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Children, Youth and Environments 15(1), 2005

Empowering Youth and Creating Healthy

Environments in Northern Manhattan: WE ACTsYouth P rograms

Julie SzeUniversity of California at Davis

Swati PrakashWest Harlem Environmental Action

Alice McIntosh

West Harlem Environmental Action

Citation: Sze, Julie, Swati Prakash and Alice McIntosh. (2005). EmpoweringYouth and Creating Healthy Environments in Northern Manhattan: WE ACTsYouth Programs.Children, Youth and Environments 15(1): 265-277.

Retrieved [date] from http:/ / ww w.colorado.edu/journals/cye/ .

Comment on This Field Report

Abstract

Racial minority children, youth and families in the United States suffer disproportionately

from urban environmental health problems. This field report focuses on how onecommunity-based environmental justice organization in New York City, West Harlem

Environmental Action (WE ACT), has focused on youth organizing around environmentalhealth issues to improve the lives of the individual participants in their youth programs,

while supporting larger organizational and community goals for an improved urbanenvironment. WE ACT's youth programs have come in two forms: the Earth Crew Youth

Leadership Program and DIFFERENTT (Diverse Individuals Fighting for Environmental and

Reproductive Rights Now 'Til Tomorrow) which focuses on relationships betweenreproductive, environmental, and community health. This report outlines the social, political,

and geographic contexts for WE ACTs youth programs. It also highlights their underlying

experiential learning philosophy, as well as their connections to WE ACTs community-basedenvironmental health research and political agenda for improving the environment inNorthern Manhattan.

Keywords:urban environmental health, community activism, theenvironmental justice movement, New York City, West Harlem, asthma,community-based research

2005 Children, Youth and Environments
http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/index.htmhttp://colorado.edu/journals/cye/article_comment.htm?title=Empowering_Youth_and_Creating_Healthy_Environments_in_Northern_Manhattan_(15_1)http://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=urban%20environmental%20healthhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=community%20activismhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=the%20environmental%20justice%20movementhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=the%20environmental%20justice%20movementhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=New%20York%20Cityhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=West%20Harlemhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=asthmahttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=community-based%20researchhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=community-based%20researchhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=asthmahttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=West%20Harlemhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=New%20York%20Cityhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=the%20environmental%20justice%20movementhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=the%20environmental%20justice%20movementhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=community%20activismhttp://www.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-proxy/plan/housing-info/child/noteadd.cgi?action=search&firstname=&lastname=&yearlogic=all&hasattach=all&version=short&logical=and&keywords=urban%20environmental%20healthhttp://colorado.edu/journals/cye/article_comment.htm?title=Empowering_Youth_and_Creating_Healthy_Environments_in_Northern_Manhattan_(15_1)http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/index.htm

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Empowering Youth and Creating Healthy Environments in Northern Manhattan 266

IntroductionRacial minority children, youth and families in the United States sufferdisproportionately from urban environmental health problems. These includeelevated exposure to environmental health risks such as lead paint and airpollution, as well as unequal access to environmental amenities such as parks and

playgrounds. In response, communities of color have used the framework andlanguage of the environmental justice movement to combat problems ofenvironmental racism and health. The environmental justice movement asserts thatthe disproportionate burden of pollution borne by people and communities of colorin the United States is a manifestation of racism. It has redefined the environmentas the places where people of color live, work, play, pray, and learn. In 1991 at theFirst National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, the burgeoningenvironmental justice movement articulated 17 Principles of Environmental Justice,including a call for the education of present and future generations whichemphasizes social and environmental issues, based on our experience and anappreciation of our diverse cultural perspectives.

The environmental justice movement is active in many different places in theUnited States and on a multitude of issues. This field report focuses on how onecommunity-based environmental justice organization in New York City, WestHarlem Environmental Action (WE ACT), has focused on youth organizing aroundenvironmental health issues to strengthen and to improve the lives of the individualparticipants in their youth programs, while supporting larger organizational andcommunity goals for an improved urban environment. WE ACT is a non-profit,community-based, environmental justice organization that is dedicated to buildingcommunity power to fight environmental racism and to improve environmentalhealth, protection and policy in communities of color. One of the first environmentalorganizations in New York state to be headed by people of color, WE ACT was

founded and incorporated in 1988 as a result of local community struggles aroundair pollution and other environmental threats created by the poor management ofthe North River Sewage Treatment Plant and the operation of six diesel bus depotsin Northern Manhattan.

