Knocking on doors, gathering signatures on a petition, hosting house meetings, getting involved in helping your community. Those are the organizing skills that students are learning through Chispa Arizona’s promotores program.

Their goal is to teach people the civic engagement skills they need to organize their community to stand up for their rights and, hopefully, build an activist base in Latino communities here in the Valley and cultivate new leaders among them.

Chispa Arizona is focused on environmental issues in Latino neighborhoods — which they say are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change and pollution.

They just graduated a new class of promotores, which include high school students, and their families.

I went down to Chispa’s headquarters near the Capitol to talk to one of the organizers of the program. Lucila Vargas works with high school students in the Phoenix Union district to get them involved at a young age.