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!
Hello,
Today marks our 17th year of bringing transformative, eco-social learning to youth and community members across BC. Thank you for being here with us, on a shared journey of realizing education truly transformative and regenerative for people, communities, ecology and climate!
As the Fall season sets in, it offers us an opportunity to reflect on how the seasonal rhythms of our Earth show their essence in the rhythms of our own lives. For many, the Fall time of year is for new beginnings - another school year, another chapter. In this sense, it may feel more closely like Spring, as we grow new shoots, embrace new opportunity, new potential, new possibility and begin to pick up momentum. We can experience the essences of seasons and cycles in our day, our week, our month, a lifetime.
In the seasonal cycle, Fall is a time for harvest after a long summer season of mature growth. In our lives, times of Fall are when we celebrate and harvest the gifts of our efforts, commitments and projects. Fall is when we begin to slow down into reflection, enjoy the fruits of our labour and to shed, digest and recycle what is not needed so we have the space and nutrients for our next Spring cycle.
Reporting on our impact
On our birthday, we would like to take a moment to share in our harvests and celebrations with you, from this last year of supporting teachers and students to be the change they want to see in the world.
We have recently completed three impact reports highlighting the success of recent Be the Change’s initiatives. Check out the summaries and read the full report below!
Clean Water Champions (2020-2022)
- Empowered over 3,253 students to take action on threats to freshwater through workshops, project mentorship and habitat clean-ups
- Student actions and projects diverted 133.5 tonnes of CO2, 578.8 kg of plastic waste and 4.97 million L of water conserved!
Student Leadership for Sustainable Development (2021-2022)
- Engaged over 10,862 students in learning resources and workshops about the Sustainable Development Goals
- Focused on six key goals, teaching students how to take action in their personal lives and communities: Good Health, Renewable Energy, Responsible Production & Consumption, Climate Action, Life Below Water, and Life on Land.
Youth for Climate Action (2020-2022)
- Supported over 130 youth in 11 youth teams to create climate action projects in their communities through hands-on mentorship, training workshops and guidebooks
- These projects engaged a total of 3096 community members, and based on our estimates, reduced between 52.3 – 67.3 tonnes of CO2!
Youth from Lord Byng and Eric Hamber Secondary Schools delivering a climate justice Professional Development workshop for teachers at Eric Hamber Secondary School.
This incredible impact was made possible by generous donors in our community! To help us keep up this momentum, please make a tax-deductible gift to Be the Change today!
Warmly,
George Radner (he/him)
Executive Director, Be the Change Earth Alliance
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.
