Our award-winning Environmental Health and Justice Leadership Training (EHJLT) program introduces WE ACT members to environmental justice, environmental health, community organizing, and campaign work to prepare more leaders from Northern Manhattan for advocacy work. After completing the training, participants of the EHJLT are equipped with the knowledge and tools needed to organize campaigns or projects for WE ACT and/or broader environmental/social justice movements on their own.
Environmental Justice Leadership Training: January-March 2027
WE ACT created the award-winning Environmental Justice Leadership Training program to develop the next generation of environmental justice activists. The curriculum introduces community members to environmental health and justice, while building skills in advocacy, organizing, research, and campaign work. EHJLT participants will be equipped with the knowledge and tools needed to organize around a wide range of issues, including air quality and pollution, energy justice, exposure to toxic products, healthy homes and housing justice, climate resilience, and green infrastructure solutions.
This program requires a commitment! Because of the high demand and limited availability, we ask that you only register if you can commit to attending all 7 weeks of the course (6 class meetings and the graduation ceremony). The classes will be held weekly on Tuesdays from 6:00-8:00 PM at our office on the second floor of 1854 Amsterdam Avenue (at the corner of West 152nd Street): January 19th, January 26th, February 2nd, February 9th, February 16th, February 23rd, and March 2nd. Dinner will be provided, though the class is only available in English. Graduates will receive a small gift and certificate completion. Register
SUMMER 2024 YOUTH EHJLT PROGRAM
We worked with BioBus to help 4th-6th graders at the Manhattanville Community Center in Harlem understand the science behind environmental justice. Learn more here!
SUMMER 2023 YOUTH EHJLT PROGRAM
Summer Search students who graduated from this summer’s Youth Environmental Health & Justice Leadership Training program applied what they learned to make presentations on environmental justice issues impacting their community. One team developed a website on food waste, called Save the Scraps, which gives a good overview of the problem as well as offers some potential solutions. It also features a map for dumpsters diving (including ratings for specific dumpsters, for the gourmets out there) and another map of community fridges. Check it out here!
In addition, each year we conduct a special Environmental Health and Justice Leadership Training program for students at the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS). Pictured above is the 2019 graduating class of that program, and below is a video they put together to say thank you.
To give you a sense of the passion and enthusiasm these students have for our EHLJT program, below is short clip from the awards ceremony. At the end of the program, we hold an expo where teams of students present their projects, showcasing what they learned. We give out awards for the best presentations, and this the team that came in 4th place!
Also in 2019, we had a dozen WE ACT members participate in a summer Environmental Health and Justice Leadership Training program. They developed the skills and knowledge needed to become community advocates, whether supporting WE ACT initiatives or leading their own. This included learning about the foundations of organizing, clean air quality, climate justice and energy security, and healthy homes with guest speakers such as Mike Harrington of the New School’s Tishman Environment and Design Center, Dr. Jeanette Stingone of Columbia University’s Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan, and Dr. Maida Galvez of the New York State Children’s Environmental Health Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Below are some testimonials from members who took our EHJLT program the summer of 2019.