La Chispa

Sparking Environmental Justice

“La Chispa de Salem,” or “the Salem Spark” was an environmental justice coalition at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, 2017-2020. It was committed to a wide range of activities:

1) Organizing and delivering workshops for Willamette Academy, a college-access program, primarily serving Latinx youth.

2)Preparing content for and hosting Worldviews Wednesday, a 49-segment podcast for a local radio station (Sept. 2017-Aug. 2018).

3)Co-creating and supporting the Students Organizing for Access to Resources (SOAR) Center, especially the food pantry and clothing share.

4)Cultivating community and shared learning environments via horizontal relationships.

5)Supporting a local, bilingual community garden.

6)Addressing urgent social and environmental problems, all of which emphasize place, experiential learning, and student agency.

7) Generating a Spanish/English zine to communicate earthquake hazards in Salem, OR.

This largely student-led, multidisciplinary coalition was committed to uncovering and uprooting environmental racism, addressing the inequities of environmental privilege, and advocating for
environmental, climate, and energy justice.

For more information:
Catalina M. de Onís
University of Colorado Denver
Department of Communication
catalina.deonis@ucdenver.edu

Funded by:
The Green Fund, Willamette University

On the web:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=3cle-XTlsDQ