SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. -- The federal stimulus money is making a difference in the lives of several hundred young people in Sonoma County.

The county received about $1.2 million in federal funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

County officials decided to create a program called the Sonoma County Youth Ecology Corps. It is providing summer jobs to 250 young people, ages 14 to 24.

Michael Rodriguez is a 17-year-old from Santa Rosa who was picked for the program.

"I really had nothing to do for my summer," Rodriguez said, " And then when I heard about this program, I was just relieved, just happy... glad I have something to do now."

Some of the participants are low income, at risk, or foster children. Others are young workers who are having a tough time finding a job in this recession.

"It's incredibly hard to find a decent job right now," said Jay Masonek, a 20-year-old from Sebastapol, who is a member of the Ecology Corps.

"You need experience now to get a job," Rodriguez said, "So this is giving a lot of people... experience. And that's what we need right now."

Each young worker gets eight dollars an hour. They work in teams on ecological projects throughout Sonoma County. The work includes maintaining streams, helping with flood control, building trails and restoring native plant and animal habitats.

County officials say the Ecology Corps is doing work that otherwise wouldn't be done, due to limited staffing.

"We just don't have the crews to do it," said Marc Bautista of the Sonoma County Water Agency.

"These crews, they actually supplement doing the things we'd like to get to, but just don't have the resources to do at this time," Bautista said.

Many of the young workers say they'll use their earnings to pay for school.

Juan Gonzalez is an 18-year-old student from Sonoma. He attends junior college in Santa Rosa and says he wants to continue his education.

I'm a volunteer firefighter," Gonzalez said, "I'm going to get my EMT and go to the EMS academy in Windsor."

Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo says the program is a win-win situation.

"We get to work on environmental restoration, we get to put our youth to work, and we get to encourage community service and involvement," Carrillo said.

County officials say they already are working to develop more federal funding or local funding sources so they can offer the Youth Ecology Corps summer jobs program again next year.

Links for more information:

New Ways to Work, Program Sponsor http://www.nww.org/whatsnew.html