Connecting underrepresented youth to the outdoors and careers in conservation (interview with angelou ezeilo of greening youth foundation)
Angelou Ezeilo (@angelouezeilo) is the Founder and CEO of Greening Youth Foundation (@greeningyouth), an organization that connects underrepresented youth and young adults to the outdoors and careers in conservation. She's also the author of Engage, Connect, Protect: Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders.
In this podcast episode, Angelou sheds light on the consequences of having a lack of diversity within federal land management agencies and outdoor apparel companies; how more diverse representation within the environmental movement can transform the ways we approach conservation and engagement with nature; and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Angelou and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne.
“Our planet is in peril right now and we can’t afford to be in these silos. If we really want to effectuate change, we have to start figuring out ways we can work together.”
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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological balance, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcast app to stay informed and updated on our latest episodes.
On connecting communities of color to outdoor recreation and conservation careers:
“Young people aren't necessarily seeing these [conservation] career opportunities or even having access to these places they can recreate.
There's a disconnect there, and that's one of the things that we work on at Greening Youth Foundation—we bridge that gap so that these communities and young people of color can see that not only are there job opportunities available in natural resource management, outdoor recreation, outdoor retail, and conservation, but it's also rewarding to be out in these beautiful places.
[Being outside in nature] is good for your health, and there are a lot of other benefits that communities of color sometimes are not tapped into right away because of these barriers that have been put up.”
On opening up the environmental movement:
"You can't be afraid to have conversations with your colleagues and peers that are going to make you or them uncomfortable. We have to start moving outside of these circles of comfort so that we can go deeper on [environmentalism].
Otherwise, 25 years from now, our kids and our kids’ kids are going to be having the same conversations.
I think our planet is in peril right now, and we can't afford to be in these silos, having these discussions and still not working together.
If we really want to effectuate change, we have to start figuring out ways we can work together and move this needle forward.”
On the impacts of increasing diversity within conservation:
“I think by having more diversity and by having more people of color involved with these land management agencies, it will have a ripple effect.
These are public lands, so these are lands owned by us—the taxpayers.
It will affect future generations by having everybody engaged in federal land management agency work, because now, we are seeing these places as our own, so we are stewards for these lands.
We are going to [these lands] more, we are protecting them, and we have a totally different lens when we are there and actively working at these different sites.”
Final words of wisdom:
“Together, we can effectuate change. We can do it.”
