At-risk inner city youth are surrounded by many problems and many opportunities to become a part of the problems. Drugs are everywhere, crime and violence are rampant and simple neglect of the physical environment has become a part of the inner city culture, a lack of structured positive programming along with poor and distant educational institutions leave the youth with nothing except those problems. Environmental and health education with a strong emphasis on community service learning provides an opportunity for inner city youth to actively participate in the resolution of problems that are current, relevant and directly affecting their lives. The Youth Environmental Health Corps is a summer and after-school program which will be an addition to the Philadelphia Green's Youth Environmental Stewardship program, a summer employment program for children between the ages of 14-18 years old. The Environmental Health Corps program will highlight the links and commonalities between environmental health and personal health, providing students with information about environmental problems, tools for resolving those problems, as well as information and models for living healthier lifestyles. The program is an effort to address both the health needs of at-risk inner city youth populations and the inner city environmental movement by providing the youth with education, hard skills, and models of better living. The Environmental Health Corps provides a framework of education, participation and leadership development for youth-directed community problem solving. More importantly, the Corps makes care of the environment and better personal health something that at-risk inner city youth can just say "yes" to.

WHY THE PROJECT IS NEEDED:

At-risk inner city youth are surrounded by many problems and many opportunities to become a part of the problems. Be they drugs, crime, violence or simple neglect of the physical environment around them, a lack of structured positive programming and poor and distant educational institutions leave the youth with nothing except those problems. Although the message is constantly preached "just say no" at-risk inner city youth are looking for something to say "yes" to. Very few opportunities to be a part of solutions are presented to Philadelphia's at-risk inner city youth. The Youth Environmental Health Corps is a chance for at-risk inner city youth to say "yes" and be apart of the solution.

Furthermore, Philadelphia's inner-city youth know very little about the environment, the environmental movement, or their personal health. Without this knowledge the youth are unhealthy, unprepared to address critical environmental issues, easily frustrated, and constantly engaging in cycles of neglect of their personal health and the environment. The youth are not aware of how the unhealthy environment around them is negatively affecting their personal health, or how caring for the environment could provide an opportunity to be a part of a positive solution while developing expertise and a career path.

The North American Association for Environmental Education has found that programs with an environmental base are instrumental for bringing out the best in youth. Environmental education provides experiences in "investigation and issue orientation, real world and complex problems, community projects, service learning and team work." The Association goes further to state that "professionally executed environmental education programs produce high performance lifelong learners, effective future workers, problems solvers, thoughtful community participants and ultimately people who care about the people, creatures, and places around them."

Environmental and health education with a strong emphasis on community service learning provides an opportunity for active participation in the resolution of problems that are current, relevant and directly affecting the lives of the participants. This program provides a framework of education, participation and leadership for community problem solving. More importantly care of the environment and better personal health is something that at risk inner city youth can just say "yes" to. top

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