ENVIRONMENT

Join us for a hands-on session on creating an environmental education program with lasting impact on both participants and their relationship to the natural world. We’ll use BOLD & GOLD, an immersive outdoor program that focuses on bringing together young people from very different backgrounds to feel more confident and courageous while learning about and appreciating each other, as an example. Together we will explore how to intentionally design a program around multiple and complex goals and look at how those can be integrated into all aspects of the program from outreach and marketing to evaluation.

Wed 7 Aug – 5-6pm

Young people all over the world are protesting the injustice of climate change, demanding action. Global challenges abound, yet despite the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, local implementations are generally lacking. Come explore effective ways of engaging people in creating positive visions of sustainable organisations, cities and lives. Reflect on shared foundations and motivation, such as faith. Learn about benefits, prerequisites and limitations of participation. Experiment with methods and take different viewpoints. Share your experiences and discover the fun of collaborative sustainability planning. The focus of the workshop is flexible and will be chosen in a participatory manner.

Explaining what the participants will experience and get out of the session:

Far too many communities suffer from polluted air, contaminated water, and a lack of access to public open spaces. In the US, the greatest disparities in access to nature are found in low-income neighbourhoods and communities of colour as a result of a long history of discriminatory policies and practices.
Presenters will explore the concept of access to nature as a human right, elevating challenges, solutions, and examples of youth leadership to advance outdoor equity. The session will engage the audience in table discussions where youth can share insights and approaches to nature access from across the globe.

Understand humanity and the world better through a short yet fun video walk through of how we had become in time. Integrate in a challenge that will assess our carbon footprints from our household to our respective local YMCA associations. As we evaluate our actions, together, we will come-up with a strategy that will enable each of us and our neighbors to become the solution and commit to this life changing process of environmental efforts.

The higher we live from the ground level, the more disconnected we feel from the natural world and even from each other within a community. Furthermore, the intense urban heat island effect in built-up areas leads to heat stress and other related health problems. With better understanding of the dynamics between the built environment and the microclimate, and advocacy of human-nature interactions in urban living, could we design a more liveable and healthier urban environment?

Green Vibes: Diversity Outdoors, Environmental Justice, and You is an invitation for participants to think about the ways they interact with their natural environment at home and to think about how people, the world over experience the outdoors, climate change, and more.

Participants will walk away with a better understanding of how an inclusive approach to environmentalism and recreation can advance environmental justice and ultimately help repair the world.

This workshop will discuss communications tools for climate justice, and how best to integrate media and communications work with organizing, campaigns, and other aspects of climate justice work. Specific examples will be covered, along with tips and tricks on creating communications plans.

In 2015, world leaders agreed to 17 goals for a better world by 2030, also known as the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030.

A global agenda, a promise and a roadmap with the power to end poverty, fight inequality and stop climate change.

Guided by the goals, it is now up to all of us to work together to build a better future and make sure the goals are met!

The YMCA has a unique position to make youth voices heard and assure youth are involved in the implementation! This workshop will create space for your YMCA to find ways to be part of strengthening the voice of youth in SDG work at local, national and global level!

G-Corps – a Peace Corps for the planet – is set to reach millions of young people to unite, up-skill, and unleash their power to make an impact towards the UN SDGs.

G-Corps is creating impact using digital tools that harness the power of the masses, digital masterclass training to empower youth, and volunteer-led bootcamps for youth to innovate, develop, and scale their own solutions. G-Corps aims to inspire young people, everywhere, to become future changemakers

The aim of YMCA175 is to shape the future world we all want to live in. How do we continue to provide the ongoing space to connect and create the future we envisage and want.