Youth and Community Economic Development - Environmental Youth Alliance (EYA)

8/6/2019 Youth and Community Economic Development - Environmental Youth Alliance (EYA)

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Youth in Community Economic Development

The Environmental Youth Alliance

Strengthening Canadas Communities / Des communauts plus fortes au Canada


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Acknowledgement and Thanks

This project was funded by Coast Capital Savings Credit Union, the Muttart Foundation, Human Resourcesand Social Development Canada and Industry Canada.

We would like to thank all of the funders of this project, the participants, staff and volunteers who helpedprovide direction. We look forward to continuing feedback, comments and suggestions.

Thank you to the following people who contributed to our research. There are many others who pointed us inthe right direction, thanks to you as well.

Marc Nisbet, Allysha Larsen, Keith Jorgenson, Ola Nuga, Jennifer Morris, Jean Arnold, Doug Ragan, MaeveLydon, Larry Jorgenson, Melanie Sondergaard, Anne Docherty, Doug Docherty, Megan Myres, Linda Myres,ric Stephenson, Marie-Camille Lalande, Jane Rabinowicz, Michele Cherot, Linda Geggie, Tim Ewanchuck,and Joy Illington.

Compiled by Farrar Brodhead and Robin June Hood. Produced by the Canadian CED Network 2006.Graphics and Design by Oliver Luke Delorie and Stewart Hertzog.


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Canadian CED Network: Profile of Youth in CED

www.ccednet-rcdec.ca

This profile is one of fifteenstories examining youth

involvement in communityeconomic development

(CED). The profiles havebeen produced as part of the

Canadian CED Networksefforts to encourage effective

practices in youth leadershipand engagement to enhance

the social and economicconditions of Canadas

communities.

This work was supported byCoast Capital Savings Credit

Union, the MuttartFoundation, Social

Development Canada, andIndustry Canada.

Strengthening Canadas Communities / Des communauts plus fortes au Canada Youth in Community Economic Development

The Environmental Youth Alliance (EYA)

The Environmental Youth Alliance is more than an environmental organization. Likeorganizations that take a community economic development (CED) approach in their work,EYA approaches sustainable development in an integrated manner that addresses

environmental, social, and economic goals together. EYA is a non-profit, non-governmentalcharity, a community development organization dedicated to improving the physical andsocial environment through hands on communityprojects that involve, train and employ young people,and to creating sustainable living alternatives that areconcretely measurable and attainable.i

Working in the environmental movement can offer adirect gateway into meaningful work that connectsyouth with their larger community and a globalmovement, while still being able to effect change at alocal level. With its social/environmental agenda EYA

is able to offer a hands on work experience to youththat is genuinely contributing to change, a quality thatencourages persons of any age to engage.

Context

EYA was founded in Vancouver, the birthplace ofGreenpeace, SPEC and numerous other prominentenvironmental organizations. Vancouver is also hometo the downtown east side, where high levels ofpoverty and homelessness affect large numbers ofyoung people. It was within this climate ofenvironmental activism and the context of a multitudeof urban social problems that EYA emerged.

EYA has an organizational vision of sustainability that includes social, environmental andeconomic aspects. Young people of diverse communities are active in the organization at alllevels, including as Board members, staff, program coordinators and volunteers. From anenvironmental perspective, EYA tackles issues that affect and are caused by cities andurban lifestyles. This focus has also meant understanding and trying to influence the socialenvironment that causes people to act in ways that are over-consumptive of naturalresources. The direct economic benefit is through giving youth an experience of


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meaningful participation in society andincreased confidence in themselves,encouraging them to aim for higher careergoals, ones that will hopefully add morevalue for society.(EYA)

I find that, when given a choice, a lot ofyoung people are willing to sacrifice the big

salaries for the ability to maintain

relationships and social connections. Not allobviously, but what does drive a lot of young

people is the desire to establish and re-establish relationships.

Doug Ragan, EYA

History

EYA celebrates its fifteenth anniversarythis year. As its grown and changed, theorganization has been forced to re-inventitself multiple times, as well as to re-define

its understanding and use of the termyouth-driven. Although this has not beenan easy process, it has been full oflearning, for members both within andoutside the organization, and this organicquality has allowed EYA to survive andkeep its relevance and vision throughout.

Doug Ragan recollects the early develop-ment of the organization:

The organization started in 1990. In the

beginning EYA was high school based.The organization caught the wave of theenvironmental movement. We hadmembers across the country andinternationally as well. We created eco-clubs, and held tons of conferences andforums. We had seventeen conferencesacross Canada in 3 years. There were alsowilderness and environmental awarenesstrips internationally in partnership withother youth organizations it was all veryheady! At that time EYA was about youth

for youth, but a much younger set of youththen now. It was amazing what high schooland elementary youth could do! At onepoint we had 20,000 members and 150environmental clubs in high schools acrossCanada!

