On a recent Tuesday and Wednesday, New Haven Academy’s Youth Taking Initiative club collaborated with students in the New Haven Climate Movement to host a school-wide clothing swap. The idea, part of the wider for Climate Justice Schools (CJS) initiative, came from students' twin interests in fashion and individual sustainability.
Currently, the fast fashion industry accounts for over 10 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions and is the most water-intensive global industry, with a tie to overconsumption that has defined the first 25 years of the 21st century.
“It's a great way to promote student engagement on environmental issues and show a tangible way to participate in individual action,” said CJS Coordinator and Metropolitan Business Academy grad graduate Adrian Huq, who is now a student at the Yale School of the Environment. “Fast fashion is a hot topic that many young people who are conscious consumers are concerned about today.”
CJS is an internship through the New Haven Climate Movement created to promote climate awareness and education in New Haven Public Schools. A number of student interns —this year at New Haven Academy, Metropolitan Business Academy, and the Sound School—educate their peers through events like the swap.
The program, which the city’s Board of Education passed in January 2022, is funded by the City of New Haven. In the interest of full disclosure, this reporter is also a CJS intern.
At NHA, American Sign Language teacher and Youth Taking Initiative advisor Kim Braun advises CJS interns, who include sophomore Alice Hoak and this reporter. Interns meet once weekly, often joining on the side of the YTI club meeting to allow for collaboration and additional student perspectives about tackling peer-to-peer climate education.
A group of students formed YTI, meanwhile, hoping to combat social issues that affect young adults in the community. The club's past projects have included creating easier access to period products in the school building and implementing composting in the cafeteria. Since the club's ideals align with those of CJS, the bridging of the two is easy and productive.
Grayce Howe Photos.
“Every project starts and ends the same: loads of work and a tangible impact,” said senior and Youth Taking Initiative member Akira Torres, “But the root of each project is so different and that is what makes YTI so incredibly fun to be a part of.”
The clothing swap was no different. Donations from students, faculty, and community members came rolling in in the days leading up to the event, from turquoise earrings to Nike sweatpants to dresses with floral prints. For two days, the upper half of the school’s cafeteria was transformed into a community closet, open to students and teachers alike. All items were free for the taking.
“My favorite part was the cute clothes … kidding, but not really,” said Torres, “It was definitely seeing students' faces just light up when they saw something they liked, and it was even better knowing that they walked away with something a student might’ve discarded.”
Torres’ point is evident in the world today. Each year, roughly 92 million tons of clothes contribute to global waste, each ton adding to carbon emissions (case and point: the Guardian just ran a piece about the sew shop Suay dealing with 50,000 pounds of extra clothes donated in the wake of the L.A. Wildfires, much of which is too damaged to use).
Luckily, many young people today are interested in second-hand shopping or “thrifting,” which was the exact idea the clothing swap had in mind.
In between periods, students shuffled down to the cafeteria to go “shopping.” Searching through racks, they held up items of clothing as friends gave their opinions on potential finds. Students laughed, got wide-eyed with excitement, and complimented the newly-found items on each other. Students exchanged items, picked things out to give to family members, and even the school's cafeteria staff took home new gems.
“Students felt good when they knew they were contributing to a good cause, and this made other students interested in contributing to that cause,” Torres said.
“There was a lot of excitement surrounding the clothing swap, including requests to do it again,” Braun added. “You get the same endorphin benefits of shopping when it's ‘new to me’ without the environmental impacts of over production or creating more waste.”
Throughout the school day, students and teachers showed off their new-used goodies to one another; necklaces from years past glittered anew and sweaters poked out of backpacks. The clothing swap promoted closet clean outs, sustainable fashion, and community building– all while keeping resources within the community.
“I would encourage any young person who wants to address climate change to get involved with advocacy and organizing efforts to demand policy change,” Huq said.
“When you’re a young adult, there's this looming, almost unspoken rule that your voice isn’t strong enough,” Torres added. , “Yet, hearing climate education or news from a friend is way more relatable and urgent. In so many youth-led movements today and in the past, our similar experiences, language, and platforms drive our peers to listen and even create change.”
Grayce Howe was the Arts Paper's 2024 New Haven Academy spring intern and is now in her senior year. The New Haven Academy internship is a program for NHA juniors that pairs them with a professional in a field that is interesting to them. Grayce plans to continue writing for the Arts Paper throughout her senior year, so keep an eye out for her byline in these pages!