Debra Tyler-Horton, Justice Center: North Carolina should establish an Environmental Job Corps for young people who did not graduate from high school to re-engage them in public service. Here is Margie Ellison from NC WARN and Sharelle Barber, President of the Student Body at Bennett to explain how we want to put young people to work for Environmental Justice:

DID YOU KNOW:

• the Environmental Justice movement started in North Carolina in 1982 when black people in Warren County protested against dumping deadly PCB’s in their community?
• that over 60% of African Americans and Latinos in the U.S. live in communities with toxic waste landfills?
• that hog farms in N.C. generate more raw sewage than 15 million people do—twice as many people who live in N.C.?
• that minority communities have six times as many hog farms as mostly white areas?
• that today, right now, right here in our own state, people of color are getting sicker and some are dying because of the recent devastating hurricanes caused by global warming?
• that high school drop-outs and kick-outs make up more than half the prison population?
• that a recent report from the N.C. New Schools Project found that our H.S. drop-out rate increased substantially in the past school year, 2005-2006, despite more attention by the courts?

- Margie Ellison

THEREFORE, TO ADDRESS BOTH THE EDUCATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICES, WE DEMAND:

• the North Carolina General Assembly Fund one Environmental Youth Job paying at least $18,000/year for every young person who drops out or is constructively discharged from school.
• the state set up the N.C. Environmental Justice Youth Board, with NAACP and Environmental Justice representatives on it to administer the Environmental Justice Youth program.
• the State outlaw placing any more pollution sources near low-income and predominantly African American communities.
• the State require all state programs and contracts promote conservation, non-fossil fuels, and other technologies that will develop our economy while cleaning and sustaining our environment.

- Sharelle Barber