October 27, 2010.
Headed to the Canyon
Greening Youth Foundation has been given the rare opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint of one of the world’s greatest natural wonders.
In the second phase of a GYF partnership with the federal National Park Service, a GYF crew is currently engaged in a project to re-lamp numerous NPS sites in the West, including the country’s most famous and breathtaking landmark, the Grand Canyon.
The goals of the GYF-National Park Service partnership are to improve the energy conservation of NPS sites, diversify the NPS workforce and diversify attendance at NPS parks, and provide tangible job skills to at-risk youth. In the first phase of the partnership (called Green Renewable Energy Efficiency Network, or G.R.E.E.N. Project) last summer, a GYF crew of six worked at national park sites throughout Colorado, replacing thousands of less-efficient incandescent lamps with fluorescent and compact fluorescent lights.
In this phase, a team of four young people from the Denver area, led by Mike Fynn, GYF’s Project Manager and a LEED-certified engineer, is spending five weeks during October and November at parks in Arizona and New Mexico. The team is conducting an energy characterization study of the parks in an effort to create an “energy road map” that will help the parks identify ways of achieving their energy conservation targets. Next, the team will circle back through the parks over the course of 10 additional weeks and execute the energy road map. The project was made possible by funds from the more than $750 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) money being spent this year and next on national park projects across the United States.
The crew disembarks at the Canyon
Kim Sliniger, ARRA manager for the Intermountain Region of the National Park Service, said the GREEN project has the potential to change the future of many national parks across the entire National Park system “by training and employing urban youth from different metropolitan areas and giving those individuals a unique exposure to the wonders of their National Parks.”
During the project, the crew is hitting the Grand Canyon National Park, Wupatki National Monument, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, Walnut Canyon National Monument, and Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona, and Chaco Culture National Historic Park in New Mexico. They are traveling in a caravan of Toyota Prius hybrid cars.
Speaking to one of GYF’s goals of exposing young people to opportunities in the environment, crew member Aubrey Williams said he grew up surrounded by the beauty of the national parks and hiking trails in Colorado.
“Yet never did I think that an opportunity to work in the parks was really an option,” Williams said. “Why? I never saw anyone that looked like me working in the parks. Many of our crew had not entered national parks due to economic reasons, and almost none of them knew that green jobs were available through the NPS.”
For the young people, working at a site as memorable and awe-inspiring as the Grand Canyon has definitely been a highlight of the project.
“This is an incredible opportunity for the foundation and all the young people involved in the project,” said James Ezeilo, GYF’s Operations Director. “I’m so excited that we’re greening the Grand Canyon. The commitment and support from the National Park Service has allowed us to think outside the box and develop projects that engage an incredibly talented, diverse student population.”
Posted in Featured Stories
October 14, 2010.
GYF helps King Historic Site leap back to the 1930s to celebrate its 30th anniversary
Children play Four Square at King site
By Yan Yang
If you happened to walk down a certain section of Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue on October 10, you would have found yourself transported to the 1930s, complete with children playing Double Dutch and Four Square, shiny old Cadillacs and Fords parked on the street, and couples dancing the lindy hop to Duke Ellington blasting from the record player. All of that and more was on display at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, which transformed its section of Auburn Avenue into the 1930s to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the site, which is run by the federal National Park Service.
Greening Youth Foundation, a long-term partner with the MLK Site, participated in the celebration by organizing the Children’s Pavilion. On this sunny day, children from the neighborhood enjoyed a festival with a variety of games that children played in the 1930s, including Four Square, jacks and kickball. With the antique cars lining the street and an old Atlanta public bus sitting near the curb, the avenue rewound to a period when Dr. King was in his childhood. Dr. King’s son, Martin Luther King III, was on hand, as was his older sister, Christine King Farris, who sat on the porch of the original King family home (where Martin was born) and signed copies of the books she has written about her brother.
A Cadillac from the 1930s
In order to create a fun experience for kids, GYF volunteers from various high schools and colleges arrived at the site in the morning to set up and then played with children during the event, which lasted from 1 pm to 5 pm. Ridwaana Allen, a junior from Spelman College, said she really enjoyed her time volunteering and giving back to the community.
“It is wonderful that the street is decorated exactly as in the 1930s,” she said. “I had a lot of fun with the kids. I am originally from New York, but here in Atlanta I see so much hope from us African Americans. I go to a historically black college and I am constantly making new friends who are so smart. I am just so proud of us.”
Lindy hoppers get their 1930s groove on.
Not only the kids enjoyed the activities, but so did the adults. A few fathers joined their daughters in a game of Four Square. The event became a great opportunity for families to have fun together. Angelou Ezeilo, Executive Director of GYF, said the outdoor games were a good “workout” for the kids of today. Getting kids outside to play and enjoy the outdoors is a growing part of GYF’s mission.
