“I was just dumbfounded,” Dolce said.
“It was this really cool opportunity to get involved with FEMA and to actually have a specified seat at the table where we could develop resources by and for youth,” Dolce said.
Then came signs of trouble.
“We were putting so much time and effort into this space,” he said, “and now it’s fully gutted.”
In an email to students reviewed by The Associated Press, the agency said the move was intended “to ensure FEMA is a lean, deployable disaster force that is ready to support states as they take the lead in preparedness and disaster response.”
Dolce said ignoring students undermines resilience, too.
“This field needs young people and we are pushing young people out,” he said. “The administration is basically just giving young people the middle finger on climate change.”
Larger federal programs related to youth and climate are also in turmoil.
FEMA did not respond to questions about why it shut down the youth council. In an email bulletin last week, the agency said it would not recruit “until further notice.”
The council was created for students in grades 8 to 11 to “bring together young leaders who are interested in supporting disaster preparedness and making a difference in their communities,” according to FEMA’s website.
“It’s a missed opportunity for the talent pipeline,” said Reynolds, now vice president and dean of academic outreach at American Public University System. “I’m 45-plus years as an emergency manager in my field. Where’s that next cadre going to come from?”
“You eliminate the participation of not just your next generation of emergency managers, but your next generation of community leaders, which I think is just a terrible mistake,” said Monica Sanders, professor in Georgetown University’s Emergency and Disaster Management Program and its Law Center.
Sanders said young people had as much knowledge to share with FEMA as the agency did with them.
“In a lot of cultures, young people do the preparedness work, the organizing of mutual aid, online campaigning, reuniting and finding people in ways that traditional emergency management just isn’t able to do,” she said. “For FEMA to lose access to that knowledge base is just really unfortunate.”
Sughan Sriganesh, a rising high school senior from Syosset, New York, said he joined the council to further his work on resilience and climate literacy in schools.
“I thought it was a way that I could amplify the issues that I was passionate about,” he said.
Sriganesh said he got a lot out of the program while it lasted. He and Dolce were in the same small group working on a community project to disseminate preparedness resources to farmers. They created a pamphlet with information on what to do before and after a disaster.
Even after FEMA staff stopped reaching out, Sriganesh and some of his peers kept meeting. They decided to finish the project and are seeking ways to distribute their pamphlet themselves.
“It’s a testament to why we were chosen in the first place as youth preparedness members,” Sriganesh said. “We were able to adapt and be resilient no matter what was going on.”