A central analysis of the environmental justice movement is that the historicexclusion or marginalization of certain populations from political decision-makingprocesses is a root cause of the disproportionate burden of pollution to which thesecommunities are exposed. In many ways, young people are a population whosehealthphysical, mental, and emotionalis especially vulnerable to the adverseimpacts of damaged environments. Young people traditionally do not enjoy theright of full participation in decisions about their environment that can have serious

impacts on their well-being. One consequence is a sense of alienation from anenvironment over which young people feel no control, feelings which can manifestin adulthood on a community-wide scale. The environmental justice movement hasrecognized the need to foster a sense of belonging and to integrate young people ofcolor into the environmental fabric of a community, to help them understand andfeel a sense of ownership of how their environment affects their health, and to helpthem develop their own voices to be effective partners in the decision-makingprocess on matters related to their community and environments.

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WE ACTs central belief is that preparing the next generation to understand andconfront environmental racism is the key to sustaining hard-won environmental

justice victories. Another priority is to ensure that youth programs can enhance theindividual development of their participants. Thus, youth leadership is a keycomponent of WE ACTs overall organizational goals. WE ACT's major youthprograms have taken two forms (named by the youth themselves): the Earth CrewYouth Leadership Program (Earth Crew), which ran from 1993 through 2000; andthe more recently developed program, Young Women of Color Organizing Project(whose participants took the name Diverse Individuals Fighting for Environmentaland Reproductive Rights Now 'Til TomorrowDIFFERENTT).

Earth Crew developed the leadership potential of youth of color (primarily African-American and Latino) by using the urban environment as a classroom. The EarthCrew Program has taught over 200 young people since 1993 such valuable skills ascritical thinking, public speaking, environmental audits, pollution monitoring andcommunity leadership. Earth Crew was both a summer program, funded by the City

of New York Summer Youth Employment Program, and an after school program.Any young person from Upper Manhattan or the Bronx could be involved.Recruitment was conducted through churches, schools, and community meetings.The participants were overwhelmingly low- to middle-low-income socioeconomicstatus, and there was always a very deliberate effort to balance the group in termsof gender, race and ethnicity (between African-American and Latino, with a limitednumber of White and Asian participants). The numbers of participants dependedupon whether it was a summer or after school session, ranging from 15 up to 35.There was always one staff youth coordinator, and one young person who wastrained as a peer leader within the group.

In the summer of 2001, WE ACTs youth group (then named Planet Rock Youth)comprised mostly young women. Although this composition was not by design, WEACT staff noticed a significant difference between the dynamics of the group andthat of the previous summers group. With only two young men present in thesummer of 2001, the ten young women appeared much more comfortable withvoicing their opinions and taking leadership within the group. This observationcoincided with a growing interest by other WE ACT programs in betterunderstanding and addressing the specific impacts of environmental exposures andpollution on the health of women and of children. WE ACTs involvement since 1998as a community partner in a large Mothers and Newborns study by the ColumbiaCenter for Childrens Environmental Health helped the organization begin to makeconnections between pollution exposure and birth outcomes as part of a growing

body of evidence that suggests the long-term impact on reproductive anddevelopmental health is linked to certain chemical and pollution exposures.

DIFFERENTT, launched by WE ACT in 2002, was designed to develop the leadershippotential of young women of color by empowering them to become trained,outspoken advocates for the clean and healthy environment necessary for goodreproductive and overall health. The 20 young women who have been involved inDIFFERENTT have all focused on a particular environmental and reproductive health

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issue around which they educated and organized their peers and communities (thisgroup was 30 percent Latina, 20 percent native Caribbean and 50 percent African-American). This shift in program emphasis mirrored a shift in WE ACTs fundingsources, from public funding which focused on helping individual teenagers on aninterpersonal level, to funding that dovetailed with WE ACTs broader community-oriented and organizational goals through support of staff resources and spacerental.

Social, Political and Geographic Contexts for WE ACTs Youth

ProgramsScholars have argued that the exposure of African-Americans and other minoritiesin metropolitan areas to high levels of pollution is an outcome of racialized urbandevelopment (Hamilton 1993). According to sociologist and environmental justicescholar Robert Bullard, toxic time bombs are not randomly scattered across theurban landscape, but concentrated in communities that have high percentages ofpoor, elderly, young and minority residents (Bullard 1994). The racialization ofurban environmental health risks and their disproportionate impacts on children and

youth are seen in Northern Manhattan in New York City.

