Grass Roots Youth Summit

More than 50 students, educators, and facilitators participated in central Arkansas first Grass Roots Youth Summit, designed to engage area youth in helping grow a regional Green Agenda to create a more sustainable region, at the Clinton School of Public Service Saturday, April 3, 2010.

Students representing high schools and junior highs in Pulaski, Faulkner, Saline, and Lonoke counties developed and prioritized what they considered the five most important sustainability issues impacting the region before dividing up into teams tasked with considering obstacles and possible solutions for each issue. The issues included transportation, pollution/recycling, energy, global warming, and creating awareness for all these issues.

I saw a lot of people who care about making a change, said Megan Matthew of Bryant High School. And the more people that are involved, the more they can change things.

At the end of the Summit, students were asked to commit to at least five sustainable activities from drinking more tap water to help eliminate plastic water bottles to considering alternative forms of transportation to help reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and air pollution that they would practice in the future.

The Grass Roots Youth Summit was the first stage of a three-stage effort that will also include a public engagement and feedback period from April 19 May 9 and the development of a Regional Green Agenda for our area later this year. Metroplan, the regional planning organization for central Arkansas, is coordinating the Grass Roots effort.

Because were planning for the future, its appropriate for the future leaders of our area to be involved in the process, said Metroplans Jasmin Moore. Starting April 19, we will be asking everyone in central Arkansas to tell us what is important to them and how they think we should be addressing those issues on a regional basis. Then, after the region tells us what is most important, we will take that information and start developing a Regional Green Agenda.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• grass
• roots
• green
• agenda
• youth
• summit
• central
• Arkansas
• Metroplan
• Cabot
• Conway
• Little
• Rock
• Bryant
• Benton
• Pulaski
• Saline
• Lonoke
• Faulkner
• Grant
• Downtown
• Collegeville
• Elementary
• Chenal
• Magness
• Creek
• Woodrow
• Cummins

[kazamroo]

This was such a great experience!! Thank you so much for making this available.

I'd love to be more of a part of this. I enjoyed it a lot! :)