Tag: New Voices Are Rising

Thanks to you, our New Voices crowdfund campaign “Fired Up for the Change We Need!” raised more than $25,000 to support the 2018 Summer Climate Justice Youth Leadership Academy! You have ensured that our cohort of 16 New Voices students will have an impactful summer of environmental justice training and leadership development.

The Summer Climate Justice Leadership Academy (Summer Academy) is an intensive 6-week program for youth and young adults 15-19 in Oakland. Join a community of people who want to make sure that all Oakland residents can survive and thrive in a changing climate.

Yesterday, New Voices Are Rising Intern Coordinator Mykela Patton led a march and rally to protest ongoing maneuvers to bring dirty coal into Oakland. In January, US District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled that developer Phil Tagami’s lawsuit challenging Oakland’s ban on shipping coal within the city will receive a trial. Tagami is attempting to overturn the Oakland City Council’s 2014 unanimous adoption of a measure to ban coal shipments within the city.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled that Phil Tagami’s lawsuit challenging the City of Oakland’s ban on coal will head to trial. A youth led and youth organized rally will show Tagami and the City of Oakland that the youth will not stand for coal in their city. The rally will begin at Street Academy 417 29th St, Oakland, CA 94609 to Oakland City Hall down Broadway.

Earlier in the year, our New Voices Are Rising students wrote letters to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf asking for action on the issue of gentrification. Our students want to live in a clean and green Oakland, and also a city where residents aren’t displaced by development and rising rent prices.

n June 26, we were happy to welcome our students for the first day of the Summer Climate Justice Youth Leadership Academy! On Wednesday our students toured the EcoCenter and on Firday they went on an environmental justice tour of Modesto lead by Friends of the River and the Tuolumne River Trust.

On June 1, New Voices student-interns joined local youth and visited Phil Tagami’s office in downtown Oakland to ask why he won’t drop his lawsuit against the city’s ban on coal exports. The students wore elf hats saying “it’s Christmas in June, don’t give the kids coal.”