Northern Manhattan is a densely populated set of four neighborhoodsEast Harlem,Central Harlem, West Harlem and Washington Heights / Inwoodat the northernend of the island of Manhattan in New York City. The more than 600,000 residentsof these communities live in just 7.4 square miles of space. Forty-four percent ofthese residents identify as African-American, and 44 percent as Latino. The medianincome ranged from $14,896 to $29,479 in 1999 (United States Census Bureau).The communities of Northern Manhattan are home to a rich historical and culturallegacy and many thriving, diverse neighborhoods. These are also communities thathave been burdened with environmentally hazardous land uses. The area is

bounded on the west and east sides by highways and bridges, as well as an Interstatehighway that crosses through Washington Heights. On Harlem's west side is adilapidated Hudson River waterfront that houses a recently closed marine transferstation and the North River sewage treatment facility. On Harlem's east side the agingWards Island sewage treatment plant emits hydrogen sulfides and nitrogen oxidesthat exacerbate respiratory disease. Northern Manhattan is also home to a diesel-fueled Amtrak rail line, five out of six of Manhattans Metropolitan TransportationAuthority (MTA) diesel bus depots, a large NY/NJ Port Authority bus station, a largesalt pile on the Harlem River near the Triborough Bridge, and multiple industrialland uses in the very Northern tip of Washington Heights such as the MTA TrainMaintenance facility. Other environmental hazards include many chemical-intensivesmall businesses such as dry cleaners, nail salons, metal shops and auto-bodyshops.

The presence of so many sources of diesel exhaust, a respiratory irritant andasthma trigger, is of particular concern in the asthma-burdened communities ofNorthern Manhattan. New York City is often described as the epicenter of thenations asthma epidemic. Within New York City, asthma hospitalization rates in2000 averaged 33.6 per 10,000 residents, more than twice the national average of16.7 per 10,000 residents (Garg et al. 2003). This burden is felt particularly hard

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by children of color. Asthma is the leading cause of hospitalizations for New YorkCity children, and hospitalization rates are linked to class and race. Residents oflow-income ZIP codes are hospitalized for asthma roughly five times more thanresidents of high-income ZIP codes (ibid.), and the communities with the highestrates of childhood asthma hospitalization are all low-income communities of color.East Harlem heads the list at 170.2 hospitalizations per 10,000 population forchildren aged 0-14 in the year 2000, compared to a citywide average of 64 (ibid.)and a national average of 33.6 childhood asthma hospitalizations per 10,000 peoplein 2000 (American Lung Association 2003). One study based at the Harlem HospitalCenter found that 25.5 percent children in central Harlem have asthma, doubleexpected rate and one of highest ever documented in the United States (Perez-Pena 2003).

WE ACT and other community-based organizations are active on air pollution andenvironmental health issues in Northern Manhattan, and their impacts on childrenand youth. Of special concern is the diesel exhaust pollution from the five currentlyoperational MTA bus depots in Northern Manhattan, which garage an estimated

1,200 buses out of the MTAs entire five-borough fleet of 4,400 buses. Challengingthe disproportionate number of diesel buses garaged in Northern Manhattanbecame a priority for WE ACT in 1988 when the MTA built what at the time was thesixth diesel bus depot there. This facility was built on a site adjacent to a middleschool and a 1,200 unit subsidized housing development, and garaged 240 dieselexhaust-emitting buses. The MTAs dependence on diesel fuel is a health problembecause it creates particulate pollution that can lodge deep in the lungs. The risksare greater for children who inhale more air on a per kilogram basis than adults,and who also may spend a larger proportion of their time outdoors.

WE ACT has been engaged in collecting data, as well as providing a community

voice in study design. For WE ACT, collaboration with research partners such asColumbia University results in better documentation of problems and strengthensthe organizations goal of an overall reduction in pollution exposures that negativelyaffect the community, and specifically, childrens environmental health in NorthernManhattan.

WE ACTs youth programs grew alongside its programs in community-basedparticipatory research and environmental health. Rather than participating in the

drive-by research that characterized many academic studies in communities ofcolor, WE ACT developed the position that communities of color are not objects ofstudy, but must be active collaborators with researchers and institutions to assessand eliminate the causes of poor health. This position is not unique in that a

multitude of participatory and community-based research projects have flourishedin more general health studies as well as on environmental justice issues (Shepardet al. 2003, OFallon et al. 2002). Both the youth program and the community-based participatory research program at WE ACT have been strongly informed bythe notion echoed throughout the Environmental Justice movement that we speakfor ourselves.

