Project Overview:
Climate change is here, and our youth are experiencing a diversity of challenging climate emotions. A 2023 study found that 78% of Canadian youth report that climate change impacts their overall mental health.
This project engages youth and the educators who support them in order to build youth climate resilience and wellbeing in communities affected by the 2017 wildfires in BC's interior. It empowers youth to take climate action and navigate potentially powerful climate emotions by fostering personal and community resilience, agency and regeneration. Be The Change Earth Alliance is collaborating in the design and delivery of this project with the Canadian Red Cross and the UBC Climate Hub.
Project Objectives:
a) Agency: Build practical skills and tools for youth through action-oriented education strategies to empower climate action and wellbeing in their lives and communities.
b) Regeneration: Help youth to contribute and lead in their community through climate storytelling, collaboration and collective action.
c) Resilience: Support youth to recognize and navigate climate grief and anxiety by exploring individual, community and systems level solution-based thinking and pathways to action.