Stories & Updates

December 2021 Newsletter

Hello,

Congratulations for (nearly) reaching the end of 2021! Thank you all for being such an incredible and supportive community. From all of us here at Be The Change Earth Alliance, we want to wish you a happy holiday break full of warmth and cheer.

With YOUR support, Be The Change engaged over 7,000 students and 3,000 community members in learning and action on climate, environmental and social justice issues this year. Below we highlight some of the NEW initiatives we launched in 2021! A core goal of our team is to foster hope and joy throughout all of our programming, so let's celebrate our achievements together!

But first, some thank-you’s are in order. To TEACHERS, we thank you for learning, collaborating and co-creating with us to bring meaningful climate education to students across BC. To our DONORS, we cannot thank you enough for your generosity in helping us raise over $25,000 so far this year! And to EVERYONE reading this newsletter, we value you and appreciate all the ways you support, participate in, and help grow the Be the Change community.

November 2021 Newsletter

Hello,

BTCEA Executive Director Recognized as Top 30 Sustainability Leader Under 30

We are thrilled to announce our Executive Director, George Radner, was recognized by Corporate Knights magazine as one of Canada’s Top 30 Sustainability Leaders Under 30! 

Message from George:

“I am humbled by this recognition, but my work has always been team-based, not individual. This award belongs to the team of dedicated, diverse staff at Be the Change who’ve empowered over 15,000 students and 1,100 teachers in the last two years through action-oriented workshops, learning resources and mentorship programs. ”

October 2021 Newsletter

Be the Change at Provincial Pro-D Day!

On Friday, October 22nd our team took great pleasure in presenting at three province-wide teacher Professional Development workshops and exhibiting at one other. What a day! As a result, 58 more educators have joined Be the Change and will now be able to access our Student Leadership for Change resources, which could reach hundreds more students year after year. 

In our sessions, participants collaborated to draw curriculum connections to climate change. This was a short pilot of a process we are designing into a full Pro-D model that will bring teachers together to explore these connections, workshop challenges, build relationships and contribute to a Climate Curriculum Map.

Expanding the Climate Curriculum Map to empower teachers and students across BC is just one goal of our Be the Change Action Network Initiative. We can hardly contain our excitement about this initiative! By bringing together teachers who share our vision for Climate Education for all students, we believe we are working towards transformative change.

Student Networking Spurs Powerful Changes For the Climate and Social Justice

A featured blog post by 8BillionTrees.org

Be the Change Earth Alliance (BTCEA) is a great example of how the commitment of a handful of individuals can spark collective and meaningful action. The problems facing the planet might seem overwhelming, but when people work together, big changes can happen.

September 2021 Newsletter

Here are some updates from Be the Change as we transition into autumn and the new school year! 

August 2021 Newsletter

Hi,

We hope you are having a restful and re-energizing summer. As we transition back into the school year, we want to highlight some of the new learning and teaching our team has created for teachers and students! 

July 2021 Newsletter

Recent heat waves and raging wildfires across so called “BC” and “Canada” have flooded me with feelings of loss and anguish. For me, these extreme weather events bring the climate crisis painfully close to home, leaving me with an unshakable sense of dread about both our present and future. It’s crucial to recognize that these events, which the climate crisis makes more frequent, have a disproportionate impact on homeless people, Indigenous people, and other marginalized and frontline communities already facing inequities. 

June 2021 Newsletter

As the school year comes to a close, let’s review everything Be the Change Earth Alliance has accomplished since last September. 

May 2021 Newsletter

Check out our updates from a busy and exciting spring!

Reclaiming the Environmental Narrative

The environmental movement has had a long history of excluding or not representing Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC). Mainstream representations of environmentalists have been overly homogeneous and typically white. Unfortunately, this problem of non-BIPOC representation still continues today. At the same time, despite BIPOC and racialized communities often carrying the burden and consequences of environmental racism and injustices, they are champions of and frequently responsible for longstanding and unrewarded environmental protection work.