Youth today are experiencing first-hand the effects of severe climate change…

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Youth are increasingly concerned with the ongoing challenges climate change presents, yet many believe they have no perceived control in reducing the threat of climate crises in their futures (Lee et al., 2020). Youth today are experiencing first-hand the effects of severe climate change, and these changes are distributed unevenly between the marginalized and privileged (Obrien, Selboe & Hayward,2018). Minority youth are often reluctant to voice their opinions or participate in learning on climate and environment, despite growing evidence of how racialized communities will bear a disproportionate burden of the impacts from these crises (White, 2011; Tuana, 2019). 

Youth activists of colour provide a unique perspective on climate action and sustainable futures.

 

Youth activists of colour provide a unique perspective on climate action and sustainable futures. Climate identities are fundamental in participation and the driving force of climate movements (Kowasch et al., 2021).

Our current approaches and systems of taking action on climate change are limiting our ability to promote community dialogue and collaborative relationships between youth of colour to address the barriers they face and have an active role in the transformation of community climate spaces. Addressing these barriers is essential for sustainability transitions. Too often, current approaches fail to meaningfully engage with youth of colour on sustainability challenges, social justice and inclusion.

The goal of this study was to create a youth climate identity lab and support climate activists of colour in their climate journeys. The lab uncovered climate stories and pilot ways that a community-based sustainability program can provide support for youth of colour with an intentional focus on intersectionality and climate justice. This was achieved through a partnership between staff and youth at the YMCA’s C-Vert plus programs, and McGill researchers in education at the Leadership for Learning in Sustainability Lab in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education. The YMCA’s C-vert plus are an urban ecology and eco-citizenship program that aims to engage with youth in environmental leadership through community projects. In this partnership, we recruited participants from the C-Vert program to workshop and facilitate a space for discussion and self discovery on the topic of youth activists of colour. The lab offered an opportunity to document and share the experiences of climate activists of colour. As a wrap-up we co-created this current website as a toolkit on how to engage and include climate activists of colour in climate spaces and showcase their stories.

The Model of the Evergreen Youth Lab

Themes of the workshops have been inspired by themes developed by Monica Sharma’s work on Radical Transformational Leadership (2017)

Week One: The Contemporary Pioneer: Sourcing Inner Power 

Contemporary Pioneers are ones who understand their inner self. They manifest the foundational ways of thinking and reflection to work towards transformative leadership. What makes youth who they are and how do those identity pieces play part in their climate passions.  

Week Two: The Unifying Architect: Designing Differently

The Unifying Architect is the crafter and designer. They are proficient at recognizing patterns, norms and gaps in society to design better outcomes. How do youth design and understand intersectional and complex societal issues in sustainability?

Week Three: The Mindful Pro-activist

The Mindful pro-activist take action on their visions for the future. They implement projects and ideas mindfully for sustainable change. What are the forms of activism and what fits the youth’s skillsets and identities best.

Week Four: Manifesting your full potential

Using all the lessons  from the past three workshops, this summative workshop will allow participants to reflect on themselves, what they have learnt, and how they would like to go forward.

Week Five: Transformative opportunities aligning and tuning for transformation

This final workshop was a time to plan and co-create a toolkit  to showcase to the wider community. Which is the website you are currently on.

ABOUT THE YMCA C-VERT PROGRAM

C-Vert is a unique and innovative program in urban ecology for youth aged 14–16 olds that seeks to train young environmental leaders through community projects. The program is run by the YMCAs of Quebec in partnership with Quebec government Youth Secretariat, the YMCA Foundation and the borough of Côte-des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, among others. C-Vert gives teens the opportunity to learn more about the environment and nature while taking concrete action in their community. During the one-year program, participants get together and choose their own activities, workshops and actions based on their interests. They create and manage projects with the help of an experienced leader, gaining independence, developing their leadership skills and acquiring new skills along the way. After one year in the C-Vert program, participants are invited to continue their environmental work with C-Vert+. C-Vert+ members organize environmental projects with their community and mentor C-Vert groups.

Meet the Research Team

  • Salma Tihani

    Creator, Facilitator and Principal Investigator

    I'm an educator, Amazigh artist, and community organizer that centers my work around supporting youth in climate spaces. I currently hold a BA in International Development. My current MA research aims to uncover how youth of colour understand themselves as youth activists in climate spaces. I take on a community action-based approaches that allow youth to play and learn in non-traditional forms. By using these approaches, youth are able to reflect in out of the box ways on their own identities and how that plays a role in their climate passions.

    I also do a lot of facilitation, project management and program design work focusing on equity, diversity and inclusion for K-12 to postgraduate students. Specifically, I enjoy working within climate leadership to push for climate justice. I have previously worked with the United Nations Association in Canada, the Canadian Space Agency, and Youth Fusion.

    For more information visit: www.salmatihani.com

  • Dr. Blane Leslie Harvey

    Research Supervisor

    I am an interdisciplinary scholar who works across the social and natural sciences on the themes of learning, environmental change and sustainable development. I study how climate change knowledge is produced, validated and communicated, and how facilitated learning and knowledge sharing can support action on climate change. I am interested in how processes such as social learning and knowledge co-production can support collaborations that span epistemic and disciplinary divides.

    My research and teaching are informed by my experience of working outside of academia, in funding agencies, think tanks, independent research institutes and with the United Nations. I am therefore interested in how evidence is mobilised to inform policy and practice at a range of scales, and particularly how those who have been excluded from formal decision-making processes can make their voices heard. I have been an active contributor to the United Nations climate change negotiations process since 2003 with a focus on training and capacity building to support adaptation in developing countries. I am currently a Research Associate with the Overseas Development Institute (UK) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, where I help national governments, funding bodies, and international agencies design and implement learning-centred programmes on resilience, sustainability and climate change adaptation.

    For more information visit: https://learn2sustain.ca/