Youth Learning, Leadership, and Stewardship for Environmental Justice (YLLS4EJ)

Final report for the Youth Leadership, Learning, and Stewardship for Environmental Justice (YLLS4EJ) funded by EPA Assistance Agreement NE-01J78901-0. The Youth Leadership, Learning, and Stewardship for Environmental Justice (YLLS4EJ) team developed, deployed, and disseminated a place-based EJ curriculum for South Seattle youth in response to community needs while enriching diversity, equity, and inclusion in environmental education. Western Washington University’s (WWU) Professor Troy D. Abel collaborated with a team of environmental and social scientists and three Seattle nonprofit organizations building an interdisciplinary environmental education program. Our effort relied on Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) to characterize the spatial distribution of local air pollutants with moss bioindicators across zip code 98108 and parts of Washington State’s Seventh and Ninth Congressional Districts. 

Despite two years of pandemic disruptions, 55 South Seattle high school students from the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps (DVYC) participated in our two-part curriculum. First, participants completed an “Interdisciplinary Mapping for Environmental Justice” (IM4EJ) table-top exercise analyzing the spatial disparities of six toxic metal pollutants detected in 226 moss samples across South Seattle. Second, those same youth worked through a policy exercise in the “Duwamish River Valley Solutions for Environmental Justice” (DRIVERS4EJ) journal.

Likewise, 153 WWU undergraduate and nine graduate students from all 10 Washington Congressional districts and other states like California and Colorado completed both curriculum parts. Two WWU graduate students completed a WWU Environmental Studies Master of Arts with partial support from our assistance agreement.