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In the summer of 1996, WE ACTs Earth Crew teamed up with researchers from theColumbia Mailman School of Public Health to measure air pollution at fourintersections in Harlem. The study measured two kinds of pollutantsfineparticulate matter, and black carbon (or soot), which is used as an indicator ofdiesel exhaust. The study also included traffic counts. The goal of the study was tosee whether there was an association between the volume of traffic, especiallydiesel exhaust, and the pollution measured at each intersection. The intersectionswere chosen by community residents as being representative of a range of trafficdensity, from relatively quiet intersections to extremely busy, dirty ones. Themembers of the Earth Crew were trained as field technicians for this study. Theylearned how to operate the air monitoring equipment, which they wore inbackpacks as a way of indicating personal exposures, and conducted the trafficcounting every day for a week. This study also showed how community residents,especially youth, could learn new skills in the process of collecting real world dataon pollution exposure. By helping select the intersections where data were collectedand by wearing air monitoring backpacks, the Earth Crew participants helpeddevelop a real life and more accurate snapshot of what kinds and levels of

pollution people were exposed to on a daily basis. This is important since airmonitors tend to be placed on top of buildings, which is not necessarilyrepresentative of the air people are actually breathing.

Figure 1. Data from the Earth Crew air pollution study

The study found that levels of black carbon varied a great deal from site to site, andwere associated with diesel traffic density at all sites with one exception. Thehighest level was measured at a site near the Manhattanville bus depot, althoughrelatively few buses were counted during the time the youth were counting traffic(see Figure 1). This finding suggested that the diesel bus depots were acting as astationary source of diesel pollution, even when buses were not actively driving toand from the facility. The findings from this study were published in a peer-

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reviewed scientific journal (Kinney et al. 2000). They also informed thedevelopment of a five-year epidemiology study now being conducted by WE ACTand its Columbia University research partner that assesses diesel exposure in fourhigh schools in Northern Manhattan and tests for an association between dieselexposure and asthma symptoms. The work of the Earth Crew in conducting thisstudy has also been a critical tool in WE ACTs ongoing struggles with the MTA toconvert its fleet to clean fuels and reduce the disproportionate numbers of dieselbuses garaged uptown. Notably, the MTA recently committed to converting theentire fleet of buses at the Manhattanville bus depot to hybrid electric models thatproduce considerably fewer emissions than traditional diesel buses.

Earth Crews history is rich with examples of youth projects that develop anddemonstrate leadership skills and concrete accomplishments. This is no small taskin the primarily minority and low-income population that Earth Crew representswhich faces many educational and social barriers that lead to poor self-esteem. Inone project, Earth Crew identified abandoned city lots it wished to reclaim forcommunity use. To do so, its members researched City land-transfer regulations,

made a formal public presentation to the Community Board that gained the Boardssupport, and filed a formal request with the City for the lots. In another project,Earth Crew designed and built a Green Oasis in front of the Adam Clayton Powell Jr.State Office Building on 125th Street, and programmed it with activities for rappers,spoken word artists, and senior citizens. In other years, Earth Crew participantshave traveled to Boston to participate in a Youth Summit; handed out flyers andeducated community residents about the toxins in fish found in waters off Harlemsshores; and designed, distributed, collected and analyzed peer surveys on smoking,teen pregnancy, domestic violence, and rap music.

DIFFERENTT

In 2002 WE ACT launched a new incarnation of its youth group, focused oncultivating new voices and advocates for issues that affect the environmentalhealth, reproductive health and environmental knowledge of the participants, whileat the same time mentoring and enriching the knowledge base of 20 young womenof color aged 15-18. The Young Women of Color Project (whose participants chosethe name DIFFERENTT) fostered a desire among these girls to challenge the statusquo, look critically at and analyze their communities, recognize the importance ofbeing active participants in shaping the norms within their immediate environmentsand organizing around issues that are important to themselves and their families.The program prioritized experiential learning and an interactive teachingapproachutilizing group discussions, shared personal experiences, outings, andguest speakersto facilitate the young womens active involvement in the learning

process.

DIFFERENTT focused on the relationship between environmental hazards and thehealth of young women of color. It is particularly important for women of color thatthe reproductive health agenda encompass the unmistakable connection betweenenvironmental exposures and reproductive disorders. Women of color often live incommunities that are disproportionately exposed to lead, mercury, industrialsolvents and dioxin, which are widely thought to contribute to miscarriage,

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infertility, menstrual abnormalities and birth defects. An understanding of thereproductive system and how it works, clear information about the issues involvedin reproductive health, and education about the impact of the environment onreproductive health are essential to helping young women of color becomeadvocates within their communities and throughout the United States, and totransforming the reproductive health rights agenda to reflect the full range ofconcerns of women of color.

