Fieldwork+Day+-+February+4+Environmental+Justice

The students had decided a couple of months ago that our next step should petitioning to raise awareness and support for clean power in Chicago. So we agreed on a petition and flyer format and headed down to the Thompson Center with an armload of Jeanne's clipboards (I should have bought more, and I will, so between the two of us an army of petitioners can hit the streets!). We met up with our partner Environmental Justice group of Rudy Lozano Leadership Academy Juniors, and did a one-minute group practice session, then students in twos and threes went out into the cold, some spreading down the block, some hitting the cafeteria...most not getting a whole lot of signatures, between the cold, the passers-by inclined to suspicion, and the students' own tentativeness -- but a few students from both schools really got into it and got 30 or 40 in the space of 40 minutes or so. Then both groups headed back up to Parker, where they chose specific tasks to work on in moving the public outreach campaign forward: making a plan for visiting other schools (determining which schools, noting contacts students had at those schools -- we're planning to go to other schools on our Friday retreat day); making plans for a rally (EARTH DAY!); designing an English flyer; designing a Spanish flyer; and creating an on-line petition. Then we had pizza and said good-bye. I had hoped that this partnership would help us to build some momentum and give the students a chance to connect across neighborhood lines; I keep pressing them to reach out to one another, but it's a struggle. We all feel the integration of the groups is forced, and on the one hand I know that it's natural and good for them to have a sense of belonging with their own affinity groups and on the other I worry that our differences are heightened when we come together. A more pressing issue is that of energy and enthusiasm. The students say they want to DO something for real change, so they want to have a rally, which I'm all for, but I do not feel that their energy is there. I wonder what, besides nothing, they REALLY want. I know that I really need to gear up and get energized and mobilized if I want to see them get excited, and I'm of course having a hard time committing the time that's going to take. I guess I'd love some moral support right about now!