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Focus on the Youth

1 When President Franklin D. Roosevelt came into office
in 1933, he put America back to work. He began with
the Works Progress Administration, which hired
people around the country to build roads, bridges, and

buildings, and even to write poetry and songs.

2 The unemployed young people of America,
however, were a special case. Many of these people—
even at ages 22 or 23 —had never had the opportunity

to work for a living. Many of them had few skills and
no job prospects.

3 The president signed into effect the Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC), which was specifically

President Roosevelt visits a CCC camp created for young men between the ages of 18 and 25.
in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. Here’s how the program worked: Work camps were set
up in state and national parks and forests nationwide.

Men enjoy mealtime at Camp Men lived in barracks and followed a strict, militaristic
Sanders, in Louisiana, 1937. code of behavior. They had to do hard physical labor
for work. Of their $30 per month pay, all but
$5 was sent home to their families.

4 The young men who joined up were
previously unemployed. They might have
been riding the rails looking for work. Many
were unskilled and aimless. When they came
to camp, many of these young men were also

hungry. Their weight upon entering the
CCC was recorded by those overseeing the
camps. The men gained an average of 11¼
pounds in the first three months. Some of

the corpsmen were illiterate. About 57,000
men learned to read while serving in the
Civilian Conservation Corps.

labor Labor is work—especially hard, physical work.

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