Last week, Cream City Conservation hosted its second annual Youth Green Jobs Summit at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society Museum on Milwaukee’s North Side. The event connected local youth from the inner city and several local environmental organizations for a green job fair.
Meet Cream City Conservation and Youth Green Jobs Summit Founder August Ball, plus a student attending the summit, in the audio story below.
Ball is an environmental activist who founded Cream City Conservation. It is a Milwaukee organization with two main goals -- create representation and equity in the green industry, and help organizations become more inclusive.
As a woman of color, Ball says CCC actively works to employ young adults from marginalized and underrepresented communities, exposing them to green work and provide them with access to equal employment opportunities.
On April 12, Ball organized the second annual Youth Green Jobs Summit to introduce young students of color to the local organizations working to create positive impact on the environment.
“I want them to walk away knowing that they have the power to take leadership in their communities,” said Ball. “If they don’t like what’s happening in their communities, they absolutely can change it. They have to change it.”
Some of the organizations that were invited include Milwaukee Water Commons, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, the Urban Ecology Center and more. The summit showed students exactly where and how they can begin making an environmental difference. More importantly, the summit shows local organizations just how eager youth – especially youth of color – are to help make a difference.
“They don’t have to go to Northern Wisconsin to find their staff, to find volunteers – we’re right here in Milwaukee,” said Ball.