Club Youth Attend Green Jobs Conference

On May 2, 13 New Mexico youth from Silver City and Taos will fly to Washington, DC, to serve as Sierra Club Youth Delegates to the Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference, which will be held May 4-6 in our nation’s capital.

Coordinated by the Blue Green Alliance, a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations, the conference will bring together over 4,000 activists from around the country dedicated to building sustainable green jobs in their communities. The goal of the conference is to provide a platform for action and discussion around creating green jobs, reducing global warming, and preserving America’s economic and environmental security.

Last year’s conference in DC saw 3,000 participants and featured speeches from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Senator Sherrod Brown, and others.

This year’s conference promises to be even bigger and better. As of press time, featured speakers include the Sierra Club’s new Executive Director, Michael Brune; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

The Sierra Club’s role and delegation numbers have expanded. Over 400 Club delegates from across the nation will be on hand to learn about the issues, share information, and advocate at the federal level. Eighty-five youth from California, Washington, New Mexico, New York, the Midwest, and DC will kick off the conference with a service project on the Anacostia River on Monday, May 3, with our partner, Earth Conservation Corps. Our youth delegation will play an active role at the conference by participating in panels, including a large panel entitled Youth in the Great Outdoors: Laying the Foundation for Green Careers. Other programming includes national monument tours and youth-focused presentations at the Green Innovations Expo, which runs concurrently with the conference and trainings. The capstone to this great experience is Advocacy Day, which will bring all of the conference participants to Capitol Hill for congressional visits on topics such as the climate bill and transportation issues.

The 13 New Mexico youth are affiliated of The Wellness Coalition in Silver City and the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps in Taos, both Building
Bridges to the Outdoors grantees and partners. Their experience working in green jobs will be an asset to the youth delegation. Rounding out the Sierra Club New Mexico delegation are national staffer Shrayas Jatkar; Carrie McChesney, who runs a small business, Concept Green, LLC; and Daniel Werwath of The Housing Trust in Santa Fe.

For more information, please go to www.greenjobsconference.org. Or contact Kristina Ortez, Southwest Youth Programs Representative, Building Bridges to the Outdoors (505/243-7767, For more information, send email to kristina.ortez@sierraclub.org.
—Kristina Ortez