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!
How do we create social values of global sustainability? One very effective way is through education that empowers behaviour change.
Fiona Buchanan is a passionate young teacher who discovered our SLS: Student Leadership in Sustainability curriculum materials by attending a professional development workshop we facilitated. Fiona brought SLS to her Planning 10 and Leadership 11 course; she and her students simply loved the experience:
"The most important observation I made from the overall experience was the empowerment the students felt after finishing the projects. Because the students were required to take actions and because the actions were “doable” students had a felt experience of actually making a difference. The students commented several times on how surprised they were at the impact the small actions made in their own lives and in the lives of their family, friends, neighbourhood, and community."
Individual actions can account for up to 40% of environmental degradation so motivating wise choices in consumption can make a
huge environmental impact. With your help more students can learn social responsibility and bring sustainability actions to their families and communities. Please provide your support today.
We need more teachers bringing sustainability education into the classrooms, but we don’t have the time for all teachers to become masters of the diverse ecological challenges we are facing and to know the many actions that contribute to local solutions. This is where Be The Change comes in. We create everything the average teacher needs to engage their students in 21st century sustainability topics in a personal way.
"I learned so much and it was so fun, with the student engaged the whole time. At one point I sat back and the students kept digging deeper into the topics and stakeholders involved, it was a perfect little teaching moment where I got to witness their education in action! This was such a gift, (SLS) being so very, very well-rounded and easy to teach."
- Fiona Buchanan, click here to read more of Fiona’s reflections on using SLS
By supporting Be The Change’s COMMUNITY FOR CHANGE CAMPAIGN you will be bringing Student Leadership in Sustainability to schools throughout BC.
THANK YOU so very much for your generous support in helping BTCEA continue with this important work! Canadian tax receipts are issued for all donations over $10.
This campaign runs until December 4th, 2015. Click here to see how we are doing and what our donors get in return.
“The students were changed after doing the (SLS) action packs! I can confidently say that most of them continued to work on their action goals and work toward healthier and more sustainable lifestyles.” -Fiona Buchanan
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.
