02-18-19 Joint Health and Public Safety and Utilities

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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK part of that school, I learned a lot about gardening,permaculture and climate change. When I was in seventh (7th) "rade, I was part of a committee and helped plan an academic conference where we invited Jim Poiser, who is up here taking pictures, to come be one (1) of our speakers. He returned the next year to our eighth (8th) grade conference and we began talking more. Jim does a number of things throughout the State of Indiana, working with youth, to start planning climate change recovery advocacy. I got really connected with him and proposed the idea of hosting a climate change camp. I'm going to be honest, I was very skeptical. I needed something to do for three (3) days in the summer and I decided to join him. In the summer of 2015, we had a climate change intensive camp for high school students for three(3) days at Prairie Winds Nature Farm. I was the young one (1) of the group, I had just graduated eighth (8th) grade, so, I felt really privileged to be joining this high school camp. At this climate camp, we talked about a number of things and watched different videos,but I think what stuck out to me most was one (1) day it was raining, ironically, and we had to cancel our activities for that afternoon. So instead, we watched a video called little warriors which is a documentary about Eugene,Oregon,and the climate change ordinance they passed with a youth-based initiative. I was, to put it honestly, really amazed and star-struck that these kids had taken a city just like South Bend and they had turned it into one(1) of the most progressive and sustainable cities in the entire United States. She continued, I was a bit cheeky and passionate as an eighth (8th) grader and I told Jim we could do that. I think I underestimated a little bit how difficult policy and grassroots activism can be,but it was really the start of an honest interest in making South Bend one (1) of those cities. At the time, I was accompanied by Grace Coman and Matthew Peterson, who were two (2) other youth who were really invested in my vision and that project. Unfortunately, neither of them could be here with us today but they encouraged my perspective and spark and I thought, well, if they are interested in it and they are older than me, this might work. I really dug my heels in and decided this was a project I wanted to take on even if it was going to take me a long time. My goal was to finish before I graduate and, as a senior being here today, I would say we are pretty close to that. I then joined a group called IMatter which is a national online campaign that helps youths organize sustainable activity to become climate change recovery activists in their own city. Through that, I founded the Youth Climate Task Force which was the first (1st) of many steps in creating this climate-based activism you see here today. We had a lot momentum and a lot of youth but very little experience and very few connections. She went on, With I Matter, I helped create a report card for the City of South Bend that analyzed their approaches to sustainability and their carbon footprint. It was through this that I met Therese Dorau,the Director of the Office of Sustainability, and I kind of badgered her for data that she was reluctant to say that South Bend didn't actually have. This was especially because the County is responsible for a lot of different divisions such as waste management. A lot of information on the report card actually went in as unsure or don't know and South Bend actually got a D on the report card for sustainability. I was really impressed and shocked by that because I had grown up in this City where sustainability was central to my education and to see this D in the report card, I was really surprised. I thought oh my gosh, this is maybe a little bit more work than I thought it was cut out to be. We kind of stopped meeting with the Youth Climate Task Force and we lost a little bit of that initial passion and youth I had been interested in. Through this, I was also watching cities throughout Indiana and the United States kind of finish this dream that I had envisioned for South Bend. I worked with students in Carmel, Indianapolis and Lawrence and watched them pass their own climate resolutions and I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit jealous and disappointed that they had been able to take this dream that I had started and be able to finish it before I even EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION j INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 (574.235.9173 111)574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 4