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Santa Fe, New Mexico October 7th & 8th, 2005
Teens Creating Sustainable Community
Saturday Description
On Saturday October 8th, Earth Care will
join with the Santa Fe Mountain Center's Native American Emergence
Program, to offer teens a special
opportunity to work with exciting youth leaders from around the
world. Participants will spend time getting to know other teens from
Northern New Mexico. The group will then have an opportunity to
reflect on the issues raised during Friday's session, work in small
teams with mentors on cross-cultural issues, and create plans for
action via a youth network that will be supported by Earth Care
after the conference. Facilitators Randy Charles, Santa Fe Mountain Center, Native American Emergence Program Randy Charles is a member of the Oneida Nation from Oneida of the Thames and Six Nations reserves. Working in the Emergence Program at the Santa Fe Mountain Center he has been involved in combining Outdoor Experiential education and Youth Organizing to empower young people to take action, be activists and agents of change, in their own Native communities.
Ian Sanderson, Santa Fe Mountain Center, Native American Emergence Program Ian is a Program Coordinator in the Emergence Program at the Santa Fe Mountain Center. Ian is a member of the Mohawk Nation and hails from the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Native Studies from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. Ian has been involved in Experiential and Outward Bound programs, and currently works with Native youth through the SFMC.
Mentors
The youngest of 10 siblings raised in Watts, Aqeela has emerged as a guiding force in the re-development of Watts as a national model for positive social change. In 1989, after seeing 13 friends die in gang wars, Aqeela was inspired with a vision to create peace in his neighborhood. Inspired and mentored by Jim Brown, the legendary football great, he became a co-founder with several other community activists of Brown's organization, Amer-I-Can, now working on self-sufficiency in employment, education and housing in 12 states. In 1992, Aqeela and his brother Daude successfully brought the neighborhood gangs together for the signing of the historic "Peace Treaty" between the Bloods and the Crips. Aqeela is now executive director of the Amer-I-Can Foundation. He and Daude have also established the Community Self Determination Institute, dedicated to the further transformation of the Watts community.
Katende Robert is a founding member of Action for Humanity, a youth volunteer led organization in Uganda, Africa that works with poor rural communities on environmental sustainability, health, and poverty eradication. Many of the governments in Sub‑Saharan Africa are among the poorest in the world. The nationals of a great majority of these countries are experiencing the worst effects of the vicious cycle of poverty. Some of these people do not have any means of survival. Katende will share his experience working with the youth of Uganda to develop Action for Humanity and the vision that led them to concentrate efforts on the 18.7 million people who are responsible for sustaining all Ugandans through the production of agricultural goods. Action for Humanity creates model projects based on both indigenous and modern knowledge that enhances the well‑being and creates an avenue for the poor rural community’s survival and continuity. www.actionforhumanity.org
Mugenyi is the Programs Manager and Co-founder of Action for Humanity, an NGO based in Uganda. They develop and implement social action initiatives in the areas of environmental protection and poverty eradication using youth volunteers in and out of school. He is a 28 year old Ugandan, and married with two children. www.actionforhumanity.org
Daniela is the Founder and Executive Director of the Taos Da Vinci Project, a youth-driven organization that leads international service learning trips and that incubates youth-run businesses and social justice projects in Northern New Mexico. Holding a Masters in Teaching from Brown University, Daniela has worked with teens in public schools, charter schools, GED programs, and prisons.
In junior high school, Thomas conceived and implemented a program to preserve the fragile Rio Grande ecosystem by wrapping chicken wire around threatened cottonwood trees to protect them from beavers. The program replaced a policy of killing the animals to save the trees. Initially told by wildlife officials that there was no funding available to try his idea, Thomas solicited donations of materials from local businesses and got his school and community to help him wrap the trees. He used the publicity generated by his success to raise awareness about the plight of the river, whose ecosystem is heavily impacted by diversion of its flows for human use. Thomas serves on the mayor's Aquifer Youth Corps and as a River Ranger, continuing his educational work even as his tree-wrapping program is expanded to new areas of beaver habitat along the Rio Grande.
Co-founder of Earth Care International, Taylor holds a Masters in Environment and Community from Antioch University. Taylor is an entrepreneur, having founded and managed three businesses prior to co-founding Earth Care. Taylor has created and run organic gardens for teenagers, participated in the creation of sustainable businesses designed and run by youth, taught sustainability courses at public and private high schools.
Rachel Balkcom has almost a decade of experience working with youth to create student-centered, socially beneficial community projects. She has created and taught multiple high school classes focusing on social issues and currently team-teaches a class at Monte del Sol that integrates culture, ecology, economy, and society. Student projects she has sponsored have involved social entrepreneurship, fair trade, social justice, the interaction of diverse cultures, students educating students, and others.
Miguel has worked as a Youth Development Specialist, Biology teacher, and youth coordinator for the ePlaza project (www.e-plaza.org). Additionally, Miguel gives professional presentations, conducts workshops around permaculture and traditional agricultural methods, and owns and operates a small demonstration/experimental farm in Taos called Sol Feliz. Miguel also co-coordinated a community garden in the South Valley of Albuquerque, an experience that was an inspiration to achieve a Master’s in Agriculture Ecology from the University of California, Davis in 2003. Miguel’s research focused on the traditional crops and agriculture methods of northern New Mexico’s acequia systems. More about Miguel can be learned from his website at www.e-plaza.org/ElMaicero.
Sarah has over five years experience working in youth programming and community activism/organizing in Milwaukee, WI and has been involved in projects throughout the U.S. She grew up in hip hop culture and is still actively involved today. She believes it can be used as a tool to reach, teach, and build foundations for young people to create positive and real social change. www.trueskool.org
Eliot White is the Co-Founder of True Skool, where he is able to use his love for hip hop culture to encourage others to make positive life choices. He has over 20 years experience in graffiti art and hip hop culture. He has completed both legal walls and commissioned pieces working with other artists, individually and partnering with youth and community organizations. www.trueskool.org
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For Full Conference Schedule CLICK HERE!
To Register CLICK HERE!
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Thomas
Nichols,
Bosque Restoration, Albuquerque
Taylor Selby, Earth Care International
Rachel
Balkcom, Earth Care International
Miguel
Santistevan, 
Sarah
Dollhausen, T.R.U.E. Skool, Milwaukee, WI
Eliot
White, T.R.U.E. Skool, Milwaukee, WI