So that was the first push, and it continuedfor 4 or 5 years. Then the funding dried up,

after 1993- 94. The organization wentthrough a bit of a re-work, a re-think of theorganization and its mission. Theorganization went from entirelyenvironmentally focused, based in thewest-side of Vancouver, with an overallmake-up of high achieving young peoplefrom the private or alternative schoolsystem, to a more diverse membership

with a different vision and a locale on theeast side...

There was complete turmoil. We wentfrom being really environmentally focusedto looking at social inclusion and justiceissues in addition to the environment. Theenvironmental education mandateexpanded to effecting positive change inthe social and physical environments of ourcommunities. We moved away from thesolely environmental mission. We still had

a very strong component of youth-ledprograms, but it began to focus morearound youth-at-risk, and moremarginalized youth, actively trying toengage other cultures. With changesoccurring inside the organization there wasalso a change of age range within theorganization. Funding changed as well,from money raining in from all sides toHRDC as our primary funding source. Westill get a lot of funding from HRDC.

EYAs home base is the Cottonwoodcommunity garden. EYA developed ayouth-led element, encouraging andsupporting youth-run, youth-drivenprograms. The Youth-Driven Coalitionbegan, with a very specific definition foryouth-run organizations, creating acommunity of youth-run organizations. Themajor purpose from EYAs perspectivebehind this was because we kept havingyouth approach us saying, I want to startthis project or I have an idea. From day

one we had people coming to us withenergy andideas, but we didnt know whatmade them tick or want to/ be able toachieve. Youth involvement was reallypulled in through the environmentalmovement.


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Activities in CED

EYAs activities span a range of programs,that when combined contribute to theholistic and diverse approach todevelopment that CED encourages.Although EYA has implemented a numberof environmental programs, such ascommunity gardens, urban green space

and alternative energy programs, programsthat focus solely on the social environmenthave also been implemented. Examplesinclude: a magazine for urban aboriginalyouth, a capacity-building program foryouth-driven organizations and a programto map community assets.ii

Community Gardens

The Gardens had come to full capacity byspring of 1991, and the desire to expand

had been brewing for some time. With afew arguments, on December 12th CityCouncil confirmed public access to thearea that became Cottonwood Gardens.Strathcona community was also supportiveof a Youth Garden and in the spring of1993, the first areas of the Youth Gardenwere created with new energy and spirit.

The spring and summer of 1994 saw thedevelopment of Stewardship Camps andthe involvement of youth in the gardens

grew. Wildlife habitat creation was animportant part of this new inner city green-space that was being created. Volunteerscreated Willows Drink, a pond which nowsupports local aquatic and bird species. Anurban forest was planted, focussing on re-introducing native tree species andproviding a stopoverpoint for the large migrating birdpopulations. A sign of the increasing healthof Cottonwoods was the appearance of afamily of Red-tailed hawks in the

Cottonwood trees above.

Running in tandem with the Stewardshipcamps was another program in thegardens entitled Young Women CreatingChange. This program involved womenfrom local high schools partnered withwomen in the village of Mae Sai, Thailand.Both groups worked on projects that

involved learning job skills based on thegarden produce. Traditional uses of plantsfrom the gardens were explored to makemedicines, salves, shampoos, preserves,weaving and cloth dyeing. Those involvedin this project had the opportunity to gaininsight and share wisdom around theissues of community economicdevelopment, business operation, food andplant use, the health and cosmetic industry

Community Gardening

Ask someone who works in anycommunity garden what renting or

sharing a plot means to them and youare bound to get a great range of

responses, often accompanied with a

big smile and a willingness to sharegardening tips. For some, it is apractical and economical source of

providing food for themselves and theirfamilies; for others it is a relaxing,

meditative way of leaving the pressuresof the city behind and being satisfiedwith the simple acts of transplanting,

watering and observing the lives of theirplants; for still others it is a way of

getting to know and trying tounderstand the peoples, cultures and

beliefs that comprise their community.But for most of the world, in Asia, Africaand Latin America, it means survival.

Actually it is all of this and more.

The concept of community gardensoffers an alternative to the commoditydriven, competitive environment that isthe commonplace of many cities. They

help to create and increase foodsecurity, foster self-reliance and

support local trade and economics. Thisinvolves a collective need and desire to

steward the land in a basic and, somesay, instinctual fashion; to be able to

feel a sense of ownership andresponsibility in the city where many

people do not and cannot.

(EYA)


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and the socio-political implications involvedin these issues.

