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Youth Initiative

Be The Change Youth Initiative!

We piloted a youth version of our program at Lord Byng Secondary in October of 2009 and delivered five dynamic assemblies for Grades 8 - 12. Their response was great. Students loved the interactive nature of it, teachers returned to see it more than once, and over 75 students came to the follow up meeting - ready to take part in positive social and environmental action.

Our experience indicates that the Be The Change Youth Initiative can:

  • Offer students excellent opportunities to develop their resumes with real-world leadership skills, like project management, public speaking, and group facilitation.
  • Educate students on pressing global, environmental, and social issues in a way that empowers them to be part of the solution.
  • Stimulate participation in school and community activities and clubs that create happier and healthier lifestyles.
  • Inspire and support a transformation in worldview that will continue for a lifetime.


THE PROGRAM

Be The Change Symposium

Our one-hour multimedia Be The Change assembly is adapted from a five hour Awaken the Dreamer Symposium developed by our affiliate, The Pachamama Alliance.  Engaging clips present leading edge information from global leaders in social change such as Brian Swimme, Maude Barlow, Paul Hawken, and Desmond Tutu.  They reveal the nature of our predicament and offer an enlivening vision of our emerging future.

The assembly addresses five key questions:

  1. Where are we?
  2. How did we get here?
  3. What is emerging?
  4. Where do we go from here?

Action Circles

Once students experience the Symposium, they can start a school Action Circle. This program is designed to work with existing school clubs, offering a small group process that helps keep students interested while they use great tools to help them make sustainable lifestyle choices, using peer support and accountability to track their actions.

Students can also choose collective actions, like starting a community garden, lobbying for a skateboard park, or getting their schools to make sustainability changes that they want to see!

Action Guide

One of the tools we have developed is an Action Guide - a great workbook with over 300 personal change actions to choose from. This can be used with the on-line Action Tracker to record and add up the actions of the individuals, the student club and all the clubs engaged in the program.

Please feel free to view a sample of the Action Guide here.

We look forward to the opportunity of supporting student leadership for a sustainable worldview at this pivotal time in our history!

Feel free to Contact Us for more details about the Be The Change Youth Initiative.