Deadline: 12-Feb-23
Are YOU ready to centre equity, justice and resilience in climate work? Are YOU passionate about working with your community to take climate action? Are YOU driven to collaborate and learn with other leaders in your community? Are YOU ready to work directly with cities, local governments, businesses and organizations to create innovative and impactful climate action projects? If yes, then apply for Youth Climate Innovation Lab Cohort 2: ‘Building’ our Climate Futures.
The Youth Climate Innovation Lab is a 3 month cohort program for youth ages 18-30 who are excited to build up their knowledge and skills to take bold, local climate action.
This is a program that encourages collaboration, creativity and innovation, and one where you can bring your unique experiences, perspectives and passions into the climate movement. Whether you’re an artist, storyteller, designer, communicator, climate activist, tech whiz, outdoor enthusiast, engineer, nurse practitioner, dog walker, etc, you have a role to play in climate action in your community! They want to unpack the scales of impact that are possible – from personal to community to systems change.
Youth who participate in this think-and-do-tank leave the program feeling more confident in their knowledge, skills and tools to draw from the next time they engage with civic and climate issues they care about.
Details
Through this program, youth get to:
- LEARN: Youth will learn about local climate action from a wide range of local thought leaders, elected officials, city staff, community organizations and youth, and explore questions like: what can the cities and local governments do to advance climate action? How can residents help propel that change? Who is missing from climate conversations? What areas of the cities have the most impact on our climate and what can they do to change that? Youth will learn fundamental skills like climate change 101 and civics 101, basic technical skills like GHG inventory, and important foundational skills like equity/justice and project management.
- INVESTIGATE AND IDEATE: Youth will work collaboratively in teams to investigate a climate challenge presented by a project partner and practice key skills like creating a power map, doing an environmental scan, and using design thinking tools and methodologies.
- APPLY AND TAKE ACTION: Youth will work on projects in teams with support and mentorship from community project partners. These partners will present key issues representing CIVICS, COMMUNITY or BUSINESS groups while bringing an interdisciplinary approach to solutions design. All challenges put forward will be linked directly to a local municipal climate action.
Goals
This program is designed to do 3 things:
- build youth’s knowledge, skills and capacity to take climate change in a local context,
- create tangible pathways for youth to provide critical input and enhance municipal climate commitments and
- enhance relationships between youth, their civic institutions and organizations across Metro Vancouver.
Modules
Over 3 months, participants will attend 14 sessions, and be featured in a community presentation night to celebrate their work and learnings. The program consists of three learning modules:
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Learning and Foundations
- Climate change 101
- Foundational skills (equity & justice, decolonization, project management)
- Civics 101
- Foundational technical skills (eg GHG Inventory)
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Introducing problem statements and ideation
- Introduction to design thinking, systems thinking and critical problem solving
- Landscape Mapping and Context research
- Develop relationship with project partners/mentors
- Develop problem statements
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Applying Skills:
- In teams, youth work to develop projects with a delivery partner
- Final presentation to share learnings with partners and community
Criteria
The Youth Climate Innovation Lab is a cohort-based program for youth ages 18-30 living across Metro Vancouver to collaborate with municipalities, civic institutions and community organizations while learning, upskilling and creating bold actions to address climate challenges and advance a just transition.
For more information, visit CityHive.