Arthur Johnson spreads ecological awareness in New Orleans through his community non-profit

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On this latest edition of ‘Faces of Change,’ Arthur Johnson shows his impact to his community. By giving outing and internship opportunities, Johnson’s non-profit, the Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, looks to make a real difference.

Arthur Johnson [00:00:04] But when you look around here in this Lower Ninth Ward in a lot in Louisiana, we have rivers, we have bayous, we have lakes, we have the wetlands. And they’re right engrossed into urban centers. And so it’s important to know what your environment is and how that plays a role.

I’m the Chief Executive Officer for the Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, or CSED. (It) started after Hurricane Katrina. No, I won’t use that term “resilience” and “determination”. It’s the stamina of people of realizing how to adjust to change and still move forward. Whether it’s Katrina or Ida, flooding or tornadoes. We’ve got everything hitting us. And so it’s important to understand, even with those weather disasters, can be, “how do we adjust?” Our focus is building sustainable communities, particularly in underserved, overburdened communities of color. We as an organization, this is our M.O. We are community engagement. And that means engaging those communities.

Those young people and those not so young people bringing intergenerational connections together to look at what’s real. You know, the environment, the grass, the the trees and understanding why that’s important and looking for solutions. So our internship is an environmental internship program for high school students, and they get to do research, real research into what’s in their community, looking at air and soil and water.

We tie them into our coastal restoration and, you know, helping with our nurseries and growing trees and really helping to make a difference in the community. And we just want to give them a chance and an opportunity to do that, to make our communities more stable, our communities stronger and better. And being able to to deal with and work and understand nature. My vision is this community-based nonprofit that started behind a little church has continued to be an advocate and educator for this community and other communities around this country to show that we can change the narrative, we can make a difference, and we can help young and not so young people to learn to work together and to bring about change. 

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