In addition to the Children’s Pavilion, the celebration fused programs such as a live band and storytelling to relive the 1930s. Stephan Ferguson, an MLK interpreter and performer, even recreated King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Listening to Ferguson’s inspiring voice, the audience was giddy as it stepped back to 1963. Except for Ebenezer Baptist Church, all the attractions within the site were open. Park Ranger Richard Klima, dressed in a fireman’s uniform from the 1930s, explained the history of Fire Station No. 6 to visitors. At more than 100 years old, the fire station looks much the same way as it did when Martin visited it as a boy living in a house about 100 feet away.
At the First Aid station, nurse Helen Chiles shows off her 1930s-style uniform.
Volunteers from different backgrounds all flocked to Auburn Avenue for the same purpose: creating a fun environment for the children and commemorating the spirit of Dr. King. Mickey Goodson, a volunteer with Trails & Rails, summed it up: “Playing with kids is the most important thing we did today.”
Posted in Featured Stories
October 06, 2010.
In West Virginia, GYF shows federal employees how to work with diverse youth
GYF Operations Director James Ezeilo conducts training session.
Staff from the Greening Youth Foundation conducted a groundbreaking training session in West Virginia in early October, showing dozens of federal employees from various agencies how to effectively work with youth from diverse backgrounds and engage their communities in environmental projects and programs.
Greening Youth Foundation, the country’s first African-American-led Youth Conservation Corps, was chosen by the federal Department of the Interior to conduct the training session because of GYF’s demonstrated success in recruiting and training diverse youth to work in numerous National Park Service sites around the country. The Youth Conservation Corps is a federal fee-for-service program that engages young adults in conservation projects throughout the country. The National Park Service is a bureau of the Department of the Interior.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Director of the Department of the Interior’s Youth in the Great Outdoors program, said that connecting young people, particularly youth of color, women and girls, to the Department’s youth programs is an “important priority” of Ken Salazar, President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior.
“The Greening Youth Foundation is helping us achieve this important goal by educating and engaging our youth program staff on strategies of inclusion and diversity to improve our outreach and delivery of youth programs,” said Rodriguez, who attended the GYF training session.
The National Conservation Training Center, located in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is the site the Department of the Interior uses to train staffers from its many agencies in such areas as endangered species, environmental contaminants, aquatic ecology, statistical methodology, fisheries resources, and conservation biology. The Center’s Division of Education Outreach provides national training, program coordination, technical support, and distance learning for conservation professionals. Environmentalists from inside the Department of the Interior, from other federal agencies, and from groups outside of the government flock to the West Virginia center to take courses that range in length from one day to three weeks. Trainees from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management can take courses at the Center tuition-free.
Grounds of training center in West Virginia.
“This was a huge deal for the Greening Youth Foundation,” said Angelou Ezeilo, GYF’s Executive Director. “This was an amazing opportunity to demonstrate within other bureaus of the federal government that youth from diverse ethnic backgrounds are very much interested in the environment if given exposure and access. We were giving these bureaus a bird’s eye view of an organization that is working closely with communities of color to connect youth to the environment and professions within the field.”
The West Virginia training session was conducted by GYF’s Operations Director James Ezeilo, Education Director Ruth Kitchen and Youth Programs Director Sauda Jackson. During the session, the GYF staff focused on helping the trainees understand cultural sensitivity, the importance of cultural diversity, the need for community engagement and methods for doing it effectively. The staff used GYF’s success stories employing youth at sites like Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield and Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Georgia and Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado to demonstrate the process from start to finish.
“Providing this training is groundbreaking because it’s never been done before,” James Ezeilo said. “Everything we do is a first. But we’re taking the mystery out of working with youth of color. We’re showing that these young folks are just as concerned and passionate about being stewards of the environment as the next young adults. They are just typically not given the opportunity.”
Posted in Featured Stories
September 14, 2010.
By Ruth Kitchen, GYF Educational Director
What kind of environmental discoveries did you make throughout the summer holiday? Whether you stayed at home or journeyed beyond, we hope you took the time to enjoy the vibrant coloring and markings of a butterfly, a lantern of fireflies, the coolness from the shade of a tree, and a multitude of nature’s gifts. When we experience the beauty of a planet full of mystery, it is only natural to have the desire to protect it, so we and future generations will have the opportunity to embark on a world that provides never-ending discoveries that nurture the soul.
Through the Public School Initiative, Greening Youth Foundation will facilitate this awe of discovery and stewardship through the C.L.E.A.N. (Children Living Energetically Advancing Nature), Eco-Force Club, and School Wide Recycling. Our newly added wellness component will challenge students to take a good look at the importance of fueling our bodies with good nutrition and activity in order to truly live energetically.
Over 15,000 students will be impacted by GYF’s Public School Initiative that includes schools throughout the Atlanta area and internationally in a satellite program in Ghana. Due to the trickle-up effect to parents, siblings, etc., we are confident the impact is far greater, thus changing whole communities.
As the school year gets underway, consider participating in the following activities to promote wellness and environmental awareness.
October: International Walk to School Month 2010 (www.iwalktoschool.org)
October 10: Martin Luther King National Historic Site 30-Year Anniversary Celebration (http://www.nps.gov/malu/)
If you would like to share your discovery experiences, please send to rkitchen@gyfoundation.org. Greening Youth Foundation will highlight an entry every month.
Posted in Featured Stories
