The Sustainability Book Club Network
Teaching young people about Intersectionality and Sustainability
I'm remembering a trip last year I made with my team of former foster youth to Hawaii. We were training child welfare supervisors and child welfare workers and other foster youth on how to better serve the needs of teen age foster youth.
When I visit Hawaii I make a commitment to create as little waste as possible, and that includes bringing home my recycling to recycle in CA. It also includes not collecting plastic bags when I buy something.
So it's a funny thing to travel to three islands and on every island to drag a large suitcase full of recycling (and sadly there is usually a giant cockroach or two that get in those bags!)...but I do it! And the youth I work with thought I was a fanatical fool to never get a bag and always be asking the clerk if I can take whatever purchase I was making in its raw form without extra packaging etc (this was esp funny when I bought some snorkel gear and didn't want the big box the fins came in)...
Anyhow, I'm by no means a die hard environmentalist (but I aspire to be one) but to the young people in my community I do look like a fanatic...
And this long story is to say that it pays off...as the rest of the culture has gotten the sustainability bug, some of the things I said and did in Hawaii is starting to make sense to the young people I work with...they call and email me that they get it now...and they themselves are starting to bring with them cloth bags and to always recycle etc...
So what may start as the town fool....may end up the best teacher...... ;-)
When I visit Hawaii I make a commitment to create as little waste as possible, and that includes bringing home my recycling to recycle in CA. It also includes not collecting plastic bags when I buy something.
So it's a funny thing to travel to three islands and on every island to drag a large suitcase full of recycling (and sadly there is usually a giant cockroach or two that get in those bags!)...but I do it! And the youth I work with thought I was a fanatical fool to never get a bag and always be asking the clerk if I can take whatever purchase I was making in its raw form without extra packaging etc (this was esp funny when I bought some snorkel gear and didn't want the big box the fins came in)...
Anyhow, I'm by no means a die hard environmentalist (but I aspire to be one) but to the young people in my community I do look like a fanatic...
And this long story is to say that it pays off...as the rest of the culture has gotten the sustainability bug, some of the things I said and did in Hawaii is starting to make sense to the young people I work with...they call and email me that they get it now...and they themselves are starting to bring with them cloth bags and to always recycle etc...
So what may start as the town fool....may end up the best teacher...... ;-)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jamie Lee Evans on -
ahhh...the part about intersectionality I forgot....so I try to teach them that racism is connected to sexism is connected to classism is connected to ageism, is connected to why there is so much foster care, drug addiction, abandonment of children, abuse of teenagers, abuse of the earth.... single positions are usually never right....
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Permalink Reply by Jude Parker Koski on -
This is SUCH a great story, what incredible teachable moments with foster youth! I agree, the intersections are key to emphasize in order to help draw the connections.
This Saturday, I am training over 50 foster youth on how to engage local key stakeholders on supporting policy issues. The majority of participating youth are brand new to advocacy work and for many this will be the first time they learn about how environmental justice is connected to civil rights. The primary goals are: 1) for each youth to understand our historical successes and lessons learned in community organizing efforts, for many movements and 2) for a deepened awareness of how powerful their unified vision has the potential to contribute towards sustainability in the foster care system and all other aspects of their communities. I think this type of grassroots work is essential in order to better prepare youth for being active participants in monitoring and leading change throughout all sectors as they continue to join the professional workforce.
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Permalink Reply by Haydee on
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I regularly make presentation to social work students and am amazed at how disconnected most of them are from the experiences youth have while under the care of the "state."
It is difficult and yet a blessing to be able to share my personal story and stories of other youth I have worked with to better prepare future social workers for the difficult field or work they are entering.
The voice of youth and advocates (go jamie and jude!!!) makes a tremendous difference in the quality of care for foster youth.
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