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!
I hope you're having a great summer so far. As the economy begins to open, we’re thinking about our role in building back a more sustainable and just world. Check out our updates below!
Build Back Better and a Green Recovery
As the world continues to grapple with Covid-19, one stark observation from the pandemic has been that society can no longer go on following the status-quo and ‘business as usual’ approach for how we manage our world. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed all the systemic shortcomings and vulnerabilities that need to be addressed, if we want to build a more just, equitable, resilient, healthy and sustainable world. We need to ‘Build Back Better’ or ‘reset’ the status-quo to have a long-lasting positive recovery that puts creating a just society
and sustainable environment at its core. As part of ‘Build Back Better’ and a green recovery in a post-Covid-19 world, many countries are now reevaluating and reinventing how they manage their societies. Some examples of ‘Build Back Better’ include: the Europe Union is developing the ‘European Green Deal’ that transitions from a high- to low-carbon economy; China is ramping up and expanding its State Electricity Grid as part of its transition to renewable energy efforts; and, the UK has pledged to invest £2 billion to creating new cycling and walking infrastructure for healthy, sustainable transportation.
What Be the Change is Doing to Build Back Better
Be the Change is committed to supporting local and global ‘Build Back Better’ efforts, through providing meaningful education that fosters positive change in a post-Covid-19 world. Over the summer, we have been developing a series of learning resources and workshops for the 2020/21 school year, dedicated to helping students co-create a just, equitable, resilient, healthy and sustainable world. These learning resources include: new Action Packs that are focused on understanding topics such as urban health and sustainability, and the intersections of public health, Covid-19 and climate change; and, new experiential learning activities that delve deeper into understanding an individual's connection to self, others, and the natural world.
Introducing Our New Youth Projects Coordinator
Be the Change is excited to welcome Katie to our team! The new Youth Projects Coordinator will be empowering teams of Vancouver youth to design and implement climate action projects over the next school year!
About Katie Maki
Katie is fortunate enough to have grown up in BC on the 
Kwikwetlem and Tsleil Waututh territories, which fostered her love for nature and local environmental issues. Her background is in climate change policy, social justice, and community organizing. She is excited to work as a Youth Projects Coordinator to empower the next generation of changemakers and show them they can have hope and agency, especially with the state of the world today. In her free time, she is an avid hiker, reader, writer and yogi.
That’s all for you! Stay tuned for more updates.
Warmly,
George Radner
PS: Donors to Be the Change make all this work possible. Donate today to support our plan to empower youth to build back better next year!
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.
