps and the Youth Corps of Southern Arizona (YCOSA) to create more opportunities for young people and to respond to ecological conservation needs of the regions. YCOSA assumed management of the White Mountain Youth Corps, and Anam Duan relocated operations to Syracuse , New York to address the needs of urban/rural interface communities and ecosystems of the Northeast. The Franciscan Ecology Center was founded to promote a Franciscan ethic and ecology approach to environmental issues in the Syracuse and Central New York region, with a special emphasis on promoting environmental justice, ecological restoration and education.

The Franciscan Ecology Center has developed new strategies for ecological sustainability education, ecospirituality and ethics, and service learning with ecological restoration. In 2003, its first Franciscan Earth Corps young adult program was implemented in collaboration with St. Thomas More Campus Ministry at Syracuse University and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. (St. Thomas More Campus Ministry is run by the Conventual Franciscans as part of the Franciscans in Collaborative Ministry.) Members of the Franciscan Earth Corps helped to implement the first pilot Franciscan Earth Club for junior high and high school students in collaboration with staff at Bishop Ludden Jr./Sr. Catholic High School in Syracuse , NY . 

The Franciscan Ecology Center has also been collaborating with the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse to develop a Franciscan Nature Center at Alverna Heights next to Green Lakes State Park . The Franciscan Ecology Center has been providing leadership in the development of an ecosystem management plan, which will include ecosystem restoration, reforestation, environmental education programs, sustainable organic farming and gardening. The planning process follows a grassroots ecosystem management process, and members of the Franciscan Earth Corps and Franciscan Earth Club have already begun to implement elements of the plan.

  

This page was last updated on 09/25/04

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