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News From the Youth in Motion Conference
| On July 6-8 the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) held its first annual Youth in Motion Conference in Baton Rouge, LA. LEAN, a state-wide, grassroots environmental organization has always included youth in its events, but this year decided to have a conference dedicated solely to the youth. The conference was a success in many ways. First and foremost, the conference had a great attendance bringing over 100 youth and parents from all over Louisiana and even Mississippi. Those who attended were excited to be at such a ground breaking event and were ecstatic to meet new people who shared the same interests. The workshops presented were focused mainly on empowering the participants with tools that could be used to strengthen their communities. The conference brought speakers such as Collis Temple III, an LSU basketball player, Florence Robinson, a biology professor and Environmental Justice Activist, Roy Quezaire, a Louisiana State Representative, Lora Hinton, the first African-American to sign a scholarship with LSU and Emily Andrews from the Friends For Life organization. A couple of the workshops focused on issues based in and around their schools. LEAN has been working on the issue of pesticides in schools as an after-school program sponsored by the Rural Schools and Community Trust and decided to expand it to the conference. The workshop focused on the problems with pesticides in schools and set the participants up for the other workshops which focused on what they could do to affect change in their communities and schools. One workshop did exactly that. A school and community organizing workshop was presented by Albertha Hasten, an Iberville Parish School Board member, David Brown, a student activist, and Brett Holmes, a student who challenged school policy on “braid” laws in school. Of course there was lots of fun activities for the youth. They had lots of free time to hang out by the pool and meet the other conference participants. Also, for the younger kids there were cooperative games which taught teamwork and group dynamics and environmentally friendly crafts. On Saturday evening the group made a field trip to Alligator Bayou where they went on a boat tour on the bayou learning about Louisiana wildlife and culture. The conference ended on a great note with many of the participants giving good evaluations and stating that they would love to have another one soon. Much of the LEAN staff and members were very pleased and plans are in the works for having another conference with lots of involvement by the youth in the planning and some more of the great things which made this conference a success. Back to top.
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