Empowering Youth and Creating Healthy Environments in Northern Manhattan

WE ACT’s Youth Programs

Abstract

Racial minority children, youth and families in the United States suffer disproportionately from urban environmental health problems. This field report focuses on how one community-based environmental justice organization in New York City, West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT), has focused on youth organizing around environmental health issues to improve the lives of the individual participants in their youth programs, while supporting larger organizational and community goals for an improved urban environment. WE ACT's youth programs have come in two forms: the Earth Crew Youth Leadership Program and DIFFERENTT (Diverse Individuals Fighting for Environmental and Reproductive Rights Now 'Til Tomorrow) which focuses on relationships between reproductive, environmental, and community health. This report outlines the social, political, and geographic contexts for WE ACT’s youth programs. It also highlights their underlying experiential learning philosophy, as well as their connections to WE ACT’s community-based environmental health research and political agenda for improving the environment in Northern Manhattan.