Engaging the Next Generation

OK. I realize that my enthusiasm for sustainability sounds like the ramblings of Charlie Brown's teacher to my teenage son. (Perhaps a bit more strident...)

My boys squawk at the idea of carrying out the rinse water to irrigate our edible plants. In their defense, they weren't raised in a sustainable household. During my past marriage, we did some half-hearted recycling and that was as far as it went.

So how do you get apathetic teens interested in sustainable living? Looking back at my youth, I recall how I absolutely HATED picking green beans on my Nana's farm. But her legacy lovingly hangs over me as I tend my own little desert garden. So who knows? There may be hope for my boys.

A teachable moment presented itself when Dan and I had to go away for a long weekend. The boys generously agreed to water our yard and garden while we were away. I took the opportunity to not only give them directions, but to explain - in detail - why we do what we do. They seemed a little distracted at the time. Josh was texting his girlfriend... But we came home to thriving plants. (And a pile of dog shit, but that's another story.) I'm not sure this had much of an impact on their lives - yes, I'm still the one taking out the sink water - but hopefully it planted the seeds. Joshua admitted later that he had actually enjoyed being out in nature. Jeremy shared a story on how he saw a scruffy coyote staring hungrily at the squirrels on the other side of our garden fence. (Yes, those are the same squirrels that perch on the back wall ready to pounce on my beloved tomatoes the minute they turn red.) Of course, I'm glad the little critters are alright!

Recently, another opportunity to reach my youngest son presented itself. Since graduating high school, Jeremy has been doggedly pursuing his passion for stand-up comedy. He hits a different open mic every night. I found a way to use this interest to get him to research sustainable principles. I invited him to MC Sustainable Tucson's impromptu storytelling activity "Tales of the Future" at our tent at Discover Local Day. He has to come up with four sample stories on the theme of "Tucson's sustainable future." Sure, this is nepotism. But it's worth it. I am so proud of him for rising to the challenge. He may never become another Brad Lancaster, but he has already come up with some pretty funny shit.

Yes, sometimes it's discouraging that more teens aren't getting on board with fighting climate change (UA Students for Sustainability and Compost Cats are exceptions.) But this success with Jeremy inspired me to reach out to other teens by taking advantage of their personal interests.

The Sustainable Tucson organizing team needed to come up with some activities for our tent at Discover Local Day. After participating in Living Streets Alliance's community hearings on Complete Streets, I was inspired to do an activity on "Planning your Neighborhood." Instead of just taking a crack at it myself, I invited Changemaker High School art students to design and make it. Their principal was delighted that the students would learn about complete, walkable streets while honing their critical thinking skills. Last night at their open house, one of the students, Jasmine, excitedly showed off her work on the project. Gotta admit that made my day! 

So how did this little experiment in engaging our teens turn out?

I'm eternally grateful to Jasmine for planning the street map. (One less thing I had to do!) The students used the neighborhood around their school as inspiration. Four guys painted houses, businesses, streets and the Swan Wash on the tabletop. It turned out to be more difficult than first imagined. The paint wouldn't stick to the plastic coating.  But the students solved the problem by taking off the plastic coating.

There were also challenges with making the movable pieces. The class tried small wooden squares cut to scale with the street map. They were too tiny to paint on! They eventually used a set of children's building blocks (not painted to scale.) To be honest, not all of the Changemaker art students got into to the "Planning Your Neighborhood" project.  They had their own projects. But I'm proud of the ones who worked on it. It wasn't an easy task!

So how did my little act of nepotism work out? Immediately after being hired to MC our storytelling tent, Jeremy went off to his room to brainstorm ideas. He was inspired to write a couple of stories right away. He patiently listened as I shared sustainable principles.  He read my story prompts (as promised) and came up with more ideas. He was actually a delight to work with. He even brainstormed some ideas with me.  I gave him the idea to use the lion character he had developed for a speech and debate competition. He ran with it. He came up with a hilarious story about a mountain lion escaping from the Desert Museum when the power goes out.

I'm so glad I asked Jeremy to MC. I think it was good for our relationship! Jeremy had an excellent attitude. He even agreed to help out as needed.  On the morning of the event, a groggy Jeremy got up and helped (a little) in loading the van.  When I needed more signs, he drew them.

Discover Local Day (October 14th) 

The day started off slow. There wasn't enough foot traffic at our location behind the Tucson Museum of Art to gather much of an audience for storytelling - despite my miked announcement of Mayor Rothschild's participation.  But Jeremy took the storytelling stage and introduced him. The Mayor gamely shared the city council's efforts to make Tucson more sustainable - including how the park bond would include safe bike paths.

Changemaker's "Design Your Neighborhood" activity was well received. It was a good vehicle for educating participants on complete streets and water-harvesting features. I also used it to lure audience members into our storytelling tent. While families played, I asked the parents if their children liked stories about lions. Then I made Jeremy tell his mountain lion story for them. He must have told that story five times! Sustainable Tucson member Stuart Moody joined in by telling stories suited for kids.

Later in the day, there were a couple of magic moments when community members joined our volunteers in the audience. There was a real sense of community as people listened to each other and responded with stories of their own.

Tactical Urbanism Block Party (October 20th)

When we arrived at  Sixth Avenue and Seventh Street, there were volunteers of all ages painting the intersection bright colors. It was an amazing sight! 

