(a) The purpose of the Act is to further the development and maintenance of the natural resources of the United States by American youth and in so doing prepare them for the ultimate responsibility of maintaining and managing these resources for the American people. The Departments of Agriculture and the Interior have stressed the following three equally important objectives of the Youth Conservation Corps as reflected in the law:

(1) Accomplish needed conservation work on public lands.

(2) Provide gainful employment for 15- through 18-year-old males and females from all social, economic, and racial backgrounds.

(3) Develop an understanding and appreciation of the Nation's environment and heritage in participating youth.

(b) These objectives will be accomplished in a manner that will provide the youth with an opportunity to acquire increased self-dignity and self-discipline, better work and relate with peers and supervisors, and build lasting cultural bridges between youth from various social, ethnic, racial and economic backgrounds.

(c) Each YCC project will have, to the maximum extent possible as determined by the Secretaries' representatives, the following characteristics:

(1) A properly balanced and integrated environmental work-learning program in which environmental knowledge and awareness derives principally from meaningful work activities on public lands.

(2) A mixture of youth of both sexes from various social, economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds which is representative of the youth residing within the recruiting area.

(3) A group-living component, both in residential and nonresidential programs, wherein enrollees have an opportunity to relate to each other and to staff during nonworking hours in activities which promote social interaction and group learning (e.g., evening cookouts, overnight or weekend camping).

(4) An enrollment of sufficient size (not less than 10 enrollees) that will permit social interaction and group learning. The program encourages projects of a size of 20 to 50 enrollees as the most desirable size.