Brightline Podcast Mini-Episode 2

Mini-Episode 2: Ken Chen

Caption: In this mini episode, we talk to youth leader Ken Chen about his work educating seniors about air quality issues and the importance of helping young people organize for change in their own communities.

Transcript:

KEN: Instead of having adults to do it, we should lead the youth in the early stage to understand this problem of contributing to the community or the society.

AUBREY : This is The Brightline Podcast from Brightline Defense. We explore environmental justice issues, or EJ issues, in the broader Bay Area, highlighting the work of community-based organizations, including our own. My name’s Aubrey. Today, we have our second mini-episode for you guys. This week, we’ll hear from a student working to make information about San Francisco air quality accessible to all.

KEN: My name is Ken. I’m one of the youth leaders at YCE.

AUBREY: Ken first got involved with the Community Youth Center’s YCE program as a freshman in high school.

KEN: YCE stands for Youth for Community Engagement. We do activities with seniors. We also do community outreach and spread informations like first aid, CPR, and stuff. We also conduct tablet class which teach seniors to use technology.

AUBREY: In 2019, Ken was serving as a building leader in YCE’s Adopt-A-Senior-Building program. That’s when Brightline asked for help.

KEN: So the Brightline project is focused mainly on how to change air quality in our city by monitoring air quality. We want to raise people’s attention how air quality affects our daily life. And remember last year we had a huge wildfire season. If we put that aside, even car emissions affect our air quality. And it affects kids and seniors.

AUBREY: So, Ken and his fellow youth leaders got to work educating members of their community about the issue.

KEN: Brightline has collected data by using the sensors. We made outreach flyers, we post them on social media, and we have physical flyers that we put on the street and our school. So we put data on the slideshows. We have presentations to the public, to the senior building so we can show people how the air quality has been changing.

[music]

It is important to me because I had experienced-everybody who lived in San Francisco or the Bay Area experienced- the wildfire season. It was terrible. The sky color was orange, you could smell the impurities in the air. I have seniors in my house- I have my grandma. And I-I’m worried about them. Cause they’re my family, and I care about their health. I’m still young, but they’re old so I don’t want to put them in risk.

AUBREY: Ken graduated from high school in May of 2021. Even though his time at YCE has ended, his work with Brightline has inspired a continued interest in environmental issues.

KEN: I would continue to engage in these environmental projects, in the future if I have the opportunity to work on water quality, instead of air quality. I’m studying mechanical engineering in college. I might consider double majoring in environmental science.

AUBREY: As the next generation of YCE students take over, Ken reflects on the value of fostering youth leadership in local organizing.

KEN: Instead of having adults to do it, we should lead the youth in the early stage to understand this problem of contributing to the community or society. It’s always better to have them experience this stuff earlier than later. If you can, join YCE please [laugh], whenever you have the opportunity to work some kind of project like this, give your best, and really try to make your community better. Because not only it helps you, it helps other people too. Including your friends, your family…everyone.

[music]

AUBREY: This episode was written and produced by me, Aubrey Calaway. Original music by Maya Glicksman with additional help from Cecilia Mejia and Eddie Ahn. Thank you to Ken Chen for sharing his insights and experience.

For more information about Brightline, you can visit our website at BrightlineDefense.org or on social media @brightlinedefense. You can also find a transcript of this episode on our Medium Blog. To learn more about CYC, you can check out their website at cycsf.org.

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