Since then EYA has continued to co-createa healthy and balanced ecosystem byplanting native species, using traditionaland modern gardening techniques, andbringing groups of young people to the siteto educate and to demonstrate the values

of gardening, ecology and communitybuilding. Youth from the RaycamCommunity Centre and from StreetfrontAlternative Program have held plots in thegarden for several seasons and youth fromthe Trek Program and the DowntownEastside Youth Activity Society haveplayed key roles in the development of theYouth Garden with skills in design,carpentry, art and, of course, gardening.(EYA)

Centre of Excellence Youth Community Asset Mapping

The EYA is a core partner of the Centre ofExcellence for Youth Engagement, a fiveyear research project looking at hows andwhys of youth involvement. In partnershipwith researchers and other youth agencies,EYA has undertaken participatory actionresearch projects that put youth in thedrivers seat in looking at their lives andwhat connects them to their communities.

The goal is to strengthen the youthcommunity, and youth driven agenciesincluding EYA, to better work with peersand effect positive change in what is doneand how it is achieved. (EYA)

Youth Health Service Mapping

EYA staff worked with over 50 youth fromdiverse backgrounds to create mapsanswering questions regarding healthservices such as what would an ideal

health service look like? This informationis intended for use by youth and the healthservice providers to create better healthierservices for youth in Vancouver.

Youth Mapping of Parks

Children and youth from communities suchas Collingwood Renfrew, and China Creek

mapped their local parks. Using the mapsas evidence, presentations were made tocommunity centres, city planners, and thelocal community with the goal of makingthe parks more child and youth friendly.

International Childrens Conference on theEnvironment

Children from over 70 countries cametogether and used mapping as the tool tocreate challenges to the world leadersgathered in Johannesburg for the WorldSummit on Sustainable Development(WSSD). Two children from Canada,supported by EYA interns, went to WSSDand delivered the challenges which werewritten up in the final political statement ofthe conference. (EYA)

Youth in Governance and Research

The goal of this division is to facilitateyoung peoples voices in the process ofpublic decision-making on the local,provincial, national, and international scale.EYA does this by training young people topresent their own voices to policy makersin an engaging manner. This includesgenerating research done by and with theyouth themselves. (EYA)

Promoting Youth Driven and

Youth Led Programs

For 5 years from 1997 2003 EYAfacilitated a coalition of youth drivenagencies. The purpose of this coalition wasto come together and collectively increasethe capacity of their organizations andgroups, and the youth in the community, toeffect positive change. In 2001 the YouthDriven coalition came together to create aplan for the youth driven communityentitled the Blueprint for Success. This plan

had six concrete actions such as thedevelopment of a youth magazine,established from 2002-2004 called Ignite,and a Youth Outreach Team, nowestablished within the City of VancouverSocial Planning office. A current actionunderway is the establishment of a HUB foryouth organizations to share space within.To achieve this a new youth agency has


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been established, which will be unveiled atthe upcoming UN HABITAT World UrbanForum in Vancouver in 2006. As the leadorganization for the youth stream of thisUN conference, the conference will have astrong focus on youth led development andorganizations, profiling agencies fromVancouver to Nairobi.

Growing Kids Workshops - Spring 2006

Growing Kids aims to educate children onFood Security and Urban Agriculture. Thisexciting, new, interactive educationalworkshop directed towards grades 2-3students enables kids to grow their ownfood and raises awareness of food issuesat the local and global scale. (EYA)

Inner City Roof Gardens

EYA now manages 2 rooftop gardenprograms. The goal with these projects isto support environmental and socialbenefits to the inner city. These benefitsinclude increased biomass and biodiversityin the inner city, and green space that canprovide much-needed habitat to inner citywildlife and insects. A roof garden canprovide a safe sense of pride. Roofgardens also help with urban foodproduction through the community gardenplots. The roof gardens are located on

inner city housing projects and work withthe urban poor to reconnect with plants andnature. (EYA)

Youth Inclusion in CED

Administered and operated through apartnership of youth and adults, EYA is

structured around the idea that youth holdpower in all aspects of the organization, from

program delivery to governance.

Doug Ragan, EYAWhen discussing youth inclusion EYAreflected on its own organizational historyand structural evolution with us. There wasan intense process of growth, including thechallenges and efforts of the organizationto re-define and understand what youth-driven, youth-ledand youth inclusion mean

and how those interpretations impacted thevision and actions of the organizationoverall. This reflection led to tremendouslearning within the EYA community aboutgenuine youth inclusion.

Doug Ragan said: Certainly [the notionthat youth-driven organizations can andmust be run only by youth] was one of the

biggest challenges for EYA to overcome.EYA struggled to maintain a purely youthdriven organization, but found that thisended up tokenizing rather thanempowering young people. EYAs searchfor a new and more authentically youth-driven structure would remain the mostpressing issue in the organization for mostof the remainder of the decade.

