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Being a community is striving to do the best and allow justice, sustainability, and curiosity to blossom. Yet, it's also being aware that members of our community struggle to have the resources to be environmentally friendly, so some don't have a choice. Being a community is being mindful of this, but trying to make the best choices we can, individually and collectively, and advocating for others to adopt a sustainable way of live, or helping those who don't have that option.
There are a lot of environmental issues we have to focus on, so it’s important to know we don’t have to do this alone, but instead, with a community by your side. I have learned a lot more about community from my time this semester, and one example of how I did was doing community work, such as going on field trips where we focus on creating solutions for problems certain communities deal with, and also organizing a protest against fossil fuels. For field trips, a lot of them had to do with air quality or lead where we dealt with communities that were suffering from these issues, and our field trips helped us to create possible solutions so that these communities had a better environment to live in. Our protest against fossil fuels was held for our school and was planned in a short amount of time. Because of the time constraints, we had to quickly organize a protest that aligned with our values, and found a way to present everyone’s interests and passions regarding what they wanted to say about fossil fuels. We all took leadership, while working together as a team.
Evidence of Learning
Evidence of Learning
4A: Kinship and Citizenship
4A: Kinship and Citizenship
EJ Changemakers must partner with their community, listen to its values, and support its priorities.
4B: Solidarity
4B: Solidarity
EJ Changemakers intentionally include multiple perspectives from members of communities who are historically oppressed or disadvantaged to include them in the work of restoring justice.
4C: Dialogical Leadership
4C: Dialogical Leadership
EJ Changemakers must be strong leaders who set priorities, inspire change, support their team, and manage work, but they must do so without hierarchy or competition. They must lead in the service of their communities and ecosystems.
My class and I wrote to Chris Ronayne about giving access to green spaces. We pleaded that he take action on this, and told him that green spaces should be a right, not a privilege. We incorporated the viewpoints of many people and included the positive effects accessibility of green spaces can have on ones health.
Field Trip to Environmental Health Watch
We took many informative field trips this year, and the Environmental Health Watch was one of them. There, we were able to talk in depth about lead poisoning, how common it is, causes of it, and more. We learned how impactful lead poisoning is and the importance of listening to underprivileged communities, because most of the time, they are the ones dealing with the biggest amount of environmental issues because of environmental racism or other things. In our field trips, we spoke about the people dealing with these issues who may not have their voices heard, and we brainstormed ideas on how to make sure they are recieving the justice they deserve.
Fridays for the Future Protest
While learning about the use of fossil fuels, my class and I realized it was an important week to protest fossil fuels. We quickly organized a last minute protest and we each had a part we were responsible for leading. Through this short deadline, we had to set priorities, support and help one another, make change, all while finishing school work. We all helped each other and didn't make this a competition, and the protest ended up being a huge success. My part in this protest was creating a poem for guerilla art which I have talked about here.
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