Students from Fort Lewis College and local high schools hope to start a conversation next week about La Plata County’s future. Each year, the Environmental Center at Fort Lewis College organizes a week-long Earth Week celebration. This year, the Center has dispensed with workshops and lectures and organized more participatory events such as a poetry slam, rock concert and an eco-fashion show. The goal is to get young people talking with each other and with adults about their hopes for a stronger and more sustainable community.

The idea to focus this year’s Earth Week on youth empowerment came from students who work at the Center. Reflecting on their own experiences in high school, the students saw an opportunity for Earth Week to help build relationships with young people interested in making a difference in the community.

“What we want to do is hold events that young people can get excited about and then show what a positive effect that energy can have on our community when it’s directed toward important problems and issues,” says Andrea Rossi, the coordinator of the Center’s Education and Outreach team. Rossi says that most young people already know a great deal about the environmental and social justice issues that the Center works on. It’s just that most adults never ask them what they think.

Students from the Environmental Center tried not to make that mistake. For the past two months, the college students have met with high schoolers from Durango and Ignacio to find out what they’d like to see happen during Earth Week and what kind of events would be interesting for them and their peers. The overall goal for the event became building community with a focus on fostering positive and empowering communication between youth and adults.

College and high school students have teamed up to plan the events and outreach to the community. Highlights from the week include poetry workshops and a performance by members of the Albuquerque Poetry Slam team at the Boys and Girls Club, a community clean-up and mural painting, a rock concert featuring youth bands, and an eco-fashion show with clothes made from recycled products and materials.

The week will also feature talks by two recent winners of the Brower Youth Awards, presented by the Earth Island Institute to young people who have made an outstanding contribution to protecting the planet. Alberta Nells, 17, will talk about her work with Youth of the Peaks! – a student coalition working to protect sacred sites in the Southwest and Alex Lin, 15, will talk about his battle against electronic waste in his home town of Westerly, Rhode Island. The week will culminate on Saturday, March 22nd with a bicycle parade and youth forum to discuss specific ways that young people and adults can work together in La Plata County.

Details about all of the events are posted on the Environmental Center’s website at http://envcenter.fortlewis.edu.