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!
Can you believe it’s already mid-June? This school year has flown by. We’re proud of what we were able to accomplish this year, and we’re excited for the year ahead.
A Year in Review
Despite unexpected challenges, this past school year has been truly inspiring. Be the Change’s impactful eco-social educational learning materials reached 415 teachers this school year. We delivered a total of 42 workshops to students, despite the shortened school year, in part through collaborating with the UBC Climate Hub. Just weeks after Covid-19 shut down schools, we launched the Climate & Connection Unit (CCU), a suite of learning resources for teachers specifically designed for remote learning. An amazing 147 teachers registered to use the resources.
This school year, Be the Change supported, motivated, and empowered more than 8,500 students to take action towards a more just and sustainable world! After collecting data and running the numbers, we’ve calculated that students’ actions towards reducing their ecological footprints have diverted over 50,000 Kgs of CO2 equivalent from the atmosphere.
Where We’re Headed
Over the summer months, Be the Change will be focused on updating 
and upgrading our flagship Student Leadership for Change (SLC) program. For example, we will develop new learning materials on Public Health and its intersection with other social and environmental issues, including the climate crisis. We will also expand our Experiential Learning Toolbox, which consists of experiential activities focused on developing a deeper connection to self, others and the natural world. We’re committed to continue delivering relevant, meaningful eco-social education to youth next year...and we won’t be stopped by the pandemic!
Welcome to Our New Summer Staff
Be the Change is excited to introduce our summer Program Assistants, who will be supporting learning resource development and other initiatives in the coming months.
Rebecca Hamilton
Rebecca is a core organizer with Sustainabiliteens, the high school climate strike movement in Metro Vancouver. She is very interested in how public education can be used to transform values and systems towards justice and sustainability, and is thrilled to be working with BTCEA! Rebecca is graduating from Lord Byng Secondary School.
Abhay Singh Sachal
Abhay is a second-year undergraduate student at the
University of Toronto, studying Global Health and Peace & Conflict Studies. Abhay served as a student representative on the BTCEA Wisdom Circle in high school and was involved in piloting the Delta Youth Sustainability Network. He also runs Break The Divide, a student-led network to connect youth to personify the impacts of the climate crisis.
Thanks to support from donors, we built something beautiful this school year. To make next year even better, your support is essential. Help us navigate the tough financial times created by Covid-19 and continue empowering youth to make the world a better place!
Warmly,
George Radner
Executive Director
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.
