An Interview with Alicia Sadler

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Alicia Sadler, the chairperson of the Parent Association at Prescott Elementary, to discuss her role in the Youth Climate Education Project (YCEP). Alicia's involvement in YCEP began somewhat serendipitously when she stepped into the role of chairperson for the parent group at Prescott Elementary. It was around 2020 when Alicia began volunteering for the Parent Association, During this time, Sprinavasa Brown, Executive Director of ELSO Inc. began forming the community-led committee to envision outdoor learning at Prescott and actualize an outdoor classroom proposal. Principle Nicole Watson suggested that Alicia take part, and thus deepened her involvement with YCEP.

Alicia is the proud mother of two children, one of which is currently enrolled at Prescott. Although her youngest is going to be graduating into middle school next year, she firmly believes that the impact of these outdoor spaces extends beyond Prescott parents and students, “Even after my youngest goes off to middle school, I am really into the idea of this outdoor learning having an impact on the community… Absolutely it will have an impact on our school, but so many things ELSO does on our campus, so many things Principle Watson has envisioned and continues to envision for our campus, goes out into the community organically and it changes the landscape far and wide.” 

One aspect of the project Alicia finds particularly inspiring is the opportunity for greater diversity and inclusion when it comes to amplifying voices within the community. She mentions how PTA-like spaces tend to be very white dominated and that “the demographics of our school, our neighbors, and our community [have] not been reflected in that parent engagement.” By working alongside organizations like ELSO and leaders like Principal Nicole Watson, Alicia believes the Parent Association can create a more inclusive and impactful parent community that has a greater and more direct impact. Although, it is not only the parent aspect of the Prescott community that she considers. After hearing about the poll ELSO ran at the most recent Harvest Party that asked for parents, students, and faculty alike to participate in voting for the climate solutions they feel most passionate about, she asserted, “An important part of even envisioning the space is figuring out ways the kids can have some autonomy in how we’re creating it.”

Alicia’s enthusiasm extends beyond the Park Rose community. The day prior to our interview, she had attended a conference envisioning ways to engage with local Oregon BIPOC farmers to help build the outdoor classroom and garden into a space that nourishes both our body and mind. As she puts it, “The way that food and environment weaves community together is something I’m still learning about, but it is the most fundamental way to build connections.” She explains how fostering connection can be done by sharing culturally relevant foods and practicing sustainable and culturally adapted farming techniques.

As our conversation concluded, it was evident that Alicia's dedication to the YCEP project extends far beyond her role as a parent. She embodies the spirit of community engagement and sees education, food, and connection as a catalyst for positive change. Even though her youngest will be advancing to middle school soon, she seems intent on maintaining her connection with Prescott Elementary for as long as she can. Her commitment to the school and its broader impact on the neighborhood speaks volumes about the transformative potential of climate justice and education when coupled with community involvement. Alicia Sadler is not only chairperson of the Parent Association; she is a driving force in the movement to make a more sustainable, inclusive, and promising future for all.

Erin Cathcart, Project Manager here, found the time to delve into the Youth Climate Education Project (YCEP) and share what the experience has been like in making this project come to life. While she wasn’t involved in the initial ideation of YCEP, she explains the beginnings when Studio Justice evolved from a program that merged with ELSO called Your Street, Your Voice which served youth through cohort-based after-school projects centered on the built environment and design. One design the cohorts had brought to life was a student center at a PCC campus. Erin highlighted how the merging of programs came naturally, as both ELSO and Your Street, Your Voice were working on real projects that impact the community tangibly, stating, “It’s not just like, ‘Imagine you have two million dollars and five acres, what would you do?’ Which can be a fun project, but it’s so much deeper when you have something that you can see.” Eventually, ELSO would begin working with Prescott Elementary and after being awarded the Portland Clean Energy Fund grant, ELSO aimed to deepen its existing relationship with Prescott through facilitating the Youth Climate Education Project. 

While only in year two of development, Erin already recognizes ways in which this project has been successful. One being in the excitement and engagement of families and youth in the Prescott community. She points to the Vital Voices event, where Studio Justice cohort members presented projects that showcased the skills they’d developed through the program combined with their own unique talents such as a video game walk through! Erin speaks admirably, “That’s our measure of success… these kids sharing their beautiful ideas and what they’ve learned and what they want and all their innovation and creativity; that’s the heart of the project… It’s about those stories and the connections the kids are making and their power and creativity and knowledge that they’re bringing out of these things.”

