This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Green Foothills Leadership Program, and we were excited to celebrate the graduation of our 10th cohort of program participants on August 12. We are also excited to announce that applications for 2024 are now open! Application forms are available in English and Spanish on our Leadership Program web page.

This year’s class of 17 graduates produced some impressive final campaign projects. Here are some examples of this year’s project topics:

• Connecting Spanish-speaking San Jose residents to open space
• Providing equitable access to parks for all Santa Clara County residents
• Educating and connecting Amah Mutsun tribal youth to environmental issues affecting their traditional lands
• Creating informative native plant kits for schools
• Welcoming the LGBTQ+ community into San Jose’s open spaces
• Mitigating the impact of towing fees on unhoused San Jose residents living in parks
• Introducing at-risk youth to hiking trails in San Benito County
• Cleaning up San Francisquito Creek in East Palo Alto
• Helping under-represented communities shape their local environment

This year for the first time, each meeting of the Leadership Program included simultaneous Spanish/English translation, allowing us to welcome seven participants whose primary language is Spanish. Bilingual programs open tremendous untapped potential for the environmental movement. As Julie Hutcheson, Green Foothills’ Director of Impact and incoming Executive Director noted after the graduation ceremony, “As I was listening to the impactful presentations of the Spanish-speaking graduates, it struck me how much potential collaboration hasn’t been happening before now, because of the language barrier. This is limiting our collective ability to address many of the environmental issues facing us today. Interpretation and language justice are critical components for the future of the conservation movement. That’s why I’m so pleased we’ve added a Spanish-speaking cohort to the Green Foothills Leadership Program. It’s a good start.”

Want to learn more about the individual graduates? You can read their biographies on our alumni web page.

Please help us spread the word about next year’s program. It meets one Saturday per month from January through August, and is open to anyone who lives, works, or attends school in San Mateo, Santa Clara, or San Benito Counties, and who wants to learn how to create and lead effective campaigns for the environment and social justice. Apply at greenfoothills.org/lead.