June 2006 E-news

Summer Youth Engagement Opportunities

This summer, four organizations are receiving grants from the Youth Engagement Program (YEP – click here to read about what the YEP is) to support their amazing summer youth programs: the Sierra Youth Coalition, the Sierra Club of Canada, Atlantic Chapter, Museobus and the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development. Summer grants are great because they give youth and environment-minded folks a chance to continue the Green Street programs they do during the school year and keep activities going through the summer. And these grants mean a chance for YOU to get involved in their work with a summer job or gathering…

Here’s a snapshot of each of the four projects to be funded this summer:

• The Sierra Youth Coalition’s Community Youth Action Project will bring high school youth aged 14-19 together to inform, spark and empower each other. Through gatherings in British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick, youth will create and follow through with projects leading to ecological and social well-being in their homes and communities.
• The Sierra Club of Canada, Atlantic Chapter’s Ecotopia project is a three-day event bringing together youth from Atlantic Canada to learn and actually experience sustainable living conditions while developing an understanding of the Ecological Footprint and personal impacts on the planet.
• Muséobus’ “cœur de pomme” project is a partnership between a pilot school in Montréal and Compost Action, a group that offers “composting-expert” training. It’s a chance for youth to get engaged in project development and realization, while gaining super valuable leadership skills.
• Pembina’s Youth Leadership Education Program will help youth to build leadership skills and use these skills to achieve greater ecological sustainability and social equity in communities across Canada. With a multiple year project in mind, youth will actively be involved in creating, participating in and evaluating this new program.

If you want to connect with the organizers of any of these initiatives, drop us an email at youthaction@green-street.ca and we’ll put you in touch with the right person.

A Gathering of Responsible Citizenship – an event review by Felix (a member of Ma Rue Verte’s Youth Steering Committee)

On May 17th, 18th and 19th, 2006, the Carrefour de la Citoyenneté Responsable, or Responsible Citizenship Gathering, took place in Montréal. This great event was organized by the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (representing Quebec’s teachers) with the 2/3 Club. It takes place every year in a different location – this year, it was in Montreal and next year will be in Quebec City.

Wednesday the 17th of May was devoted to the opening conference and a getting-to-know-each other party. The next day, different workshops took place where you could participate in a debate about the social engagement of visible minority groups, or the ways that youth engagement are recognized by the public and by organizations. Or, you could gather to discuss thoughtful consumption, stewardship, different concepts on activism and ways to honestly take action.

On Friday the 19th, the Club 2/3 organized the Grande Marche 2/3 ("the Great Walk"). Despite the pouring rain, 16 000 people gathered and walked together. The walk started through the "Plateau Mont-Royal", a very trendy part of the city, and continued on through through other parts of the city and downtown. It was an energetic and colourful event (not just because of the multi-coloured raincoats!).

As a crowd leader, I witnessed how today's youth make efforts and put their energy into turning this world into a better one. I think adults and political leaders should give more room to young people so that they can express how they feel. They would realize that most of the time, youth have very profound opinions.

A Success Story – Fulton Wetland’s First Mentored Field Trips

On Thursday May 11 the Ducks Unlimited Canada Fulton Wetlands had their first mentored field trips… A great success!! Fulton High School students took a group of Vernon grade 4 students through the wetlands, guiding them along the boardwalk and wetland. They introduced them to the many incredible ways that wetlands are important to healthy water systems and animal habitat –the high school student teachers are feeling great about their presentations, and there’s more and more interest from new high school students after every presentation.

Globalissues.org by Yvonne Su

Want to learn about Global issues like global warming, poverty, AIDS, gender equality and more? Don't know where to start? Then this website is for you: www.globalissues.org.

Global issues has information and articles on many of the worlds issues. It covers environmental, trade related, human rights, and health issues, along with popular articles. It is very informative and exposes you to many of the problems that the news does not show. This is also a very resourceful site, great for projects or if you just want to keep your self informed and aware. So check out global issues and see what is going on in the world today… educate yourself then go out and educate your friends!

Sierra Youth Coalition call for Youth Steering Committee members

Making Waves is a week-long camp for BC youth ages 14-19 who want to build awareness, community and leadership skills for environmental and social justice. It will be taking place Aug. 20-27 at Wildwood, an eco-forestry demonstration and education center near Nanaimo, BC.

The Steering Committee is open to all who are interested in being involved in some way in visioning, planning, advising, contributing, or participating in Making Waves this year. With many levels of commitment from weekly meetings to working groups to volunteering at the gathering, being involved comes with a high level of reward - deepening friendships, building leadership, organization, communication skills and seeing your dreams become reality! Active Procomm members will also have the opportunity to meet in person for a team building, program planning and facilitation training retreat at the end of June at Wildwood, and will be provided with a customized reference letter at the end of the project.

Interested?
If you are interested in being involved with with Project Committee, simply click here: www.syc.dreamnow.org, sign up and enter access code: sycrocks to sign up as an individual.

You can also email Emily Menzies, the B.C. SYC coordinator at emily.syc@gmail.com with a description of:

1. What kind of role you would like to have in ensuring Making Waves 2006 is a stupendous success!? (Procomm member, Steering Committee member, participant, workshop presenter, facilitator, program advisor, staff, outreach coordinator, fundraiser, cook, lifeguard, equipment donor, volunteer driver....only you know what you might be best at contributing!)
2. What kind of time/energy/interest commitment you would like to and are able to contribute (Weekly meetings? Delivering a workshop? Mentoring a youth organizing committee?).
3. If you want to meet be a member of the Procomm, helping to organize the camp via participating in weekly conference calls, please let Emily know 3 days and times that general work for you, so she can set up a meeting process.

Making Waves will be amazing this summer, and helping plan the event is a chance you don’t want to miss out on. There’s more info about the gathering at www.sierrayouth.info.

Environmental Engineering summer camp

The Environmental Engineering programme sets out to bring interactive, exciting, hands-on science experiences to youth in grades seven through nine and inspire an interest in science and engineering.

The camp lasts for one week, and includes experiments and projects both in the classroom and the laboratory, presentations from the academic and public sector, and field trips. The environmental engineering camps will build on the curriculum from grades seven, eight, and nine to introduce concepts in environmental engineering: recycling, reclaiming, revegetation, material recovery, wastewater treatment, biofiltration, greenhouse gases, land reclamation.

Camps are held on the University of Alberta campus, with a field trip to the Edmonton Waste Management Centre, which includes the largest co-composting plant in North America and one of the most advanced wastewater treatment facilities.

You can apply for the camp on their website at http://discovere.ualberta.ca. There are also bursaries available if you require financial assistance for the camp fee of $175; you can download a bursary application on their website at http://discovere.ualberta.ca/bursary.asp.