Studio Justice cohorts were the primary source of climate resilience solutions being considered, but there was also some internal research from ELSO. An influential moment for YCEP occurred when Erin, Jamie Newsome, and Sprinavasa Brown were attending a conference in Tucson, Arizona, where they toured Manza Elementary School. This school had spent 15 years developing garden and nature spaces, featuring a greenhouse, chicken coop, rainwater catchment system, and even a habitat for a native tortoise. Erin explained how these features were integrated into the school’s curriculum, from kindergarteners learning about plant growth to older students using rain barrels to study volume in math class. Inspired by Manza’s approach, Erin and her team considered similar projects for Prescott, narrowing down options by considering what made sense locally and consulting the community.

Community engagement is fundamental to ELSO’s approach, which intentionally engages with the community in an open-ended way. YCEP was made to be a four-year project to allow for genuine, ongoing input that shaped the outcome rather than reinforce a predetermined solution. Erin stresses that this method ensures the project is truly community-driven, but it must also involve conscious decision making in how to engage with the community. She points out gaps in traditional methods of gathering community input, such as email surveys or focus groups. “It’s shown in formal studies that folks who answer surveys and come to focus groups are not representative of the whole community,” she explains, “...You know who responds most to email surveys? It’s more affluent white people who have time or feel like they have the agency and voice.” Erin emphasizes the importance of building trust and genuine relationships, noting that being present and reciprocal encompasses the approach to community input.

When it comes to the solutions themselves, Erin expressed particular excitement about elements involving land management. Specifically, she’s interested in tackling the slope of grass leading up to the field, “That gets really slick and muddy in the winter, so thinking about what we can plant there that will be hardy with kids being able to still utilize that space and go up and down but help with erosion.” A potential course of action is creating a bioswale, which intentionally uses water intensive plants to absorb water into the ground and reduce the amount pooling at the surface or flowing into the sewer system. Erin finds this approach fascinating because it combines environmental benefits with educational opportunities. “I really like the idea of using plants not just as a garden feature or having native plants or brilliant pollinators, but it’s also really talking about how these plants affect the land that they’re on,” she says.

Sustainability and long-term impact is a key concern when it comes to the outcome of YCEP. Erin discusses how many community-based projects, especially those involving environmental restoration, require significant initial investment and that it can be challenging to sustain the change. She explains, “So we’ve been talking a lot about [how] we’re putting in garden beds and they’re going to be beautiful and planted out, but who is cleaning them up in the fall? Who is replanting in the spring?” The ultimate measure of success for her is seeing that the outdoor space and learning carts are well-maintained and used routinely even years later, indicating deep integration within the community. Another goal is to create connected lesson plans that are accessible to teachers. Erin envisions a potential long term project after YCEP that would involve analyzing Prescott Elementary’s science curriculum across all grade levels and tailoring it to the outdoor space.

One of Erin’s greatest motivators throughout this project has been the ability to engage directly with youth, whether it be through the ELSO’s camp programs, day events, or visiting in the classroom. She reflects on how she doesn’t get to hang out with student groups as much as she did in her earlier career, “It’s one of those bad things about being an educator. As you move up in your career, you get farther away from the actual programming… If I’m out here telling people how to do stuff I need to be practicing it. You can’t get too far from what’s happening with kids and still be able to speak to good practices.” She’s enjoyed having those moments of being back in classrooms, observing how the students engage with activities facilitated by ELSO and how their own ideas shape the program.

Erin shares a story of when her and Melanie Mejia were outside collecting leaves with the kindergarteners for a school project. There were piles that were less than ideal including leaves that had already begun to compost with plastics and garbage mixed in. Deciding to stick away from the leaf piles toward the end of the property, Mel and Erin looked to the students for guidance on where to collect worthwhile leaves. “These kids know their schoolyard, and I think a disservice that we do to youth is not giving them credit for how observant and connected they are… They know which plant has the neat leaves or where they can always find worms or where there’s good sticks to throw at each other,” she laughs. It’s clear that Erin truly does enjoy and learn from the time she gets to spend with Prescott youth. 

Through Erin’s insights, it’s evident that the Youth Climate Education Project is the assemblance of genuine community involvement, sustainability, and meaningful education. The program’s success shines through in the excitement and empowerment it brings to the youth by sparking their creativity and passion for cultivating their community. By focusing on encouraging community input and hands-on projects, ELSO not only tackles current environmental issues through this project but also lays the groundwork for lasting change. Erin’s dedication to being connected with the students and valuing their input highlights the heart of the project: progress comes from working together, building trust, and harnessing the incredible ideas of the young people it supports.

At just 19 years old, Shamshawan Watson is already making waves as a designer and a three-time participant in Studio Justice's youth cohort program. After being introduced to the program through an email his father received from ELSO Inc., Sham, along with his siblings, decided to give it a shot. Reflecting on time spent with us, Sham recalls how Studio Justice helped him to improve his skills as a designer and break out of his shell. "Studio Justice, it’s been fun," he says, "...It’s helped me improve on different design stuff and design philosophy when learning about architecture."

