Written by Johana Vicente
In July, after weeks of hard work and training, we graduated the 2017 class of amazing and dedicated parents and youth as Promotores of environmental justice, the second class ever in the program!
Throughout the year, Chispa Maryland worked with parents, students, and staff at Rosa Parks Elementary School in Hyattsville, MD to provide workshops where families had the opportunity to learn about storm water issues and how they affect their community. Through these workshops, they learned about topics such as water pollution, storm water runoff and they learned about their local watershed. They not only learned about the problems but also implemented solutions by building a school pollinator and vegetable garden among others.
After these workshops, it was time for our parents to become Promotores. Thus, their training began to become Promotores where they obtained all the tools to bring this knowledge and take it to their communities.
While our parents were training, their kids were dedicated to learning and exploring as well. They learned about the local environmental issues and explored the outdoors to see how these issues are affecting their communities. They created art and spoke about their experiences through this process.
We want to congratulate our 2017 class of Promotores and we hope that they will continue to work to advocate for the changes necessary for their communities. The voices of our Promotores are now more important than ever both in the community and in the environmental movement.
Our Promotores learned a lot from Chispa Maryland but we also learned a lot from them. We learned about their experiences and their communities and about their passion and commitment for protecting our mother earth. We are excited to continue working with our new Promotores and to continue this mutual learning!
¡Felicidades!