Cultivating Youth Earth Connections Summer Internship Program

Even though environmental and community health are in decline, there is no popular understanding of how to protect our earth or ensure that all people have fair access to its resources. This project was conceived with an understanding that under-served communities of color lack access to safe green spaces, nutritious food, and environmental education. In addition, mainstream environmentalism does not include discussions of race, class, gender, or environmental justice, even though many young people desire to make healthy living affordable and accessible for everyone. In the San Gabriel Valley, residents navigate through a concrete landscape; it is a region with too many underfunded public schools and fast food restaurants, where ancestral farming knowledge is steadily being lost. Nonetheless, there are currently no programs in the San Gabriel Valley or Inland Empire which connect youth with urban farms or foster notions of the value and necessity of environmental justice.