Jasmine, from Changemaker High School, showed up just in time to help us set up the tent. She was indispensable! We spent most of the morning tying down everything to secure it against the wind.  A resourceful volunteer from Living Street Alliance brought by plastic donation buckets filled with water to weigh down the corners of the tent. When the wind blew them over, we filled them up with soil that Tank's Green Stuff had generously donated. We taped paper on the table, so the kids would have a place to draw that wouldn't fly away. When we finally got everything secured, Jasmine demonstrated the "Design Your Neighborhood" activity. She did a great job representing her school and Sustainable Tucson. 

After the event, Jasmine asked me to let her know about the next Sustainable Tucson meeting. She might have some other students who would be interested in attending.  I learned an important lesson -  if we want more teens involved, we need to make an effort to engage them. Then show support by showing up.  It is so worth it. 

More Information: 

Changemakers show us the way.

I worked with youth on a virtual reading of my play, "ReGeneration: The Tucson Story."  Read about the process here. 

Teachable moment for the boys

Changemakers show us the way.

Luis Perales beaming with pride that the Changemaker students' proposal was accepted.

When Luis Perales, CEO of Changemaker High School, invited me to meet with him to see how we could help each other, I had no idea what he wanted to talk about. Perhaps a status report on the doc Evan and I were making on water harvesting? It had been awhile since our initial meeting to see how we might include the incredible work Changemaker High was doing in the documentary. After a warm greeting, Luis asked me how I was doing. The great thing is - he really wanted to know. He had seen the frantic posts on my facebook page since Trump announced his intention to remove regulations protecting our water, and he was concerned that I might burn out. And to be honest, I have been stressing out. It seems like every day Trump is making another assault on the environment or human rights. And here Luis was offering support as a fellow sustainability advocate.

WMG coop workshop or "Where's Dan?"

If you’ve read our blog you know how passionate Dan and I are about restoring our aquifer through rainwater harvesting. As more states experience droughts like ours, there will be more competition for the Colorado River water that we all rely on. So it is urgent that we set up water harvesting in as many yards as possible. So, while I’ve blogged about water harvesting, Dan has spent his time digging catchment basins in other people’s yards (along with Watershed Management Group’s fabulous coop), helping maintain the desert landscaping and water harvesting features at Ward 6 and WMG’s Living Lab, giving tours of the Living Lab, and setting up a system to monitor it. 

While I’m thrilled that Dan has dedicated himself to advancing watershed management, it’s also kinda frustrating. With all of his volunteer work, Dan hasn’t had much time left to install our own water harvesting features. Last weekend he finally got around to planting a little mesquite tree in the front yard. And most people don’t have the expertise to work on their own yards, so they have to rely on a few experts. This creates what Luis calls the bottleneck effect – where you have to wait to get the work done. And, as far as I’m concerned, it isn’t getting done fast enough. 

Proposal shows catchment basins and berms in the flood plain

So I was really jazzed when Luis shared the plans Changemaker students had developed for restoring the floodplain in the Naylor neighborhood near their High School. They didn’t wait around for the experts to advise them. Students and educators became experts themselves -  alongside community members and environmental allies that were willing to share knowledge. How empowering is that?!!! 

Envisioning how lush the desert park will be

Luis Perales describes it best:

“The Swan Wash Bridge Project was initiated by a group of students who were challenged by their science instructor to take on a citizen science project that would have a positive impact in the local community. The group of students decided to focus their energies on alleviating a flooding problem that existed up the street from school and adjacent to a local park. The problem of flooding stemmed from the blockage of a neighborhood waterway, Swan Wash, by another local school. This problem was identified by the students because they had experienced the flooding first hand. This experience led them to conduct a root cause analysis, collect data from local community residents, and propose possible solutions. Their project findings were presented to the school, to the local neighborhood association, to local political leaders, and to audiences at local and national conferences. In short, the group of students along with their science instructor became mini experts on the issue of local flooding and the local wash. Their proposed solution was to create a pedestrian footbridge over the wash and to capture some of the flood water in roadside rainwater catchment basins. These basins are intended to utilize rainwater to support the needs of bird/pollinator gardens.”

The students presented their proposal to the Pima County Neighborhood Reinvestment Board on May 2, 2016. The recommendation to fully fund the project to the tune of $229,000 was announced on July 1, 2016! They got the final approval on their revised proposal on the day I was there! Needless to say, Luis’ enthusiasm was contagious!

While I fumble around trying to get the word out about water harvesting, these kids are demonstrating how important it is. They are educating the city of Tucson about transitioning from the current form of water management - flood control - to one that restores our floodplains and groundwater by directing the rainwater with berms and sinking it in with catchment basins. As their project progresses and succeeds, it will be used as a model for other schools to work with their communities on sustainable solutions.

All of this came out of Changemakers’ mission to change the face of education by creating the conditions where young people can turn their ideas into action. Through their example, they hope to create a culture where schools everywhere take on the responsibility of improving their communities. Perales explained, "Imagine what our communities would look like if every school would adopt their local community within a one to three mile radius. Imagine for a second that the school and its resources not only worked within their own gates to teach students to read, write, and do math, but with equal importance, taught students the skills necessary to transform the look, feel, and potential of their community."

Swan Wash Bridge Project Team: Adilene, Alejandra, Victoria, & Mrs. Snook (Missing, Laynah.)

I am so grateful to the Changemaker students for taking the initiative and advancing more sustainable water management as a practical solution for their community. And for giving me hope for the future.

Watch their video of their project. 

The video highlights the journey that Changemaker High School took to engage the Naylor Community to bring about infrastructure repair and beautification for Belvedere Boulevard and SWAN Wash Park. The process was multi-year and included students, staff, parents, community residents, local agencies, and government officials. This project is an embodiment of Changemaker Education and the mission of Changemaker High School.

SWAN Wash Project Story