The Oberweiler Foundation funded Groundswell’s partnership with Operation Fresh Start (OFS), an organization that empowers emerging adults on a path to self-sufficiency through education, mentoring, and employment training. OFS’s Conservation Academy is a full-time, hands-on paid training program giving young adults education and experience to help them land a job in conservation. Groundswell plays a role in not only supporting the Conservation Academy by hiring their crew to do conservation work on Groundswell land, but to also hire a Conservation Academy graduate as a full-time Groundswell staff member.