Youth Apprenticeship & Green Workforce Academy
Not a gardening program. A paid pathway.
Built on 2,000+ young people served: real wages, industry credentials, a working portfolio, and pathways to ownership and land.
Raise Your Hand for the Next CohortFrom First Visit to First Business
One journey, four stages — each with its guardrail.
Four Ways to Get Your Hands In
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Funding: WIOA youth employment + earned revenue + philanthropy — see the Pathways system.
What parents should know
- Every placement complies with federal & CT youth-labor law
- Wages are real paychecks, never stipends
- School comes first — schedules flex around the academic year
- Youth data protected: minimum collection, zero marketing
- Photography requires documented, revocable consent
Teaching, running a youth program, or hiring? Bring a group to Root Life.
Sponsor a position
Fund the work, not a stipend
Nothing is charged here and no figure is quoted — wages and materials are costed per season, so a person comes back with a real number rather than a placeholder.
Sponsorship inquiry received.
The program lead writes within two business days with the figure and a line-by-line breakdown. Nothing has been charged, and you will not receive information about any individual young person — reporting is on the position and the programme.
Sponsors never receive information about an individual young person — no names, no photographs, no progress reports.
Sponsoring
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Youth sponsorships are a designated pool inside Root Life LLC, so contributions are not tax-deductible at this stage. We say so before you give, not after.
Schools & organizations
Bring young people here, or bring us to them
For schools, districts, nonprofits, agencies and employers. Nothing about an individual young person is asked here — that belongs in a conversation with a guardian present.
Thank you — the program lead will write.
Usually within two business days, to talk through dates, numbers and what a partnership would actually involve on both sides.
What kind of partnership
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Youth work here is paid at $20 an hour. A partnership does not change that, and we will not run an unpaid placement.
Raise Your Hand
Cohorts are small and fill by conversation, not by race to a button.
I AM A…
Bringing a group? There is a form built for that — it holds your organization, how many young people, their ages and what kind of partnership. This one cannot, and we would rather not lose those answers.
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Under 18? A parent or guardian joins the intake conversation. We collect the minimum, protect youth data, and never sell it.
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We’ll be in touch when the next cohort forms — a real conversation, guardian included for under-18s. Meanwhile, come see the growing room on a farm tour.