Rooted and Rising: Join the Movement for Youth Power

Frontline Catalysts is deeply rooted in Fruitvale, Oakland. Over the past five years, we’ve worked to strengthen a lineage of youth power in the East Bay, empowering hundreds of young leaders to spearhead the movement for transformative climate justice. This journey has been a collective effort to call to attention how the unnatural has been naturalized and make the invisible visible.

Responding to a history of environmental racism and redlining, for half a decade Frontline Catalysts has been guiding youth leaders and our town towards collective healing. By building narrative strategies and organizing power around environmental justice, Frontline Catalysts goes beyond educating youth on climate change; we empower frontline youth to realize their ability to shape their community’s futures, even in the face of ongoing dispossession. Since our founding, we’ve reached hundreds of young people and equipped them with the resources and support to challenge systems that have long excluded their communities. For instance, youth-led campaigns have successfully pushed the Oakland Unified School District to acknowledge the presence of lead in student’s drinking water and begin taking steps to ensure students have continued access to safe quality water.

As we reach a new milestone, we’re leaning into the art of cyanotype to capture this moment. Just as cyanotype is a process through which direct light imprints on objects to immortalize their shadows, we’re tracing Frontline Catalysts’ history in this same light, shining a spotlight on the beautiful work we’ve undertaken together.

Join us on October 21st as we reflect on the lasting impression our movement has made and celebrate the energy, power, and resilience of our community. Share in this moment as we work to build a more just future and be a part of this growing tapestry of youth power.

Growing Dream Communities in Oakland

Artwork and Story by Bill Tran, Mckynzie Fabia, Miguelangel Segura, and Oli Tenorio-Lara; Digitalized by Lizbeth Luevano

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Rooted and Rising: Join the Movement for Youth Power

Empowering youth from frontline communities to lead the movement for transformative climate justice

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