Karly Rosa, a 16-year-old participating in El Puente's bike club, finds emotional well-being and advocacy training through group rides. Participants learn about dangers in their city and advocate for safer streets. Karly's school expected to receive training from a $3.1 million EPA grant aimed at fostering community leaders for air quality and climate resilience. However, this grant was cut due to a federal reduction in environmental justice funding, impacting numerous organizations serving communities of color, leading to layoffs and program reductions at El Puente.
For Karly, the club is more than an extracurricular activity; it's a space for learning and emotional well-being. Through group rides, participants gain hands-on experience taking note of dangerous intersections and advocating for safer streets in their community.
Students like Karly were poised to receive further training as community advocates through a $3.1 million Environmental Protection Agency grant to El Puente, a longtime youth and environmental justice organization.
But the organization lost that grant alongside other federal funding as part of a wave of cuts targeting environmental justice funding under the Trump administration in its effort to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
The cuts have created a domino effect rippling through the organization, forcing it not only to reassess ambitious projects that group had expected to be federally funded, but also to pause its high school programs for the summer.
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