ABSTRACT
Philadelphia has developed a robust number of environmentally friendly initiatives including collective gardens, urban agriculture, composting facilities, and pollution cleansing strategies (such as using plants to clean lead from soils). However, these green initiatives engage mostly older citizens while local youth remain indifferent, rarely showing interest in participating and engaging with the creation and maintenance of green spaces in their local neighborhoods.
Drawing from the participatory media models developed within the field of Communication for Social Change, and the lessons from Environmental Communication, this chapter details the design and early stages of Urban Green Spaces and Digital Technologies, an initiative that uses media and digital platforms to encourage children and youth to engage with urban green spaces. Urban Green Spaces is founded on the concept of “voice” as a process where storytelling, empowerment, and political agency intersect. Central to both green radicalism and participatory media, the concept of voice provides a sound bridge between communication for social change and environmental communication. The goal of Urban Green Spaces is to use media and digital technologies to connect urban youth to local green spaces in Philadelphia’s low-income communities, which are primarily black and Latino. The intended outcomes of this project include but are not limited to increased youth engagement with urban green spaces and increased awareness of environmental justice issues, such as sustainability, food security, climate change, and the significance of green spaces in urban environments among local youth.
