STAND UP SPEAK OUT: (SUSO) is the advocacy arm of EMEAC. SUSO programs and activities advocate for environmental justice in Southeast Michigan through legislative policy initiatives while encouraging community involvement through our youth and adult education and training.
SUSO has recently worked in conjunction with other environmental justice organizations in Detroit to make pro-environmental policy changes like the Zero-Waste Detroit initiatives to eliminate tax payer subsidies for a major environmental polluters like the Detroit Incinerator. SUSO has also advocated for successful pro-environmental regulations like the anti-idling ordinance for commercial vehicles within the city limits of Detroit.
SUSO also conducts environmental education classes and training in select local schools for students in grades 6-12. SUSO also is conducting a youth leadership initiative aimed at young people ages 16-20 in the Detroit community.
GREENER SCHOOLS: The Greener Schools Initiative brings children in Detroit schools closer to nature. We believe that by instilling a sense of interconnectedness and love for the environment our youth can become advocates for their environment and their communities.
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MULTICULTURAL ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS & SCIENCES (MEAS) LABS provide environmental justice education in the classroom through hands-on lessons covering subjects including biodiversity, air quality, water quality, food security, cooking, and Sharing Nature with Children. We currently have two labs at Palmer Park Preparatory Academy and Nsoroma Institute where students investigate local environmental issues, grow their own vegetables, sell plants to parents and teachers, and create nature themed or recycled art projects. We work closely with teachers in order to supplement their core subjects and align our lessons to Grade Level Curriculum Expectations.
THE UGLIEST SCHOOLYARD COMPETITION provides a way for Detroit public and charter schools to create their own natural environments and outdoor classrooms at their school. Winning schools receive a $10,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation for their outdoor classroom. A University of Michigan Landscape Designer teachers an introductory course in landscape design and the students themselves participate in the design and construction their own natural spaces in their schoolyards. Projects and designs have included a meditation path, a pond, a native plant habitat, and an interactive showcase for green technology.
GARDENING ANGELS: program is a partnership with the Luella Hannan Foundation through the Community Foundation's Senior Engagement Program. Gardening Angels brings youth and seniors together in partnership to work for environmental justice and healthy, sustainable communities. Through a process of sharing and learning, youth and elders explore environmental justice and food security issues; they work together in school garden projects; and young people document the histories of their elders to learn about their lives and the communities that shaped them. Activities include Learning Circles, Oral History trainings and recordings, gardening exchanges, and food justice lessons.
REMEDIA: The Remedia program does media production for East Michigan Environmental Action Council, which is an Environmental Justice non-profit based in Detroit. Remedia empowers community members, youth and adult, with the skills and technological tools to tell their own stories about environmental issues in SE Michigan. These can be public service announcements, music videos, short films, digital art works or documentaries about air quality, water access and affordability, land use or food security. We also have an environmental justice media fellows program where program participants are hired by area justice organizations to meet their media needs around documentation and promotions.
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ANNUAL EMEAC GREENSCREEN FILM FESTIVAL: Each year Remedia also sponsors the Annual EMEAC Greenscreen Film Festival where students across southeast Michigan showcase films with environmental themes. The work of these young filmmakers express what they think is most crucial to their health and to the natural environment. Some films also focus on making the world (or their school or neighborhood) more environmentally healthier. The festival is a celebration of youth voice and emerging environmentalism. The short films, created entirely by young artists and aspiring young activists, span environmental and social consciousness.
The films are judged for cinematic merit, relevance to Southeastern Michigan, and creative messaging. The panel of judges included independent directors, environmental activists, a youth activist, and a journalist. Now in its fifth year, EMEAC gets statewide inquiries about this exciting event, as well as requests for film making workshops and demonstrations year round.
While abandoned by major supermarket chains, Detroit, like many inner city communities, has rich social and environmental capital that has been largely untapped or under-utilized in addressing food security for the people in our communities. The Task Force brings together a broad coalition of local growers, social, environmental and media justice organizations, schools, churches, food educators, restaurants, caterers and restaurant suppliers, the City of Detroit, representatives from the Michigan Environmental Council, community activists, residents and stakeholders. The members of the task force represent a broad spectrum of experience and resources in food production, distribution, land use, restaurant and other end users/retail options who will work together to:
- Develop and implement strategies to expand urban agriculture production Improve food access and security
- Create jobs
- Contribute to community sustainability.
To empower Detroiters to assess and improve food justice and security in their own neighborhoods, FJTF will develop Planning Toolkit providing information and resources on:
- Food Justice Literacy
- Best Practice Research and Development
- Environmental Justice Literacy
- Community Assessment and Data Analysis
- Food Justice Media & Media Literacy
DETROIT DIGITAL JUSTICE COALITION: The Detroit Digital Justice Coalition (DJC) is comprised of people and organizations in Detroit who believe that communication is a fundamental human right. We are securing that right through activities that are grounded in the digital justice principles of: access, participation, common ownership, and healthy communities. East Michigan Environmental Action Council along with 10 other grassroots organizations and independent technologists in Detroit founded the coalition which emerged out of conversations that took place during the 2009 Allied Media Conference workshop, "A Healthy Digital Ecology: Creating a Community Vision for Federal Broadband Funding." Since August 2009 we have been building a shared vision for digital justice in Detroit, strategizing around collaborative applications for federal broadband funding, and preparing for community-wide educational events that will include everything from Internet policy workshops to hands-on technology stations.
DIGITAL MEDIA ECONOMY COLLABORATIVE
Coming soon.
SUSO has recently worked in conjunction with other environmental justice organizations in Detroit to make pro-environmental policy changes like the Zero-Waste Detroit initiatives to eliminate tax payer subsidies for a major environmental polluters like the Detroit Incinerator. SUSO has also advocated for successful pro-environmental regulations like the anti-idling ordinance for commercial vehicles within the city limits of Detroit.
