Young people from environmental justice communities around the U.S. and abroad converged in Flagstaff, Arizona at the base of the sacred mountain known as the San Francisco Peaks for the ALL PEOPLES POWER SUMMIT: Building Communities of Hope, Strength, and Sustainability in July. Hosted by the Black Mesa Water Coalition, a grassroots coalition of Navajo and Hopi youths and young adults working together for environmental justice, the Summit took place at the site of one of the most heated sacred land-protection struggles in North America today.

DataCenter’s Environmental Justice Team, with support from the Youth Strategy Project, helped plan, outreach, as well as conduct workshops to build youth leaders’ capacities to wage effective actions to fight for environmental justice in their home communities. The three days of programs included trainings, discussions, dancing, hip-hop, poetry, and cultural sharing.

Keynote speaker Winona Laduke emphasized the importance of information in the hands of our communities fighting for environmental justice. At a DataCenter popular education workshop “research-for-action: Building an Effective Campaign to Win!,” participants practiced developing a research plan rooted in a community environmental justice agenda. A power mapping workshop also led by DataCenter helped participants visualize the power relations that must be altered through their campaigns.

The DataCenter provides research and strategic campaign planning support for the Navajo community-led efforts around the campaign to save the San Francisco Peaks. For more information about the campaign, please see www.savethepeaks.org.