Friday, August 11, 2006

Friday, August 11 2006

Communities at Risk

Chicago, Illinois

Last year when I first contacted the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago the largest after-school organization in the City they asked "Who is the Sierra Club" after explaining who we were and what we work for I suggested a meeting with their Chapter Directors to talk about a possible partnership. They were nice enough to give me a speaking slot but I was quite aware of the glazed over eyes when I began my presentation. I asked a simple question "How many of your Club members deal with environmental issues" not one hand in the room was raised. I then asked "how many of your members have asthma," every Director then raised their hand and a half hour discussion followed on how asthma was preventing many of the members from participating in sports and having a good quality of life. This spark helped us hold a two day event at Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center last September http://www.nps.gov/indu/learning/index.htm where in partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs and the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club we brought 75 young people outdoors for their first ever outdoor experience. Along with a night hike and smores and the first time experience of seeing stars for many of the participants they did water-quality testing and compared samples with the Chicago River and recieved some organizing training through Midwest Academy http://www.midwestacademy.com/ . Six of the local Boys and Girls Club Chapters http://www.bgcc.org/ have started Environmental Clubs and we are holding our second annual event in late September and they are having to turn away members due to space restrictions.

This example illustrates in my mind the importance of connecting with local communities accross the country and listening to local communities and working with them to engage young people in the outdoors and creating a new diverse generation of environmental leaders

Cheers-Martin