By 1998 the organization had gonethrough many stages of turmoil, with few

issues of leadership and power left un-discussed. A new structure began toemerge which recognized both the role ofadults and the importance of diversity tothe success of the organization. With theformal recognition of the organization beingrun by an equitable partnership betweenadults and youth, issues such as a lack ofexperience and training in the organizationbegan to be addressed. Adults now had amore defined role, and the focus of theorganization became not how to create an

organization run totally by youth, but howto create an organization that had adultsand youth working equitably andrespectfully together. (Exploration, p16.)

Once the authority and power wereunmasked and equitable and respectfulrelations were established, then amentorship organizational model couldoccur in a genuine intergenerationalmanner. One of the intergenerationalopportunities being created is the

mentorship dynamic. The mentorshipprocess is an attempt to combine thechaotic creativity of EYA with the traditionalstability of a large organization.

As with its holistic approach to sustainabledevelopment, EYAs approach to youthinclusion through job training encompassesmore than just a handover or teaching of


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skills. It is a question of supporting youngpeople to become re-engaged with theircommunities, genuinely including them inthe process of community change. Thetheory is that if young people are able tomake positive contributions in the networkswithin their communities it will begin tobreak down barriers to cooperationbetween the generations.

With job training programs many peopleconsider the participants empty vessels needing

to be filled with skills and then they can sendthem out to get a job. But if you look further,

theres a whole function of giving peoplecommunity networks as part of the largerprocess of knitting people back into their

communities. EYA works with young peopledoing community service projects, but its really

about developing a relationship between theyoung person and their community. There is

usually a basket-full of reasons why peoplearent involved in their community, and without

being involved they will be blocked out ofcertain aspects of that community. This more

holistic approach to job training is not verycommon in the job training world because its

very complicated to achieve.

Doug Ragan, EYAOutcomes and Evaluation

The outcomes from the organizationallearning about creating an equitableenvironment for youth and adults include aleadership and management structure thatis a mixture of the traditional organizationand the youthdriven, non-hierarchicalorganization. The Board of Directors wasre-introduced, with a renewed multi-generational membership, along with amore formalized decision-making processin an effort to ensure more organizationaltransparency.

EYA has also strived to spawn and supportorganizations like RedWire, an urbanAboriginal youth magazine. The publicationis now its own entity, independent of EYA,an asset to its community, and the idea hasbeen replicated again and again. Dougreflects that: We truly look to findprograms like that in what were doing. Its

a challenge to do it at times, it took yearsfor RedWire become independent, but nowits spun off. Tons of people in theAboriginal youth community access it, andthe idea has now been replicated multipletimes.

In 2003, EYA had 80 youth interns, 150volunteer hours were facilitated and 10,000

Lessons Learned

Youth-led agencies need to havesome basic supports in the

organizational structure but theydont want to have those imposed.Youth naturally tend to create veryegalitarian structures, something

that organizational analystsgenerally consider positively. Thisnon-hierarchical structure can be

incredibly dynamic as an institution.With a little bit of support the youth

organizations can move a lotfurther.

You have to make it about reality,not just a fluffy project.

Leaving your networks behind is

the last thing you should do. Theway to stay sane is to be strategic,to identify when you go and when

you hang back. You need to look atthe bigger picture that this

activism could be for the next tenor fifteen years. And you can come

at it from multiple directions,moving your community forward,

while also working at policy.

There are three underlyingmanagement issues that make

youth-driven organizationsvulnerable to poverty-traps:

Lack of connections topeople with managementexperience

Lack of experience andtraining in programmingand administration

A solely youth-drivenorganizational structure.


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Published by

Canadian CED Network211-620 View Street,Victoria, BC V8W 1J6Telephone (250) 386-9980Toll free 1 (877) 202-2268Fax (250) 386-9984

Emerging Leaders [email protected]

An electronic copy of this documentwill be available on the CCEDNetwebsite: http://www.ccedet-rcdec.ca/

Ce document est aussi disponible enfrancais.

Copyright 2006Canadian CED Network

ContactDoug RaganTelephone (604) 689 4463Email [email protected]: http://www.eya.ca/

This profile is contributing to the goals of theEmerging Leaders committee of CCEDNetwhich seeks to build leadership opportunities

for young people in CED. Thank you very muchto everyone that participated!

iTaken from http://www.eya.ca/ on January 17

th,

2006. All references to this website will be identifiedas (EYA) for the rest of the document.

iiRagan, Doug. Environmental Youth Alliance; AnExploration of Complexity Science. University ofMcGill, Montreal. May 2005. P. 5. All references tothis source will be identified as (Exploration, p.#) for

the rest of the document.iii

Doug Ragan, Youth Driven Survey (EYA, 1998), 6.

ivBridging: A distinct form of collaboration carried out

by an independent organization, occurs whendiverse stakeholders who share a common concern,are mobilized to cooperate despite their lowwillingness, ability or access to collaborate directly.Bridging: An Inquiry into Naming the Essence ofEYA. P.1.

Youth and Community Economic Development - Environmental Youth Alliance (EYA)

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