Summer Midst of Ms.Rona 2020

We kicked off 2020 with a bunch of YLO goals. From cleaning up our community parks. To combating against racist conventions in the 210 (San Antonio).

Our programming completely changed. From personal gatherings to online. Our get-togethers

where via Zoom. The summer program was open to youth ages 12-18. We had 10 interns this summer.

For our first couple of weeks, we learned about ourselves. What was going on nationwide and within our communities. Our Youth come from all around San Antonio. They expressed how their schools were still giving them work even though it was the summer. How being online was taking a toll on their mental health. Many of them were very patient with us. Navigating the online realm of Zoom and Discord.

Focusing on the death of George Floyd we dug deeper by talking about privilege. The root cause of racism in the Americas and worldwide. We watched the Netflix show “When They See Us”. How this damn system isn’t for us but rather for corporations for profit. 13th, this documentary showed us the reality of politicians. a How they evoked crack into the streets and racially profiled our communities. The youth voiced how these injustices aren’t taught in schools. How everything needs to be learned either through yourself or community organizing.

We started the food box distribution in May and youth came to help out for one week. We assembled boxes and started counting our back to school inventory. We soon saw an influx of covid cases. We decided it was best for us to limit the number of people coming into the food box distribution days.

Middle of summer. We worked on our vision board. This week the youth got to work and imagine what they want to do in the next five years. Cut out images from magazines, drew them out. We shared with each other. In these times, we have to keep hopeful and believe that things will get better. We emphasized the importance of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel during these moments.

The Climate Justice Alliance had a virtual gathering via zoom. Where the youth and Swu organizers integrated with other organizers. We shared the Just Transition alignment. We were able to break out into regions and spoke with SWOP about ideas we’d like to see flourish in the southwest. It was an amazing space to see others' work and obstacles. Be heard and seen during the pandemic.

Every year we have cookin- on- a budget. It's always fun and gives the youth a perspective of cooking on their own but keeping it affordable. Anacua did a video workshop. She also spoke about the environment and garden. Cooked a Pomodoro Medley with pasta. Keeping the cost under twenty dollars. She also used veggies and herbs from the Roots of Change garden.

The summer ended and we started focusing on the upcoming fall programming.