Environmental Ambassadors

Suncoast Waterkeeper and the Multicultural Health Institute team up with community leaders to offer a new youth program

Suncoast Waterkeeper, the Multicultural Health Institute, and numerous community partners have created a new youth leadership program aimed at addressing environmental justice concerns and communicating the risks of climate change to communities within the Whitaker Bayou watershed. We are focused on the Whitaker Bayou watershed because Suncoast Waterkeeper has successfully documented polluted water discharged from companies in the industrial corridor and the Multicultural Health Institute has documented the disproportionate health impacts these polluting industries have levied on the surrounding low-income and historically Black community. Resolving these health and environmental issues and communicating the compounding risks of climate change will require training a new and diverse generation of community scientists who are proficient communicators. 

Over the 10-month program, participating youth will be expected to:

1. Attend 17 of the 20 training and service events. 
2. Participate in an Environmental Working Group-sanctioned environmental and/or health monitoring program 
3. Create and perform an advocacy project on environmental health issues (can be related to the environmental or health monitoring program)
4. Attend a stakeholder meeting of community decision-makers 
5. Table at a community event, and 
6. Co-host A Day In My Environment with invited community leaders.