{"id":7650,"date":"2026-08-07T14:12:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/?page_id=7650"},"modified":"2026-08-07T14:12:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:12:50","slug":"williams-roca","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/williams-roca\/","title":{"rendered":"Toxic Environments, Interrupted Reentry: Assessing Environmental Health Burdens in High-Risk Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-6623 profile type-profile status-publish hentry\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/profile\/zanyah-williams\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\">\n\t\t\t<img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2025\/08\/2025_Zanyah-Williams-150x150.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Zanyah Williams headshot\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2025\/08\/2025_Zanyah-Williams-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2025\/08\/2025_Zanyah-Williams-100x100.jpeg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>\t\t<\/figure>\n\n\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Zanyah Williams<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">Environmental Health<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\n<p><strong>Project Partner:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/rocainc.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Roca<\/a>, Summer 2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Project Summary: <\/strong><span>In cities, high-risk <strong>young people<\/strong> impacted by incarceration navigate <strong>toxic environments<\/strong> such as unstable housing, neighborhood violence, policing, and limited access to basic resources. These environmental health burdens compound the challenges of reentry, concentrating harm and instability in overburdened urban communities. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At Roca in Chelsea, MA, Zanyah engaged in the Transitional Employment Program, Development Days, policy lobbying, <a href=\"https:\/\/rocainc.org\/the-roca-impact-institute\/rewire-by-roca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rewire CBT<\/a> programming, and was the co-keeper of a Roundtable Circle with youth from Roca, <a href=\"https:\/\/utecinc.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UTEC<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lysoa.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LYSOA<\/a>. Through these experiences, she built meaningful relationships with young people and developed a conceptual framework for understanding <strong>incarceration as an environmental burden<\/strong> that shapes how youth experience urban spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Zanyah\u2019s work connects <strong>lived experience<\/strong> to public storytelling and policy advocacy by translating human narratives into communications and legislative materials that support community-based alternatives over punishment. This internship advances an environmental justice-focused understanding of <strong>reentry<\/strong>, showing that healthier urban communities require investments in healing, stability, and youth opportunity rather than incarceration alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Project Deliverables:<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>\u201cRoca Costs Less Than Corrections\u201d one-pager<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>FY26 Q4 Roca Boston Quarterly Newsletter<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Raise the Age bill lobbying<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Written testimony for H.5085\/S.3095<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Roundtable Circle co-keeper<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Incarceration and Environmental Justice conceptual framework.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7654\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7654\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams_Framework-636x329.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"329\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams_Framework-636x329.png 636w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams_Framework-768x397.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams_Framework-800x414.png 800w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams_Framework.png 936w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7654\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zanyah&#8217;s incarceration and environmental justice conceptual framework<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7652\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7652\" style=\"width: 501px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams2-491x636.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"491\" height=\"636\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7652\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams2-491x636.png 491w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams2-463x600.png 463w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams2.png 554w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 491px) 100vw, 491px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7652\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Informational one-pager Zanyah developed as part of her work with Roca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7651\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7651\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams1-636x478.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"478\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7651\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams1-636x478.jpg 636w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams1-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams1.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7651\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zanyah with youth participants in Roca&#8217;s Roundtable Circle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7653\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7653\" style=\"width: 489px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams3-479x636.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"479\" height=\"636\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7653\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams3-479x636.jpg 479w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams3-452x600.jpg 452w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/08\/Williams3.jpg 508w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 479px) 100vw, 479px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7653\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zanyah participating in lobbying at the MA State House.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Watch Zanyah&#8217;s URBAN internship lightning talk <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BvhRNNXrCZ0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Project Partner: Roca, Summer 2026 Project Summary: In cities, high-risk young people impacted by incarceration navigate toxic environments such as unstable housing, neighborhood violence, policing, and limited access to basic resources. These environmental health burdens compound the challenges of reentry, concentrating harm and instability in overburdened urban communities. At Roca in Chelsea, MA, Zanyah engaged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24039,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24039"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7655,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7650\/revisions\/7655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}