An Assessment and Guide to the Best Practices of Statewide Environmental Youth Interest Groups

Abstract

Statewide youth interest groups that are working on environmental issues are developing across the United States (US). Arizona is in need of an effective state interest group such as this to express the opinions of youth in Arizona about environmental issues. The way a group is structured can impact the effectiveness of that group greatly. Through a series of interviews of statewide group leaders around the US, structures of groups were analyzed to determine commonalities among structures that groups around the country have. These structures will then be implemented into an Arizona group. Statewide interest groups that have a staff member and a council of delegates from local community groups from around the state are a consistent structural component in statewide groups around the nation. Through these two structural components, students around a state where a youth environmental statewide interest group exists can be engaged in the environmental issues around the state. In addition, they are enabled to act on those issues. A group in Arizona, Students Advocating a Greener Arizona (SAGA), should adopt these structural components in order to become an effective interest group.