…the Voices We Don’t Hear
In late 2021 I was contracted by Friends of the Earth (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) to lead a project on environmental justice and youth work. More specifically, they wanted to ensure that young people from tougher social realities are part of the environmental justice movement and that their voices are heard on the crucial environmental issues facing our neighbourhoods, societies and planet. As part of the project I developed the following thought piece, to link environmental justice and youth work theory (specifically youth work focused on social justice and change), and FOE has kindly allowed me to share the piece here which I hope you will find useful.
The paper was used as the basis for a short course for community based youth workers which was piloted with participants in early 2022 in Belfast and Tower Hamlets in London. If you would like to find out more about this course and this work, please contact Fran at Friends of the Earth. I hope the paper will encourage youth workers to think more deeply about these issues, and particularly at a time when rampant fuel cost rises are pushing families and neighbourhoods into deep social crisis.
wiseabap 