lgorman – coexist

middletown gov guide hopes to increase public participation

by lgorman

This year, I’ve had the opportunity to work in the Wesleyan Sustainability Office as a part of the Sustainable Middletown program, a small but energetic team composed of our Sustainability Director Jen Kleindienst, Professor Emeritus Krishna Winston, co-intern Tamira Le, and myself. Our team has spent the last year revising the Middletown Government Participation Guide, a publicly available document meant to remove barriers to civic engagement by providing residents with clear information about how the City government works, how to participate in public meetings, and how to sustain long-term involvement. By removing those barriers, we hope to empower Middletown residents to make their voices heard in local government.

Two weeks ago, I had the honor of hosting the launch of the newly updated Middletown Government Participation Guide alongside the Sustainable Middletown team and Mayor Ben Florsheim.

food justice, solidarity in new london and beyond

by lgorman

On Monday, October 7, Wesleyan students, faculty, and members of the broader community broke with their lunch routines to attend “Food Justice & Solidarity in New London, CT, sponsored by a grant from the Robert F. Schumann Foundation to the Schumann Institute of the Bailey College of the Environment. There were about 20 Wesleyan students, staff and faculty, as well as community members in attendance. The hour-long workshop was facilitated by Julie R. Jacome-Garay (Co-Director of Operations and Programming) and Chloë Nuñez (Youth Program Manager) of FRESH New London, with the aim of spreading awareness about the organization’s food justice work. Despite its short duration, the workshop was packed full of informative and engaging content. Following group introductions, we got to know Julie and Chloë, learned in-depth about FRESH’s work, and heard stories from Wesleyan food justice interns who were placed at FRESH this summer.

workshop highlights bipoc farming in ct

by lgorman

On September 26, the Bailey College of the Environment welcomed farmer and educator Liz Guerra to lead a workshop on BIPOC Farming: Farming with an Intersectional Lens. This was the latest installment in the land justice workshop series “Tending the Soil: Towards Land Justice in CT,” cosponsored by Wesleyan University’s Bailey College of the Environment and the People’s Saturday School. The event aimed to educate and spread awareness about the struggles of BIPOC farmers with land access and systemic racism, while bringing together a mix of Wesleyan students and community members from various organizations across the state. Liz runs SEAmarron Farmstead in Danbury, where she cultivates hemp and many types of vegetables with her partner Hector “Freedom” Gerardo. Hailing from Queens, New York, Liz is a full spectrum doula/birth worker, social justice advocate, and farmer. In addition to her work as an activist and independent farmer, Liz is an Adjunct Faculty in sociology at the University of Connecticut – Stamford.