YEJ History

In the fall of 2002, the 2nd International People of Color Summit took place in Washington D.C. and Bay Area youth inisted on not only attending, but also strongly representing strongly. In order to do this, youth representatives from various Bay Area youth environmental justice organizations held monthly meetings preceeding the summit. These meetings consisted of teambuilding, getting to know each other's campaign work as well as in depth discussions about what we wanted to take to the summit.

Attending the summit was a successful venture for the Bay Area youth as well as youth all over the country. The youth attended with the aim to represent, and that goal was powerfully reached. Youth lead workshops, participated in workshops, and worked to ensure that youth had a safe space to talk and connect amongst each other. After retruning from Washington D.C., there was an automatic assumption that the organiations would continue to work and collaborate together, however that was easier said than done. At the time, no one organization had the capacity to take on such a task and the networking became dormant.

In 2006 the YEJ network arose to thrive once again! YUCA restructured programs in order to increase the capacity of the young people to network and connect with other youth who participate in environmental justice work! YEJ is all about exposing young people to others who are doing similar work in order to depthen the analysis on environmental justice! We look foward to building our network in order to claim our place as young people who are active agents in the fight for environmental justice!

Central Valley Groups
Associacion de Gente Unido por el Agua (AGUA) Youth Representatives:
Jessica Sanchez
Ana Orozco
Miriam Sancez
E. Orosi & Visalia, CA
For more information, please visit www.communitywatercenter.org

Kids Protecting Our Planet (K-POP) Youth Representatives:
Miguel Alatorre
Jose Rodriguez
Kettleman City, CA

Bay Area Groups
Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ)Youth Representatives:
LaConstance Shahid
Eric Dillon
Hunter's Point, San Francisco, CA
For more information, please visit www.lejyouth.org

YUCA Higher Learning Core Youth Representatives:
Anthony Clark
Dalila Thomas
East Palo Alto, CA