“Environmental Justice is the movement to ensure that no community suffers disproportionate environmental burdens or goes without fair environmental benefits.” Vans Jones

Ramona Gardens is a housing development established in 1941, making it one of the first in California. Although the community is resilient and has survived since then, Ramona Gardens disproportionately faces a lack of investment and protection. There is unhealthy air quality 40% of the year, a sum of about 452,00 vehicles passes through the adjacent freeways, and their green space lacks appropriate vegetation ultimately pushing Ramona gardens to be in the top 1% of most polluted communities in California. Clean air is a human right. Thanks to the advocacy, outreach, and research from community members, the conception of the Natural Park Air Pollution Solution came to be. It is a community and youth-lead project which will create an anti-pollution green buffer that will protect the 2,000+ low-income public housing residents from the transit-related air pollution. Today we are in our second phase of the project. We have completed our planning concept design, schematic design, air pollution reduction measure report. Youth Council fits into this effort through education, empowerment, and leadership development.

“Youth Council is an amazing and unique program that teaches youth more about their community. It allows us to explore topics such as environmental injustice which focuses on the inequities iIn P.O.C communities.”-Janelle, 17 years old

Our Work/ Wins

Our Youth Council leadership program has provided an environmental justice curriculum to youth leaders in the community. From March to October, youth organized and facilitated 3 workshops to community members and stakeholders. April 18th, 2023 was the workshop for adults and April 19th, 2023 was the workshop for middle school aged youth from the community. The intention of both workshops was to maintain transparency with work that’s been done and what we will continue to advocate for. On June 3rd we were able to take middle school age students to the Audubon center so that they could identify the benefits of being in natural green spaces, and test out air monitors for air quality research. This outing was led by our youth council leaders. From March to October, there have been 26 2-hour youth council sessions in total. We also conducted community clean ups at La Loma and La Gachon - areas that are project sites for our environmental justice efforts - with the support of Assembly Member Santiago’s office. In April, we also launched our 1st 5 -week Youth Environmental Justice Steward program where youth got to learn about EJ careers, fire resilience, community care, and workforce development. We had over 45 youth graduate the program and received a stipend. Throughout the program, youth also got to engage with the Ramona Gardens community and showed them how to take care of our current native trees. On May 5th-8th we were able to take all youth council students to Big Bear for a Leadership retreat. For many youth this was their 1st time camping and stepping out of their community. At this retreat, we participated in team building activities, bonding activities, and spent time focusing on our campaigns. They increased their understanding of why environmental justice is important, the power that they have, and what our ultimate goal is - improve the quality of life for the community of Ramona Gardens. After the leadership retreat, students felt more connected to each other and even more motivated to lead their Town Hall and community efforts. Every year, the youth council completes the year with a Town Hall where community members, elected officials, and partner orgs are invited to learn about Legacy LA’s campaign, what the youth have been working on, support needs, and how to get involved. June 30th we held our Environmental Justice Town Hall which consisted of Park Talk, a podcast where students interviewed residents of Ramona Gardens to get personal experiences behind the pollution facts we know about the community. The residents noted that green spaces are vital to having a good quality of life. Additionally, students made a zine to artistically and accessible explain the schematics of the park. Finally, all students participated in a short documentary that captured current conditions, lived experiences and work done in the community to advance our environmental justice efforts. We had media presence and youth got to share with Spectrum 1 T.V about their meaningful service learning projects, legislation visits, and why community-led projects like the Ramona Gardens Natural Park are essential to the livelihood and health of low-income communities.

Challenges/ Next Steps

Because we are in the permitting phase, it’s been difficult to move forward without a project manager. Our expertise is in community organizing and advocacy but we just hired a project manager this month to support us in the permitting process to Natural Park. In addition, our interns who are leading this campaign will be supporting the stakeholder meetings needed to push the project phasing along. They will further their civic engagement skills and lead monthly Youth Leaders in Action meetings where all members of youth council congregate to unify campaign efforts. It’s important to use our collective voices to stand up alongside our community and address the issues affecting us. It’s also essential to make sure our local representatives support us in making legislations and policies to improve our community and to hold institutions accountable.