So I spent the past week camping with a bunch of highly active and interested environmental adults and youth. The Alaska Youth for Environmental Action (AYEA) is a youth lead environmental organization under the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). AYEA hosts several of these youth gatherings.
The Civics and Conservations Summit is held in Juneau for youth between 14 and 18 years of age. Here the youth are given several bills reguarding environmental issues that are presently runing through the senate or house. They are taught how to read and understand the language of the bill, learn how to approach their senator and representative, and ways in which they can get involved in the passing of the bill. The whole deal is a week long. During that week they have the oppertunity to meet up with their senators and representatives and attend a legislative scession.
The summer Art and Action is one I just got done attending. The location this year was in the Arctic Valley, just a half hour drive north of Anchorage Alaska. We at about 14 to 17 youth from all across Alaska. We slept in tents and did our meetings in a building on site. The gathering took place over a span of 6 days. Here, the youth were given the oppertunity to create spoken word poems and digital stories. We also had several guest speakers throughout the week. The youth were educated of environmental issues reguarding the state of Alaska. Many of the youth addressed the issues reguarding their own community. At the end of the week the youth present their creations to the public in a place in Anchorage.
For more information about AYEA or how you can help visit www.ayea.org
