The Civilian Conservation Corps CCC was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from to in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18β25 and eventually expanded to ages 17β Roosevelt 's New Deal that supplied manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state, and local governments.
The CCC was designed to supply jobs for young men and to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States. There was eventually a smaller counterpart program for unemployed women called the She-She-She Camps , which were championed by Eleanor Roosevelt.
Robert Fechner was the first director of this agency, succeeded by James McEntee following Fechner's death. The largest enrollment at any one time was , The CCC also led to a greater public awareness and appreciation of the outdoors and the nation's natural resources, and the continued need for a carefully planned, comprehensive national program for the protection and development of natural resources.
Approximately 15, Native Americans took part in the program, helping them weather the Great Depression. By , with World War II raging and the draft in effect, the need for work relief declined, and Congress voted to close the program.
As governor of New York , Franklin D. It was started in early to "use men from the lists of the unemployed to improve our existing reforestation areas. I propose to create [the CCC] to be used in complex work, not interfering with normal employment and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control, and similar projects. I call your attention to the fact that this type of work is of definite, practical value, not only through the prevention of great present financial loss but also as a means of creating future national wealth.
