Creating Communities and Building Relationships

From the end of 2023 into the beginning of 2024, 13 environmental organizations banded together to figure out how to strengthen themselves, their relationships with each other, and the community. These meetings and discussions led to the formation of MKE’s Environmental Youth Collaboration (EYC), a collective of 13 youth-serving organizations from Milwaukee working together to get kids to be more environmentally conscious.

These 13 organizations make up EYC: The Urban Ecology Center, True Skool, Teens Grow Greens, Sixteenth Street, River Revitalization Foundation, Riveredge, Nearby Nature Milwaukee, Menomonee Valley Partners, Groundwork Milwaukee, Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps., Cream City Conservation, Audubon Great Lakes Wild Indigo Wilderness Explorations, and Reflo.

Justin Hegarty is the executive director of Reflo and is a core member of EYC, helping with the organization and pushing progress.

“When we think about who do we serve and our priorities, youth are all commonly at the top of our list of who we think first,” said Hegarty.

Allowing Youth To Explore Careers  

All 13 organizations focus on educating youth and have taken action to provide internships to hundreds of students in Wisconsin. These internships serve as exposure to jobs in the blue and green pathways such as forestry, arborists, horticulture, construction, and plumbing.

Wilniesha Smith is the internship coordinator for Reflo and works closely with the youth.  

“The youth are kinda in a space where, many moons ago, they were kind of a focal point and since then it’s kinda fallen off,” said Smith.“These 13 orgs [sic] coming together, making that their focal point again gives us another introduction or reintroduction in[to] how youth look at careers and how they find careers and their career exploration.” 

This year’s programs employed over 200 students, many of whom continue to work for multiple organizations within the EYC ecosystem. The internships provide opportunities for students to network with one another and professionals in potential fields of interest, fostering early growth and career development.

Beyond the Jobs

EYC hosts events like bonfires, paddling on the river, a summer park jam, and attending the Annual Green and Healthy Schools Conference held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s campus to further engage the youth.

Makayla Cooper is the internship and youth programming manager for Nearby Nature, one of the 13 organizations in EYC.  Her work includes preparing students for future careers and helping interns reach their full potential in the programs. 

“We made it very important to understand that when we are visiting or working with the other orgs [sic], to really have those interactions with each other so they can be in spaces with students or youth that look like them and care about the environmental things they care about,” said Cooper.

2024 is the first year the programs have been carried out through the collective. Every year, EYC will host winter retreats to focus on the development and improvement of the programs provided by EYC and its organizations.