Connecting youth to their environment in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana

In this video, Reverend Tyronne Edwards of the Zion Travelers Cooperative Center (ZTCC) explains the group's "Connecting Children to Their Environment" initiative.  This connection involves youth learning about coastal restoration and protection, learning how to test water quality, planting marsh grass, and "balancing screen time and green time." The video is written by Edwards and filmed by ZTCC youth.

Excerpts from the video: Rev. Edwards explains "Connecting Children to Their Environment":

"The Zion Travelers Cooperative Center was organized immediately after Hurricane Katrina. We were very successful in rebuilding our community after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Plaquemines Parish also has a history of people organizing in the Civil Rights Movement for the right to vote… But Hurricane Katrina taught us there was a movement that we wasn't involved in… One thing we lacked was the movement for coastal restoration. And it's because of lack of coastal restoration and protection Hurricane Katrina devastated our community, because we didn't have barriers to protect against the wind surge.

So we're saying, if we are going to move forward, if there is going to be a future for our unborn children, then we have to get involved in the movement for coastal restoration and Hurricane Protection.

To that end, the Zion Travelers Cooperative Center started 'Connecting Children to Their Environment'.  If there's going to be a future in coastal restoration and protection, then we need young people to lead and be involved in that movement…  Or there wouldn't be any community in the next 40 years."

"As a young man in the early 50's living in Phoenix and Plaquemines Parish Louisiana, the majority of our time as children was spent outside, enjoying the green space, enjoying our environment.  We live in a technology age now where kids got iPads, iPhones, Wii games, X-boxes, all those things… Kids are spending more time inside.  'Connecting Children to Their Environment' is about making sure there is a balance between screen time and green time."