California Service Corps launches LA recruitment at LA Climate Week kickoff

Josh Friday, director of the Governor's Office of Service and Community Engagement, told volunteers at an Eaton Canyon event that the state is recruiting more than 3,000 paid California Service Corps members in Los Angeles as part of broader statewide service programs.

"We are recruiting for over 3,000 California Service Corps members," Friday said, framing the expansion as both a workforce opportunity and a way to strengthen communities hit by climate-driven disasters.

The announcement came during the first hands-on event of LA Climate Week, where organizers said the day’s invasive-species removal and restoration work illustrated the practical side of climate action. Friday linked the corps’ work to emergency response, recalling Service Corps and AmeriCorps members who helped stand up a shelter at the Pasadena Convention Center after recent fires.

"We will pay you to make a difference in the world," Friday said, urging attendees to sign up at caservicecorps.com. He described four program strands that make up the California Service Corps: the California Climate Action Corps, AmeriCorps members serving with the California Emergency Response Corps (CIRC), Youth Service Corps and College Corps, and said the statewide corps totals roughly 10,000 members.

Gabrielle Crow, co-chair and secretary of environmental sciences for the Gabrielino Shoshone Nation of Southern California, offered a tribal welcome and urged reciprocity with the environment, saying communities and indigenous stewardship must be part of climate work.

"Our duty and responsibility as indigenous people of this area is to live in reciprocity with the environment," Crow said.

Norma, representing the LA County Department of Parks and Recreation, described Eaton Canyon’s devastation from the Eaton fire and subsequent floods and thanked volunteers and docents for ongoing restoration that is helping native plants and wildlife return.

Stephen Davalos, vice president of external affairs for LA Works, said moments like the Eaton Canyon restoration show how volunteerism builds community resilience and invited attendees to connect with LA Works for ongoing opportunities.

Current service members Rain Zolete, a California Climate Action Corps fellow with host site City Plants, and Alexandra Rodriguez, serving with the California Emergency Response Corps as a community resource navigator, described how the programs provide career pathways and on-the-ground support for residents recovering from wildfire damage.

Rain said the Climate Action Corps gives fellows practical skills and a network for climate-focused careers; Rodriguez said her CIRC service involved long-term fire recovery assistance to survivors.

Organizers closed by urging the audience to carry the day’s hands-on work into the rest of LA Climate Week and to direct prospective members to caservicecorps.com. The kickoff was described as the first of more than 300 LA Climate Week events planned locally.