One of the most personally significant aspects of the program for Shamshawan was the opportunity to open up and communicate effectively with others. Described by his parents as an introvert, Sham admits he prefers to stick to himself, but Studio Justice encouraged him to step out of his comfort zone. With the support of mock interviews set up by his parents and guidance from the program, he learned to be comfortable with being on camera and communicating with people.

When asked about his work throughout the cohorts, Sham explains how the designing process actually began with an exercise called “The Social Change Ecosystem”. This involves self-reflection and identifying oneself into a social role such as storyteller, experimenter, or, in his case, a healer. He explained how one’s outlook on climate justice and racial equity directly translates to their outlook on probable solutions. While his initial designs for Prescott Elementary were scattered, with elements inspired by his interests in water management and aquatic life, feedback from judges helped him refine and expand his concepts. "For the first year, I was just putting stuff all over the place," Sham admits, "From Google Earth, things look kinda big, but from scaling and how much space is allotted, it wouldn’t really translate well from paper to in-person." One of the most important aspects of conceptualizing his designs was keeping the space engaging for elementary students which helped guide his idea of including aquatic animals. Of the solutions he came up with, water management and addressing food waste were ones that he was especially passionate about. 

With all the knowledge he has gained from Studio Justice, Sham believes “…what’s most impactful is letting the students know about climate justice and how that correlates with racial justice and equity as well.” While he’s unsure of how his newfound skills will carry into his future endeavors, he has already seen the impact on his personal life. He explains his love for drawing when he was younger, but that practice slowly came to a halt as he unfortunately lost confidence in his abilities. However, given the need to draw when designing his Prescott climate solutions, he rediscovered his love for the art through the Studio Justice program, “Tracing things out and drawing things from different perspectives has sparked that interest [again].” Beyond drawing, he's committed to personal conservation efforts, such as reducing water consumption through simple things like turning off the faucet when he brushes his teeth and minimizing food waste by using every part of his food.

Ultimately, Shamshawan sees Studio Justice as not simply a design program but as a platform dedicated to promoting and understanding the critical intersection of climate and racial justice. By empowering students with comprehensive knowledge, design skills, and opportunities for deep self-reflection, the program transcends traditional educational structures by involving real life application. Sham feels the profound impact of the program’s ability to spark meaningful, enduring change, both on an individual level and within the broader community.

When it comes to tackling climate change, innovative solutions often come from the heart of our communities. At least that’s what co-founder and director, Sprinavasa Brown, believes, and she views schools as the heart of any community. Such is why partnering with Prescott Elementary to actualize its grant from the Portland Clean Energy Fund was such a natural fit for ELSO. Even in the beginnings of the project, Sprina understood that community involvement would be a major factor in devising the course of action, “When it came to thinking about this community resilience project at Prescott, we recognized right away that it would be really imperative that families, youth from the school, and the community get some type of voice on what they would like to see and what's important to them.” She explains that community resilience involves empowering communities to articulate their own needs and challenges, and providing them with the resources and agency to address these issues.

One of the foundational principles ELSO follows is being process-driven rather than outcomes-driven. When I asked Sprina about the anticipated outcome of the YCEP project, it became clear that instead of working toward a specific outcome, emphasis was instead placed on allowing community voices to shape the direction. “We can only move at the speed of trust and at the speed of a relationship and [make] sure we're bringing people along. And while bringing people along, making sure that we have the voices of people who are closest to the problem– most impacted– being able to weigh in on our decisions that we make,” Sprina elaborates. This approach, while sometimes uncomfortable and less predictable, ensures that all stakeholders, especially those directly affected, have a say in the development and implementation of initiatives.

Another critical aspect of the YCEP project was addressing climate change in a way that resonates with and includes communities of color. Sprina and her team focused on defining climate change in relatable terms. “What do we mean when we say climate change? There's a lot of really big issues in that, so how do we even get it to a level where we can look at just one school and one community and not stay in that place of thinking that climate change is about plastics and oceans that are far away or sea ice melting in a totally different continent?” This localized approach to climate change makes the issue more tangible and gives communities the chance to vocalize how climate change has personally impacted them. 

When taking on this idea of relating climate change to Prescott, ELSO shaped their approach to community involvement. “That's kind of how we landed on thinking about a multi-year engagement process with the school using the harvest party and different touch points to bring in community voice,” Sprina explains. Consistent youth engagement from kindergarteners all the way up to high school and young adults was also a major priority, so it was essential to have bridges between ELSO’s different youth programs to support the overall YCEP project. For example, Studio Justice cohorts worked on their own original designs for Prescott Elementary which were then integrated into the Harvest Party and had people of all ages and occupations weigh in on which climate solutions they were most excited about.

