ROSE Community Development
$5,000

Video courtesy of Oregon Zoo

This project aims to increase the exposure and awareness of natural areas in and around Lents for young people and teach them about sustainability, conservation and potential environmental field careers. It will connect youth from the Lents Youth Initiative, a program of ROSE Community Development that live in Lents and surrounding neighborhoods. The program focuses on youth of color and low-income youth. The Lents Youth Initiative has been providing an annual training of about 40 hours to 30 youth each spring. These trainings were led by ROSE Community Development. With COVID19 restrictions, it was difficult to continue our training as usual, since it was done in large groups and by one single staff person. With this project we plan to change the way we teach young people about environmental justice and social justice. The different partner organizations will come together and choose a section to teach the students. The group of students will be split up and training done outside so that we can maintain social distancing guidelines. After completing the training, the youth will have an opportunity to apply for a paid summer internship with one of the partner organizations that led the trainings. During the internships, the youth will be able to further their knowledge and experience about natural areas and caring for them.

Project Report