3.1 Youth activism programmes
Youth activism programmes are helping young people take the next step from facing the status quo to challenging it, as this youth activist explains:
We had a conversation about oppression, and that can be like really depressing … because you’d think a lot about the things that hurt. Then we’d find a way to change the conversation into … what we can do for positive change for reproductive justice. So, we’re like moving towards building a campaign.
Studying the impact of several such programmes, Carey et al. (2021) reported that participants gained increased critical consciousness, and developed academic skills and interpersonal skills such as navigating peer pressure, networking, negotiation, debating and public speaking. Another young activist comments:
I guess like negotiating or like negotiation skills, we don’t really learn about that a lot at school. But here, we’re able to talk to each other and have discussions on a specific topic and get to hear everyone else’s answers and kind of create something out of it.
There are many youth activism programmes around the world, including:
- The Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
- Youth Climate Coalitions such as the UK Youth Climate Coalition
- Earth Uprising
- The Last Generation
- Earth Guardians
- Plant for the Planet
Teaching addressing the climate emergency can support students’ activism by raising awareness of key programmes, exploring the differences between them, discussing strategies for participating in activism programmes and supporting related skills development.
There are numerous resources available intended to support climate activism. Assembly’s toolkit for young activists combines valuable background information with links to additional resources. The Young Climate Activists Toolkit, developed by The UNICEF Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa and the UNDP Regional Hub for Arab States, could be a helpful resource to support activism-related teaching The toolkit was designed to equip young people with the knowledge, tools, and resources to enable their participation in regional and global youth climate action, and to support advocacy for change. While originally intended to support young people in the Middle East and North Africa, the toolkit contains a lot of information and guidance that is more generally relevant. It comprises four volumes which are available in English and Arabic:
- Climate Glossary for Young People
- Tools for Climate Action
- What is Climate Governance?
- The Paris Agreement for Young People
If you’d like to explore key themes in young people’s climate activism in more depth, Neas et al.’s (2022) article ‘Young people’s climate activism: A review of the literature’ gives a comprehensive exploration of this topic. Herfort et al.’s (2023) report ‘Mapping the Global Youth Climate Movement: Towards a Green Economic Mandate’ offers an analysis of the strategies adopted by existing youth climate movements.