Daniel Rosen - Brower Youth Awards 2005

In 2003 Daniel traveled to the Navajo Reservation in Pinon, Arizona to attend the Black Mesa Water Coalition's "Healing and Redefining Our World Youth Summit." The summit was a gathering of people from many different communities and generations, all of whom strongly believed in the power of community-based action to impact environmental and social injustices. It was this experience that inspired Daniel to help organize the "All Peoples Power Summit: Building Communities of Hope, Strength and Sustainability," which attracted nearly 200 youth from around the globe. Since then Daniel founded the Youth Movement -- a member of Native Movement in Northern Arizona -- to implement the ideas that came from the summit. Their Youth Farming and Fresh Produce Initiative is working to create a bio-regional farming network based at the Navajo and Hopi reservations to provide healthy foods to local communities. The Youth of the Peaks campaign campaigned to prevent Snowbowl Ski Resort from destroying mountains sacred to over 13 indigenous nations in the Southwest. And the Art of Revolution project found spaces for young people to express themselves through mural painting, graffiti, and spoken word. With all of these projects plus attending school at Northern Arizona State, Daniel still worked on organizing summits, which were crucial to his work. "We are essentially fire-fighters putting out one bad policy after another," he said. "These gatherings allow us to have a perspective of where we are in the battle and where we need to be going."

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Brower
• Youth
• Awards
• Native
• environment
• students

[Moroccot]

Great video Dan -- this gives me hope for the future of Arizona and our country... thanks for being a postive force and a comunity leader.

[az1bc08]

Pinon, Arizona will only be a bad place for children if you allow it. Don't be so negative. I grew up there and turned out to be a successful person. I have a degree and only moving up. I believe that programs like these are very beneficial and have a purpose. Thank you for implementing those values to our youth.

[newadvisor]

Pinon, Arizona a place of extreme poverty. Anyone going into this area should be very careful. This is not a good place for children.

[aelmo713]

Keep up the good work. It will be rewarding in the end.

[southernthinker]

this a good program, how was it started?