January Newsletter: Sharing Gratitude & Excitement for 2024!
Happy New Year! We hope you had a memorable holiday season and a positive start to 2024. At Be the Change, we are energized and excited for the year ahead!
Hello friends,
As some of you know I’ve been on the board of Be The Change Earth Alliance (BTCEA) for the past several years. I’m on the BTCEA Board because I believe in their mission— reaching young people in schools with an empowering curriculum on environmental sustainability.
I’m writing to ask you to donate (tax deductible, just in time for year end) to their crowd-funding campaign that starts in a few days. It’s not Kickstarter, but similar.
These are dark times for young people to grow up in: climate change mega-disasters, species extinction, plastic pollution choking the oceans, refugee crises from droughts and rising sea-levels. Kids want to know what they can do to make a difference, and Be The Change brings them a grounded message of empowerment and hope.
BTCEA collaborated with Vancouver teachers to create the SLS: Student Leadership in Sustainability curriculum, and they’re bringing it to students in middle and secondary schools across BC. Our SLS student projects raise awareness but also give practical ways to make a difference— changing the way they (and often their families) view food, waste and energy, among other things.
The good news is that it’s working. Students love it, teacher surveys give it an A+, but the schools can’t pay for it and getting it into classrooms means hands-on work to get teachers up to speed. We’re currently in 34 schools in B.C. and reach over 4000 students annually with the great materials.
For years our Executive Director Maureen Jack-LaCroix has managed to fund her dedicated team with (believe me) hard-won grants from respected funders: VanCity, Telus, Environment Canada, TD FEF, the Vancouver Foundation and others.
But these funders want to start new initiatives rather than support ongoing ones, a funding situation that has kneecapped many great conservation charities in the past. BTCEA must move to a more self-sufficient model supported by the community it serves.
The first short-term step to continue getting this vital curriculum into schools is our own crowd-sourced funding campaign. The campaign kicks off Friday, November 6th, our goal is to reach $25,000 over four weeks from now to December 4th. We’ll have a few cool rewards to offer donors, and tax receipts for any donations over $10.
This page will have all you need to know and is where you can donate! Here is the blog about youth leaders Simon, and our 'launch' message.
I hope you’ll join us, and please spread the word to those of your friends and networks who care about environmental justice and youth empowerment (by forwarding on this blog, my tweets, or Facebook posts.)
Thanks for reading,
Tyee
PS. You can learn more about BTCEA and their good work here.
Latest posts
December 2023 Newsletter - ⛄‘Tis the season to celebrate at Be The Change!⛄
As 2023 comes to a close and school winds down for winter break, we’re taking a moment to reflect back over the past year. 2023 was a very regenerative time for BTCEA! We developed and delivered our Climate Action, Resilience, and Emotions (CARE) program in communities on the frontlines of wildfires in our province. And as an organization, we prioritized creating space to discuss what decolonization could look like both internally, and in our programming. Here are the highlights:
Oct 2023 Newsletter - Check out our mid-October climate-justice resources!
Hello,
An introduction from Communications Coordinator, Lucy Wicken
Dear Be The Change community,
As we approach mid-October, I’m reflecting on the changing seasons, from the warm and active days of summer to the cooler and quieter days of autumn. Personally, I’ve noticed a desire to slow down, take on fewer responsibilities, and stay inside where it’s cozy. Have you felt this way too?
As 21st century humans living in a world that operates under capitalism, white supremacy, and other oppressive systems, we can be made to feel guilt or shame about listening & responding to our needs. We are expected to maintain the same energy and productivity levels throughout the year, no matter how cold or dark the days are, how heavy world events feel, or how much we’re struggling in our personal lives.
This is where the concept of regenerative education comes in. Introduced to the BTCEA team by former staff member Jake, regenerative education calls on us to slow down and turn inward to consider our connection with the natural world. It asks us to examine the living systems that are breaking down due to violent human activity (such as fossil fuel extraction, destruction of Indigenous lands, and human-caused flooding and wildfires) and connect this breakdown with our own high levels of stress.