DIFFERENTT was designed to give the young women a working understanding ofhow their bodies function, to ensure that they recognize and learn to expose theenvironmental factors that contribute to poor overall and reproductive health, tohelp them identify the links between their health and exposure to environmentalhazards and to enrich their interest in political and community organizing to reduceexposure. Overall the main objectives of the curriculum for this project were toprovide health education and advocacy skills training that incorporates messagesand issues that give voice to the perspectives, ideas and realities of young womenof color in the realm of sexual, reproductive and environmental health.

There were three distinct modules in the program.1 The curriculum in theEnvironment and Environmental Health unit was designed by WE ACTs YouthCoordinators and the Environmental Health Director to provide a solid knowledgebase of basic environmental and advocacy tools in order to make connectionsbetween environmental and reproductive health. The lesson topics for this moduleincluded:

Lesson 1. The Environment Defined Lesson 2. Lead Poisoning Lesson 3. Pesticides

Lesson 4. Asthma Lesson 5. Diesel/Diesel Organizing Campaign Lesson 6. Overview of Environmental Justice

Each of the experiential learning activities was developed by WE ACT staff toprovide a balance between individual and group activities, foster curiosity and makethe experience fun. During this unit, DIFFERENTT members engaged a group oftheir peers in a community treasure hunt activity. The activity began with theyoung people sharing information with their peers about things and places in thecommunity that they liked or treasured and why. The information was then mappedonto a life-size map drawn by the young people themselves and then the youthvisited these sites. The treasure tour was integrated with a toxic tour to highlight

sites that may be harmful to individual and community health. In conducting bothof these tours, DIFFERENTT reinforced a value that there are both treasures andpotentially harmful facilities and land uses in their neighborhood. The activitiessucceeded in getting participants to look deeply at their surroundings. As one 17-year old asked, Why is all this stuff up in our hood? I have a lot of questions Ididnt have before the treasure hunt and toxic tournow I want to do somethingand not just ask questions! Participants in the first year of the program translatedtheir concern around the disproportionate number of diesel-fueled bus depots into a

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vivid, painted banner reading Justice Now! Dont let MTA diesel depots destroy ourhealth. This banner was featured as the centerpiece of a WE ACT-led protestagainst a new, 12-story diesel bus depot opening in East Harlem on September 7,2003 (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Justice Now! banner

In addition to the lessons, Youth Coordinators gave participants take-homeassignments based on current events relevant to the topic at hand. Theseassignments helped broaden the perspective of the young women and stimulatedtheir thinking about the issues covered during the session. The young women werealso encouraged to keep a journal and record their feelings and thoughts as theinformation was presented. All members of DIFFERENTT made a presentation tothe rest of their peers in the group at the end of each module on a topic of theirchoosing that had either been discussed during the module or was related to it. Thispractice reinforced their presentation, public speaking and communication skills.The group was also given a qualitative and quantitative survey. The quantitativesurvey focused on how much information the young women were able to retain,and the qualitative survey provided an opportunity for the young women toevaluate the instructor and educational materials, and share their thoughts onareas that could be improved.

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The quantitative evaluation revealed that 100 percent of the participants were ableto identify local environmental pollutants and how they impact health; explore theirlocal environments and ways they can make their environments safer and cleaner;connect local and community health issues with global struggles; identify skillsneeded to run an environmental justice campaign; and develop their organizing andadvocacy skills through a public presentation. Exit interviews revealed that theprogram further succeeded in expanding previously narrow definitions ofenvironment and health. According to one 17-year old participant: I never reallythought the environment was everything around me and that I had the rightno Imean the responsibilityof making sure everything was alright in it. Another 15-year old participant said, I believe all women have the rights to make their ownchoicesbut that means being aware and involved.

Figure 3. Chloe, Lauren and Alice facilitating workshop

At the end of the module the young women made group presentations on asthma,diesel depots, chemicals like phthalates in beauty products, the principles of

environmental justice, and childhood lead poisoning. For example, DIFFERENTparticipants Lauren Lisbon and Chloe Marcano facilitated a workshop at WE ACTs

Breast Cancer, Environment, and Communities of Color conference co-sponsoredby WE ACT and the Columbia NIEHS Center for Environmental Health in NorthernManhattan. This workshop focused on the reproductive and environmental healthimpacts of phthalates in beauty products (see Figure 3).

