ILLINOIS
From 1933 to 1942, the Civilian Conservation Corps worked across Illinois. What they left behind is still here. We are picking the work back up.
THE WORK IS STILL STANDING.
Illinois had a strong CCC presence. Enrollees built Starved Rock State Park (the most-visited park in Illinois today), Pere Marquette, Giant City near Carbondale, and White Pines. CCC crews planted millions of trees across the Shawnee National Forest, restored eroded farmland across the central Illinois prairies, and built the stone CCC architecture you still see at Starved Rock. The dam at Glen O. Jones Lake and many of the picnic shelters across Illinois state parks are CCC work.
CAPABLE HANDS. HONEST WORK.
Illinois remembers what was built by people willing to do it.
A COLLECTIVE OF BUILDERS.
The CCC Boys corps is based in Colleton County, South Carolina. Justin and Jeremy Shearer and their cousin Joe Nettles, grandsons of Joseph Connelly, are building it from home. We do hurricane prep along the coast, shingle recycling out of the Columbia metro, marine apprenticeships in Walterboro, and a software portfolio with AI as the partner. The corps is worker-owned: members draw a steady wage first, then operating costs, then runway, then surplus to the people who made it happen. Not shareholders.
South Carolina is the first chapter. Other states are next, as builders in those places raise their hands. The playbook, curriculum, kit specs, and operating model are all open source under Creative Commons. Anyone can use them. Federated branches share the central infrastructure (a stablecoin-native neobank, a shared apprentice curriculum, a brand built by everyone) but operate locally. No fees. No buy-in. You are a branch, not a franchise.
A CCC BOYS ILLINOIS BRANCH?
We're building the framework, the technology, the apprenticeship curriculum, and the playbook out in the open. As Illinois-rooted builders raise their hands, branches form. If this resonates and you'd like to help bring a CCC Boys branch to Illinois, write us.
WRITE THE CORPS join@cccboys.com