Events hosted by ELSO are the only point of community contact. Sprina mentions Melanie Mejia, one of our educators, who has been visiting all grade levels at Prescott to collect input from students and teachers on the design of learning carts, which will be implemented in the upcoming outdoor classrooms. “We thought about infrastructure changes for the actual school. We thought about lesson plans and opportunities for learning and integration between the classroom and the future new outdoor campus,” Sprina explains. The aim of these future amenities is not to simply construct them, but to have a well thought out framework and support system in place for how students and faculty will engage with and benefit from them. She continues, “We also thought about how to support teachers in doing more outdoor and climate education. So the work group has been set up intentionally to think about each of these different pieces from the learning cart to the lesson plans as well.”

The efforts at Prescott Elementary are not only about addressing climate change, but about fostering a sense of ownership and participation among all community members. By centering the voices of those most impacted and prioritizing a process-driven approach, ELSO is paving the way for meaningful and lasting change. In part two, we’ll dive deeper into the solutions that have emerged from this collaborative process, exploring how ELSO’s work is translating community input into climate action. Stay tuned to learn more about the exciting developments ELSO is making at Prescott Elementary.

After discussing the process of developing the Youth Climate Education Project, Sprinavasa Brown gave some insight to what work will be done in the coming year. Most notably, ELSO will begin identifying which climate solutions can be realistically implemented at Prescott. This involves balancing community enthusiasm with budget constraints. Eventually, engagement with subject matter experts (SMEs), such as district representatives and solar energy specialists, will be crucial in evaluating attainability. Recently, ELSO narrowed down their top five broad climate solutions: reforestation, energy consumption, food waste and trash management, water pollution, and spatial justice.

Reforestation evaluates plant habitats at Prescott to see which kind of trees would be most suitable for the area, and energy consumption could involve solar panels or a rain garden to reduce water demand. Meanwhile, food waste and trash management can encompass many solutions such as a compost or vegetable garden, an improved recycling system, or creating incentives for students to compost their leftover food and recycle. Managing water pollution goes hand-in-hand with waste management by reducing plastic usage and promoting biodegradable products. Although it’s hard for Sprina to choose her favorite solution, she was very passionate when talking about spatial justice. As she describes it, “This one I get really excited about! So, this whole concept about spatial justice means building spaces where everyone can feel like they can access it and use it and feel like it's relevant for them. Under spatial justice we're thinking about a kind of quiet or meditative space outside, soft walking tracks and pathways that are wheelchair and handicap accessible, handicap accessible playground equipment, and what the outdoor learning space can look like.” 

Many of these climate solutions were inspired by visiting other schools that already had them in play. One being PCC Sylvania which has a cyclical compost system that reuses materials from within their garden. Another major inspiration was Prescott’s sister school, Sunnyside Environmental Elementary School. Sprina explained that after visiting Sunnyside and seeing its extensive green spaces and integrated environmental learning, she understood why Principal Nicole Watson admired it so much. She envisions Prescott at the end of this project and how it will transform, “I think that gets me the most excited is thinking about what it can look like in two years and just thinking about kids roaming around and using the space and finding a quiet spot to sit under a tree or hang out or seeing a little installation of like a fairy house or a birdhouse that they built at the harvest party or something like that.”

Looking ahead, Sprina is hopeful about expanding the YCEP project to other schools. She believes that the positive outcomes and lessons learned from this pilot project demonstrate the potential for broader impact. “...There are more schools that would find value and that want to change their campus, change their school experience, and just bring more outdoor learning to all their children,” she says, “I think it's just a matter of funding and what we say yes or no to because these different opportunities come up often and you just can't do everything. So, I'm hopeful that the timing will align where we'll get to do another project like this.” While future projects will depend on funding and capacity, she is optimistic about the possibility of replicating this work in other locations, whether in Oregon, Texas, or beyond. Simply sharing what insights ELSO has gained from this experience can empower other schools to embark on similar journeys toward climate resilience and environmental justice.

Ultimately, Sprina’s greatest motivator is seeing thriving children in vibrant, well-supported learning environments. She is driven by the desire to create schools where students can engage with nature, explore their creativity, and enjoy enriching educational experiences. Reflecting on her greatest motivation throughout the project, she says, “I want to see thriving kids and thriving young people, especially in my own community… I just really want to see more children having an awesome place to learn and having schools that are really being intentional and well-resourced to change their learning environment for children.” This vision of nurturing, sustainable schools is reflected in Sprina’s dedication to the Youth Climate Education Project, as her ambition continues to drive her commitment to support and foster her community.