LVEJO's Youth Organizing Program Building the Next Generation of Climate Organizers in Chicago

Earth Rising is proud to support LVEJO’s Youth Organizing Program. This program cultivates the next generation of climate and environmental justice leaders in Little Village, a frontline community deeply impacted by environmental racism. Grounded in LVEJO’s long-standing environmental justice organizing, the Youth Organizing Program provides space for young people to build relationships, develop shared analysis of power in their community and strengthen their capacity to act collectively for change.

Over the course of eight weeks, LVEJO hired eight young people ages 16 to 25 to help start the LVEJO Youth Council and to deepen their own organizing skills through leadership development, collective action and community based learning. Participants worked ten hours per week in a hybrid model, getting paid twenty-five dollars per hour and receiving a personal development fund that could go towards equipment, materials, or training aligned with their learning goals. This payment is a crucial part of LVEJO’s programming as it recognizes the economic barriers to participation in the climate justice movement and also the expertise that youth bring to the climate movement. 

Each week of the program focused on a different key theme such as collective leadership, systems of power, environmental justice history and much else. The programming included sessions with the full cohort, one on one mentorship, direct action in ongoing organizing campaigns and youth led meetings. Staff at LVEJO supported the cohort by providing tools, helping shape frameworks and guiding the cohort’s collective work. The result was a meaningful several weeks for participants that both fostered relationships among the cohort, help build long term organizing skills and provided a framework for moving their work forward. 

Specifically, the cohort designed a strategy and potential campaign titled “Green Spaces, Third Places” to address the lack of accessible green and communal spaces in historically segregated and disinvested neighborhoods. Youth identified that while public parks and green areas are limited, those that do exist are places of empowerment and community building. 

Their strategy centers on community reclamation of land and reimagining public space as places for connection and healing. The campaign consists of educating and mobilizing youth leaders, developing educational materials on land stewardship and environmental justice and building youth hubs where young organizers mentor and develop campaigns together. 

In all, the Youth Organizing Program marks an important step for LVEJO in cultivating youth leadership, community care and climate justice organizing in Little Village. Earth Rising is excited to support such inspiring efforts to prioritize youth organizing.