On Saturday, January 14th part of my social justice group, Willem, Jack and I attended We Act’s annual monthly membership meeting. We Act is a group made up of scientists, lawyers and devoted workers to help make not-as-privileged communities environmentally safe. The meeting was a great opportunity to hear first-hand people’s stories of environmental injustice and to see how a meeting would run. It was also a good opportunity to learn about what the city council is doing around environmental justice issues.The meeting ran from 9:45 A.M – 1:00 P.M. In the morning I got my groupmates mom’s car Jack and we rode all the way up to the meeting on 152nd street. When we first got there we sat down and we were working with signing people in and giving them information pamphlets. After everyone was seated the meeting started and they did a bunch of activities and people got into small groups and talked about how they were experiencing environmental injustice. While I was walking around I overheard some groups talking about how they weren’t being listened to by their landlords even after complaining for a very long time.  After the groups finished they offered breakfast to those who weren’t able to have it before. After that, they had The Chair of the Environmental Committee for City Council Costa G. Constantinides. He talked about current environmental justice topics in NYC and how he plans to fix them. He then talked about the current laws he is trying to get passed so that he can make a difference. After that, he had a question session where a limited amount of people were able to ask a question. We wanted to ask a question but were unable to because of all of the people. Something that I wondered throughout the meeting was what can youth do to contribute to raising awareness of environmental justice? This fieldwork particularly really had an impact on me. When Costa G. Constantinides was up there talking it really gave me hope for what was to come. Lately, there has been a lot of negative things revolving around Donald Trump and what he will do. Costa G. Constantinides reminded me that when we all stick together we will be able to pull through and get things done. This fieldwork inspired me and I plan to use my knowledge on the topic to inspire others.

Costa G. Constantinides  (The Chair of the Environmental Committee for City Council )