APIOPA Youth Empowerment at Glen A. Wilson High School

air1

By Scott Chan

It’s been over a decade since I graduated from Glen A. Wilson high school. Looking back, there were few nonprofits or community organizations around to really empower us to make the changes we wanted to see in our school, in our neighborhoods. Sure, there were plenty of opportunities to do charity work, but I cannot remember many times where we were truly asked to be civically engaged, to consider social justice.

Things are about to get rockin’.

Starting February 2014, APIOPA will start working with Teacher Mark Fessenden and his Environmental Science AP class. Not only are we looking to work with the youth to collect air quality samples around their high school (which is located directly next to the 60 freeway) but we also aim to open discussions on why their school is where it is, and what health implications they may have by exercising for PE and sports so close to the freeway.

APIOPA is pursuing this type of project because we believe it’s important to fight for access to healthy environments. While we encourage communities to be more physically active, we want to be keen to the concept of intersectionality; health intersects with other issue areas and we cannot achieve true solutions unless we look at all possible angles.

Check out our air quality work with Mark Keppel High School last year!