Youth Symposium on Environmental & Climate Justice
The online zoom symposium occurred on Wednesday, Oct 13, 2021: 4:00 – 4:45pm.
The video is archived below.
Climate is changing the world quickly
Resource-poor communities of color are unjustly impacted
Youth leaders on the front-lines can lead us toward justice
Co-Moderated by
Erin Torres (she/her)
Wyandanch Children’s Advisory Board, and Senior Ambassador, Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition (HBCAC)
Luz Guel (they/them)
Partners
Cafeteria Culture
Cyclopedia
Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition (HBCAC)
Isaacs Center
Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service
Mount Sinai Transdisciplinary Center on Environmental Exposures
Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (Region 2)
Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS)
Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning Schools (WHEELS)
Clean Air Green Corridor Initiative
Presenters: TBD
The Clean Air Green Corridor Initiative is a Black and Brown youth-led community environmental justice initiative started by high school students and alumni of the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS). Youth are working to transform 182nd street into a pedestrian green corridor that tackles air pollution in the community and provides safe, healthy, and equitable access to Highbridge Park.
Cyclopedia
Climate Resilience in East Harlem
Presenters: Adriana Candia and Alexis Navarro
East Harlem life expectancy is 9 years less than the neighboring Upper East Side. Coupled with climate change effects, the health and achievement disparities outlook is ominous. Thankfully, there are solutions. The Cyclopedia summer youth program advocates for environmental justice based on data and best-practices. What’s the answer? Tune in to hear from our youth leaders!
Cafeteria Culture
Data + Action for Zero Waste in Schools
Presenters: TBD
Cafeteria Culture (CafCu) is an environmental education organization working creatively with youth to achieve equitable zero waste, climate-smart school communities, and a plastic free biosphere. Their programs foster youth-led solutions by merging community science, civic action, media, storytelling and the arts. Students in CafCu programs live overwhelmingly in lower-income communities of color, and they provide an urgently-needed voice to the climate emergency. Students take on leadership roles that inform policy. CafCu’s award-winning movie, MICROPLASTIC MADNESS, features Brooklyn 5th graders in their program and has reached over 40 countries, inspiring global youth action for a plastic free future with schools as hubs for change.