Sierra Service Project

10/10/2026

The Direct Action & Research Training Center (DART) affiliates across the country are hiring! DART is seeking full-time Community Organizers to fight for justice and train people of faith to build power.

The Community Organizer role empowers people to advocate for justice through affordable housing, criminal justice reform, public transportation, and more. Financial assistance is even available for relocation!

Learn more:

Are you angry about the injustices that our communities face? Sick of feeling powerless to make change? Tired of addressing the symptoms of community problems, but not the unjust systems that cause these issues in the first place?

Community organizers in the DART network get to channel that frustration into action. Organizers train everyday people how to fight for - and win - justice in cities across the country. Tomorrow, we’re holding a virtual info session to share about what it looks like to build a career in community organizing. Join us to learn more about how our affiliates build real people power and how you can apply for our open positions.

RSVP at www.thedartcenter.org/rsvp

10/08/2026

What has 150 legs, can be found wearing green, and likes to spend time outside?

Every person who attended our Day of Service a few weeks ago at the International Garden of Many Colors!

With 75 volunteers (56 youth and 19 adults), the spirit of hands-on service was in full swing. Including our AmeriCorps NCCC team, Urban Agriculture SSA fellows, and other SSP staff, over 100 people came together to work on:

🌱 Community orchard maintenance and irrigation repair to ensure continued fresh produce for our North Sacramento neighbors

🌱 Clearing pathways and walkways to keep common areas accessible for gardeners with limited mobility

🌱 Pruning trees and removing invasive plants to prepare for a large fall planting project

Having FOMO about missing this epic day? Sign up for upcoming service opportunities throughout Sacramento County (Saturdays, 9-1):

🪏 October 17 - at the garden
🛠 November 7 - home repairs
🪏 November 14 - at the garden
🛠 December 12 - home repairs

Lunch is included for the early birds who sign up now! SierraServiceProject.org/Volunteer

10/07/2026

Priority registration for our 2027 Summer Program is now open!

Groups are invited to sign up now through November 1 on MySSP. When registering, be ready with your top three choices of location and week. Placements will be made in early November.

New to organizing a group or registering? Create a liaison account on MySSP for access. Link in comments!

10/03/2026

We are excited to announce our 2027 Summer Program dates and community partners. Drumroll, please!

📅 Six weeks, starting June 27 and wrapping August 7
📍 Del Norte County (based in Crescent City, CA) and the Navajo Nation (based in Teec Nos Pos, AZ)

The detailed 2027 Summer Program schedule, which will outline the type of session for each week and location, will be determined by the priority registration period - open now through November 1!

To learn more, check out the Summer Program Information Packet. Link in comments!

10/02/2026

Wednesday wrapped up SSP's fiscal year! Check out some of the fun facts and figures about our donor community that helped make it our BIGGEST year of individual giving ever. Thank you!

🤝🏻 132 new donors
🌎 SSP donors live in 23 states (plus DC)
🎁 1/3 of gifts were $20 or less

Didn't get around to donating earlier this week? There's never a bad time to invest in young people building community!

Make a fall gift at SierraServiceProject.org/Donate

09/30/2026

It's the final day of SSP's fiscal year! 416 donors came together to make it our biggest year of individual giving ever. Thank you!

If you haven't given yet (or even if you have), you can help us finish the year even stronger! SSP still has two critical funding needs:

🔨 The need remains high for home repairs in the Summer Program communities we serve alongside! We spent $15,000 more for building materials than we budgeted before the summer.

💗 We've raised $23,000 of the $30k we granted in scholarship requests thanks to donations and small grants. One-quarter of 517 Summer Program participants attended on a scholarship!

Make a fall gift to support building materials and youth service-learning! SierraServiceProject.org/Donate

09/27/2026

SSP’s fiscal year ends in three days on 9/30; thanks to our wonderful community of donors, we’ve had our biggest year of individual giving ever!

In this final week, we have a vital funding need: building materials for home repairs. The need for our services remains high, we still have home repair work requests from 74 families! Unfortunately, building materials for our Summer Program exceeded our budget by $15,000.

Please consider helping SSP provide home repairs for families like Shawna's: SierraServiceProject.org/Donate

09/22/2026

✨ .delnorte Summer Program Recap ✨

Thank you to the 168 youth, 14 young adults, and 66 adult volunteers who each spent a week making an impact in Del Norte County, CA this summer! Over six weeks:

19 residents benefited from 11 home repair projects:

🛠️ 2 accessibility ramps
🛠️ 5 stairs
🛠️ 2 fences
🛠️ 1 porch
🛠️ 1 awning

Volunteers also contributed to 9 community-based projects with our partners:

🤝 Tolowa Dunes Stewards
🤝 Redwoods Park Conservancy
🤝 K!ds Garden
🤝 Yurok Food Forest
🤝 Tolowa Food Forest
🤝 Del Norte & Tribal Lands Community Food Council
🤝 Crescent City United Methodist Church
🤝 Del Norte County Fairgrounds

Check out the Del Norte staff team’s site report, including before-and-after project photos: bit.ly/DNC-2026

Volunteer

09/19/2026

This week we welcomed so many new faces (and returning!) to SSP's programs this fall 🍂

🌳 Our AmeriCorps NCCC team - Sycamore 6 - just arrived to help us repair homes in Rancho Cordova and work at the International Garden of Many Colors. They are from communities all across the US including Texas, Arkansas, NYC, Washington DC, and Washington State!

Do you know a young adult 18-24 who would like to join this program? Learn more and apply at AmeriCorps.gov/NCCC

🐝 We welcomed our first Community Engagement Center Community Service Intern, Samy (purple shirt)! She is studying communications so you'll likely see her taking over at .

Welcome Drew to the team! 👋

"Hey my name's Drew Izzo and I'm going to be Sierra Service Project's new Rancho Cordova Program Manager.

I was a 5 year youth volunteer with SSP's Summer Program and a Summer Program Staff Construction Coordinator for 2 years.

In May 2025 I graduated from Sacramento State 🐝 with a bachelors degree in computer science. Currently I live in Orangevale with my wife, son, two dogs and enough comic books to start my own library.

I'm looking forward to being part of SSP again and improving our local communities!"

🔗 Link in bio to schedule a Day of Service repairing homes with Drew in Rancho Cordova. The ideal group size is 4-10 people since we frequently work at mobile home parks.

Today we had a special event during the weekly Mobile Farmers Market at our lot. Thank you Chef Alize Grant Aliza Grant- Chef, Business Owner for sharing an amazing cooking demo featuring Caribbean-spiced zucchini and carrot fritters with produce from the truck!

Thank you Councilmember Roger Dickinson & Marj for co-sponsoring the Mobile Farmers Market! It is a true joy to have fresh produce for the neighborhood (plus SNAP customers get 50% off!)

Follow The Tomato to find markets near you in Sac and Yolo counties.

09/17/2026

After a big season that included celebrating our 50th anniversary, buying a building, and launching new programs, it's annual planning season! Every September, SSP's leadership team zooms out from our day-to-day operations to plan and strategize for the upcoming program year.

This year's retreat was held in the Sierra foothills, where we first got the Sierra Service Project name! While we missed having our full team all in the same place, we still made sure to have plenty of fun, thoughtful dialogue, and focus on goals. These cards represent some of the exciting ideas for the year ahead.