Urban Sustain

Urban Sustain is a non-profit organization, founded in 2005, that designs environmental public awareness and education campaigns in underserved communities as a catalyst for civic engagement to build livable communities. More specifically, Urban Sustain works to improve the health of youth and under represented communities through local leadership development by raising their social conscience on environmental health concerns.

Their three programs are:

Exposure 101: Youth receive the tools to explore and improve their neighborhood.  They learn to test for environmental toxins and poisons in their neighborhood and to advocate to change their community.  The youth are offered fun weekend activities.  The youth are given skills in research, hands-on experiments to test the air, water and world they live in, environmental monitoring, community health education, public speaking, leadership and much more.  Projects have ranged from sampling and analyzing soil/air,  holding a community forum, educating local politicians on the dangers of tobacco to creating Public Service Announcements on the hazards of Lead (Pb).  These next generations of leaders are given skills to create a clean and safe community.  .

Translations:  Offers job readiness skills for youth.  Through the “Art of Interviewing” confidence is created, communication skills are improved, generational misconceptions are addressed and they are prepared for the next steps in their life.   The youth learn to create resumes and prepare for interviews.   Life Skills is another component of Translations program, this is an additional 8 hour course.  The Illinois Department of Employment Security – Hire the Future program has partnered with Urban Sustain to trained their staff on the “Art of Interviewing”.

Project Impact: Open community discussions with Community Coaches  where members can share their concerns on the quality of your air, water and housing.   Project Impact gives the community an opportunity to build social capital by coming together in a peaceful manner to mix, mingle, mobilize and find real solutions.  Previous Project Impact projects include: Success to bring healthier food to grocery stores in South Shore, Southside Beach Rapid Trash Assessments, Campaign to remove Chicago’s bottle water tax and other short lived projects which address which have a long impact on the health of the community!

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization:

Leadership Development for the Sustainable Self Determination of Little Village

We believe democracy means giving time and space for every voice to be heard and counted in everyday matters, full participation in all types of decision-making that affects our lives, and determining the future of our neighborhood and city.

We work to unite our community’s talents, assets, and power to build a society that treats all of us equally: no matter what race, culture, ethnicity, age, or gender we are. In Unity we have the strength to forge economic, environmental and social justice to overcome the barriers of poverty that surround us and build self-determination.

We work for justice at home and abroad, connecting our local struggle for democracy with the global one and live by the principle that, as working and poor people of color, we have the right to control our lives and resources.

Current Campaigns:

• Clean Power – We seek clean power for Chicago, and want the two largest polluters (Crawford and Fisk Power Plants) in our backyard removed.
• Leadership – Using the community resources to guide our way into the next generation, and beyond.
• Open Spaces – Little Village, (95,000 residents), has been fighting for a park for over 10 years. In June ’07 the City of Chicago and Chicago Park District announced they would build a park on the Celotex Superfund toxic waste site. We want a SAFE park!
• Public Transit – Works to improve fair access for all Chicagoland riders, but focuses special attention on helping transit dependent, low-income riders in Chicago’s poorer communities. A city that works, is a city serves the needs of ALL it’s riders.
• Toxic Tours – Take a Toxic Tour of the former Celotex Superfund. See the danger in your own backyard – for real!
• Urban Gardening– Pooling our common knowledge and interests, and working with Mother Earth to produce healthy and safe local food sources.
  
• Water Wars – A campaign to keep our water in public hands, and defend everyone’s right to safe, clean and affordable water.
• Youth – Work on issues that support a fair environment for the community members. Some of the tools we use to combat these injustices are embracing our artistic abilities , making documentaries, videos, newsletters, and most important building ourselves into strong leaders through our community for our community.