YII Overview

The award-winning Youth Inclusion Initiative empowers youth from overburdened communities in New Jersey by providing hands-on experiences, environmental insights, and introduce them to some of the technical skills necessary to pursue a career in environmental protection. Through collaborative efforts across NJDEP and partnerships with local organizations, the program fosters a diverse, knowledgeable, and capable new generation of environmental stewards, with a focus on providing opportunities to youth from communities that have disproportionately less open space or historically lack access to natural lands.

Managed by the Community Investment & Economic Revitalization (CIER) program, the initiative relies on expert staff from NJDEP program areas and bureaus, including Water Resources Management, Contaminated Site Remediation & Redevelopment, Air, Energy & Materials Sustainability, the Office of Natural Resource Restoration, Green Acres, the Historic Preservation Office, NJ State Park Service, Fish & Wildlife, and Watershed & Land Management. Through curated “DEP days,” youth participate in hands-on activities and receive guidance from professionals, gaining valuable skills and knowledge across a wide range of environmental fields.

General Information

  • The Initiative takes place over 6 weeks in the months of July and August.

  • The Initiative is open to all youth aged 16 to 20.

  • To hire and manage youth, NJDEP partners with Community Host Organizations from eligible municipalities throughout New Jersey.

  • Youth are compensated via stipend for their participation in the Initiative.

  • In addition to working on collaborative community projects for the duration of the Initiative, youth create open-ended final projects which are presented during a final day ceremony.

History of YII

YII was launched in the summer of 2021 as part of the New Jersey State Park Service’s workforce development program. In 2022, YII expanded to include nearly every program within the department in New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and a yearly partnership with EPA Region 2 was established. DEP aims to continually improve YII, routinely incorporating feedback and and lessons from prior years into each new iteration. The history of how YII has evolved is showcased below, starting with the most recent year: