Sierra Club Ohio held the first Young Environmental Leaders (YEL) statewide event on August 18th. We had over 20 individuals from around the state join us in this learning session. This is our first of many events that will create a space to connect, empower, and develop young environmental leaders throughout Ohio.
For this first virtual event, we had a change-making speaker, Tomorrow Bowen. As an intersectional environmentalist and community organizer in Atlanta, GA, Tomorrow is a graduate student pursuing her Master’s of Public Health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health while working as a Community Organizing Intern at the Sierra Club OH. Her degree concentration in Environmental Health helps to inform her research efforts focused on superfund sites, environmental injustices, and assessing environmental exposures in Black & Brown communities. We learned about Tomorrow's local work in her Alabama hometown on environmental exposure and health issues. She discussed her system of gathering data and what is next in the research journey. Our audience learned a lot from Tomorrow about community organizing, environmental injustice, and how to get involved in environmental movements.
There are so many passionate and talented young people throughout our state that want to make a difference and create change. Many young people may not feel comfortable working in the traditional networks that are out there. By building the YEL group we plan to create a space to empower young people to become leaders, and to bridge the gap between working on our campuses and in our communities to engaging on a statewide level. We want to help members grow, create learning opportunities, and take action on environmental justice issues through this dedicated network of Young Leaders.
We are so excited to have this group grow in the coming months. Going forward we will continue to have speakers, professionals, educational opportunities, and training to support the stewardship of environmental justice work in this community of young environmental leaders. Our goal is to encourage young leaders of all backgrounds to engage in activism and increase the diversity of our volunteer base in Ohio while providing a space for everyone to be heard and feel welcome. If you are interested in being a leader in this space find more information here. With any questions or wanting to be on future invite lists, reach out to Ohio’s Volunteer Coordinator, Nicole Wolcott (nicole.wolcott@sierraclub.org)