Connects students with mentors to work on ways to reduce the impacts of climate change
ERIE COUNTY, NY— The Climate Connections for Youth project, a collaboration between the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning and the Omega Mentoring Program, recently celebrated the completion of its third year. The project connects over thirty students and a dozen mentors participating in the program with organizations working on ways to reduce the impacts of climate change. Participants then share what they have learned with the greater community. For the past two years, this project has been supported in large part by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo and has also collaborated with Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Just Buffalo Literary Center.
During the past school year the group enjoyed field trips to Niagara Falls and the New York Power Authority, as well as three seasonal visits to Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve and birding at Red Jacket Natural Habitat Park. The group also took part in workshops on renewable energy and energy conservation, winter preparedness, the value of trees, food composting, and UB Regional Institute’s Climate Challenge Game. Interwoven between the field trips and workshops Buffalo's current Poet Laureate Aitina Fareed-Cooke, contracted through the Just Buffalo Literary Center, led her Tales from the Porch: Expanding Perspectives workshop sessions with the students to write poetry about these experiences.
In April, the Omega Mentoring Program co-hosted an Earth Day event at Northland Workforce Training Center with Erie County and others to showcase some of these same topics to the community. Soon after that Earth Day event, some of the students’ poetry was published in The Challenger News.
The project recently culminated for the year with a closing ceremony as participants received certificates from Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. Additionally, a poetic visual exploring the group’s work and produced through Get Fokus’d Productions was unveiled, with filming and editing by the company's collaborating digital storyteller, Alex Rojé Felix. The video can be viewed here .
Project partners are in the process of planning for the 2025- 2026 school year.
For more information about the partners on this project, please visit:
Erie County Climate Action Plan: www.erie.gov/climateaction
Omega Mentoring Program, Inc.: https://www.omegamentoring.com
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation: https://dec.ny.gov/places/reinstein-woods-center
Friends of Reinstein Woods: https://reinsteinwoods.org
Get Fokus’d Productions: https://www.getfokusdproductions.com
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