Oak Park expects to receive $500,000 from the Illinois Department of Human Services to help support the Cross-Community Climate Collaborative, or C4’s, youth leadership program called Kaleidoscope Community Project.
C4 is co-lead by Seven Generations Ahead, Urban Efficiency Group, Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman, River Forest Village President Cathy Adduci and Mayor of Broadview Katrina Thompson.
The project is “designed to bring together BIPOC and non-minority communities across income lines to share ideas, secure resources, and drive large-scale projects within and across communities that achieve greenhouse gas emissions reductions, equity and sustainability goals,” according to Seven Generations Ahead.
A total of 14 communities in Illinois are involved in the C4 project. Some of the goals include reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2010 and by 100% by 2050. The youth leadership program works with high school students.
To receive the $500,000, Oak Park must submit a special projects grant application to the IDHS Office of Community and Positive Youth Development, which trustees approved Jan. 28. Illinois State Representative Camille Lilly sponsored the grant dollars in the House of Representatives.
Needs for addressing the climate crisis differ between communities, but the challenges need to be embraced collectively, Darnell Johnson, chief executive officer of the Urban Efficiency Group, explained. Something that affects a nearby community could be Oak Park’s or River Forest’s problem tomorrow, he pointed out.
“We’re looking at ways to bridge those gaps, to ensure that students in Oak Park are communicating with students in [bordering communities],” Johnson said.
When community leaders share resources or experience and have empathy for issues in bordering communities, Johnson said, it shortens the learning curve. That can get local communities to a more sustainable space, faster.
“That is what we want to replicate among our next generation thought leaders,” he said. “We are working now to be able to bring that opportunity forward where these students will be able to work locally and be able to continue to talk about what they see and what they feel is important for the future of their communities.”
The C4 youth leadership program has four main focus areas, Johnson said. Those are prosperity, holistic wellness, community and emerging leaders.
“[They’re] the next generation presidents and trustees and teachers and community leaders,” he said.
For prosperity, the program will look at how to reimagine local education and drive small business development.
For holistic wellness, C4 youth will discuss food desserts and work to remove the stigma around mental health and related issues.
For community, the program will work to protect and expand cultural identities, either through affordable housing or other means.
“They will be the ones inheriting these communities,” Johnson said. “We’ll be severely remiss if we’re not including them now.”
For emerging leaders, the next generation thought leaders will bring visibility to their ideas by working in tandem with local village boards to have their ideas adopted. From there, the region can come together through C4 to adopt ideas based on that insight from the emerging leaders.
The Kaleidoscope participants will also mentor middle schoolers and continue to participate in leadership opportunities among their peers.
“To make the sustainability goals and gains and the changes that we want to see in the future, we have to empower the youth,” Trustee Cory Wesley said.
Oak Park recently learned it might not meet its first sustainability goal set out in Climate Ready Oak Park. That goal is to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2030. But from 2019 to 2022, the village only reduced emissions by 7%.
Will youth make all the difference?
Trustee Lucia Robinson pointed out that today, youth can speak with people all over the world through social media. This C4 youth program “lends some structure to those types of conversations and those connections that they’re probably already making,” she said.
“Every time we talk about C4, and we have the opportunity to take a step forward and support another aspect of it, I love C4 even more [than before],” Robinson said. “I’m super grateful for President Scaman leading us in this collaborative, regional perspective on sustainability.”
Scaman, who also attended the 2024 United Nations climate change conference, or COP29, with Oak Park and River Forest High School seniors, said current leaders are leaving youth goals they haven’t yet obtained. So, education and leadership training are vital.