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ConclusionWith the close of the 2004 year of the DIFFERENTT youth program, WE ACT madethe difficult decision to put its youth program on hiatus pending a move to a newoffice space. Securing suitable, affordable space for the youth program hasremained a challenge, particularly in a space-constrained place like New York City.

As commercial rents in the Central Harlem neighborhood where WE ACT is basedsteadily rise as a result of gentrification and other factors in Northern Manhattan,WE ACT has been unable to secure additional, separate space just for the youthprogram. As the organization rapidly grew between 2000 and 2002, the youthprogram sought out other spacefirst in a conference room in the same officebuilding, and eventually in a nearby church basement.

The absence of a permanent space for the young people to call home directlyconflicted with a central philosophy of WE ACTs work as articulated by ExecutiveDirector Peggy Shepardthat the spaces in which we live affect our spirit and ouractions (Shepard 1994). This relationship between space and spirit is manifested innegative terms, as well as positive ones. For example, in talking about the

environmental problems that West Harlem faces, Shepard says, oppressivephysical surroundings perpetuate and reinforce their residents oppression. Theprocess by which our habitat is planned and built keeps people isolated,disempowered and depressed.

This philosophy has helped shape WE ACTs commitment to creating a sufficientlylarge, private, yet integrated space for a youth program in its next office space. WEACT recently acquired an abandoned, five-story brownstone in its West Harlemneighborhood and is in the process of renovating and rebuilding the building usinggreen building design and principles. It will serve as WE ACTs future offices, as wellas a youth center, a community center and exhibition space. An entire floor of the

building has been earmarked for the youth program, the design of which willemphasize computer skills and information technology. The goal is to reclaim theprocess by which one particular habitat is planned and built, and to create a spacethat minimizes impact on natural resources while promoting the health and sense ofbelonging of the users of the space.

In addition to this fundamental lesson about space and creating a sense ofbelonging, WE ACTs experiences with its youth programs has informed severalcommitments it has made for future youth activities. One is to engage in long-termstrategic planning to ensure that youth work is integrated into other programmaticactivities of the organization, particularly community organizing work. Anothercommitment is to include the voices and perspectives of young people as decision-

makers in the planning and execution of its youth work. The core philosophy of theenvironmental justice movement that we speak for ourselves provides animportant frame of reference in ensuring that adults remain accountable to andsupportive of young people in the movement.

Endnote1. Further information about WE ACTs learning modules is available from the authors.

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Jul ie Szeis an Assistant Professor in American Studies at the University ofCalifornia at Davis. Her research focuses on the culture and politics of

environmental justice activism, race and urban environmentalism, risk and health,social movements and community activism. Her forthcoming book on the

environmental justice movement in New York City will be published by MIT Press. Itlooks at the intersection of planning and health, especially through the prism of

asthma, and changes in garbage and energy systems as a result of privatization,globalization and deregulation.

Sw at i P rakash is Director of Environmental Health and Community-Based

Research Programs at West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT), where she

serves as a bridge between community organizing efforts and the scientificcommunity, both locally and nationally. In addition to providing technical supportfor local organizing around air pollution and asthma, Swati collaborates with the

Columbia School of Public Health on several community-based research projects

focused on asthma, air pollution, and childrens health. She received her M.S. inEnvironmental Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, and her B.A. inEnvironmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College. Swati is a senior

fellow and current member of the Board of Trustees of the national EnvironmentalLeadership Program, and has worked with Teen Voices magazine, a Boston-basedmagazine written by and for teenage women. She lives in Harlem.

Al ice Y. McI n t oshis an independent health educator and executive proprietor ofHealth Education Consulting. Formerly the Senior Program Director at the national

office of the American Lung Association and Senior Public Health Educator with The

Harlem Hospital Lung Center in New York City, Ms. McIntosh is an advocate who

aims to increase knowledge and awareness of health education. She is currentlyconsulting for and administering a health module for West Harlem EnvironmentalActions youth program. With 15 years of experience as a health educator, Ms.

McIntosh plans, coordinates and administers many activities that foster communityinvolvement.

References

American Lung Association, Epidemiology and Statistics Unit (2003). Trendsin Asthma Morbidity and Mortality. Available from:http:/ / ww w.lungusa.org/ data/ asthma/ asthma .pdf1

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Hamilton, C. (1993). Environmental Consequences on Urban Growth and Blight.In Hofrichter, R., ed. Toxic Struggles: The Theory and Practice of EnvironmentalJustice. Philadelphia: New Society, 67-75.
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