Words Have Power

JAYSA HUNTER-MELLERS

FEATURED IN YVFP FILM ‘WORDS HAVE POWER’

At 10 years old, Jaysa Hunter-Mellers’ dynamic speeches at rallies and her testimony at City Hall helped shut down the coal-fired power plant that was causing her asthma. Her story is told in the short film, “Words Have Power”, one of thirteen Young Voices for the Planet (YVFP) films produced by Lynne Cherry documenting youth solutions to the climate crisis and other environmental and social justice issues.

In addition to environmental justice, Jaysa has become a passionate advocate for civic education in all schools, so that kids—and adults, too—can learn how to participate in their own governance, take action, and speak truth to power like she did.

Well into her teens, Jaysa continues to galvanize audiences with a courage and wisdom that belie her years. She has been a Youth Leadership Panel Participant at Omega’s 2019 Drawdown Learn Conference and co-led YVFP’s Civic Engagement and Democracy workshop at the Ashokan Center’s 2020 Youth Empowerment & Sustainability Summit (YESS!). She has spoken after film screenings including the Belmont World Film Festival and the Climate Action Film Festivals. She is also featured in these Radio Kingston interviews that aired as part of YESS! and Earth Day 2020.

“Words Have Power” won 2019 Best of Fest and 1st Place Environmental Awards at MY HERO Film Festival and has been screened at or continues to tour at Wild & Scenic in CA, Climate Action Film Festivals in NY & VT, and Environmental Film Festivals in Washington DC, Philadelphia, North Carolina, and Colorado. The film is included in Zinn Education Project’s Teach Climate Justice Resources. It is also used in Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation’s civic science air-quality monitoring programs in NY & TX and Communitopia’s climate workshops in environmental justice communities of Allegheny County, PA.