Bronx Youth Speak Out on Threats to Their Environment: "Our Issues, Our Voice: The Youth Council Speaks on Global Warming"

April 18, 2007

Contact:
Ellen Lubell (o) 212-949-4938, (c) 917-854-6864
Emily Crossan (o) 917-286-1548, (c) 201-344-5742

When:
Saturday, April 21, 2007
9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

9:30 – Introduction, Opening Remarks
11:15 – Workshops begin
2:00 p.m. – recommendations about what youth can do to reduce global warming will be presented. In their workshops, youth will design an ad that will be posted in all Children’s Aid community centers and community schools. The ad will be presented at 2 p.m. as well.
After 2:00 p.m. – New York State Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr., who provided major funding for this conference, will attend.

Where:
Bronx Community College, Colston Hall
University Avenue at West 181 Street • Bronx, New York 10453

What:
Two hundred Children’s Aid Society middle-schoolers from its community centers and schools have designed a special one-day conference, Our Issues, Our Voice: The Youth Council Speaks on Global Warming, to kick off a series of events that will help thousands of children and youth at Children’s Aid not only learn more about global warming but learn what they themselves can do to delay or offset the impact of global warming.

How:
The Children’s Aid Youth Council decided to produce a multi-step series of conferences and activities about global warming so that they can formulate recommendations based on their own research and create a campaign to raise awareness among their peers of what they each can do. Hands-on workshops will replace panel discussions to ensure that the youth are able to generate recommendations, which they will release in a follow-up conference later this year.

These youth will also undertake related activities on Earth Day and on May 5, a citywide day of volunteerism at Children’s Aid.

The Children’s Aid Society was founded in 1853. It is one of the nation’s oldest and largest non-sectarian agencies, serving over 150,000 of New York’s neediest children and their families with a network of services that includes community schools, neighborhood centers, camps, adoption and foster care services, teen pregnancy prevention, education, health and recreation. For additional information please call 212-949-4938 or visit www.childrensaidsociety.org.