SustainED was born out of a participatory action project of a Sociology dissertation. As part of our commitment to practice public-facing scholarship, SustainED was created to provide marginalized youth with educational, research, and professional opportunities to level the playing field in knowledge access and production. We ground our research on a commitment to liberation - we aim to become scholars and practitioners who do not claim ownership or expertise, but to provide a platform which privileges marginalized epistemologies and narratives as central contributions to knowledge.

As our society becomes ever more globalized and digitized, having the tools to find the right information becomes more and more difficult. The labour market’s increased reliance on technology necessitates the financial stability and the skill sets not accessible to many - and marginalized groups are less likely to have access to both. Yet, it is them who are most equipped to present solutions to the challenges that they face in their own communities. Local knowledge is paramount to change. However, more often than not, it is those from hegemonic groups whose work on systemic ‘-isms’ gets more visibility.

We center those on the margins — while they are most knowledgeable on issues that affect them — they are often sidelined, belittled, or tokenized to benefit the dominant classes. Our programs exist to challenge this on varying planes of engagement. We implement programs for young people to acquire opportunities for learning about and researching issues of justice. We aim to equip marginalized people with the opportunities to create innovative solutions to address social and climate injustices through research, community organizing, and partnerships.