Youth Action Center - Carrefour Jeunesse

Welcome back to the Youth Action Centre E-news - we hope you had a great summer! There’s tons of good stuff coming up this year… Make sure to check out the Youth Action centre for regular updates, and let us know if you hear about anything happening in your area.

Many corporations are starting to green their operations to reduce their ecological footprint. These corporations are giving consumers options like organic cotton lines of clothing to selling coffee that is shade grown. One corporation that is on the forefront of green practice and committed to sustainability and the environment is Canada’s very own Mountain Equipment CO-OP (MEC).

MEC has been tackling the ecologically disastrous plastic bag, and has revamped it into a Bio Bag. “BioBags are 100% compostable and biodegradable, and will disintegrate in compost in 12-24 months, depending on conditions. They can also be reused.” (www.mec.ca). To encourage people to use reusable bags, MEC contributes 5 cents each time one of their consumers brings their own bag to their Urban Sustainability Grants. MEC branches in major Canadian cities raised a total of $57,000 in 2006! MEC is a leader in the movement towards green companies by using this innovative bag – and on top of this, MEC even offers organic cotton clothing, giving consumers a variety of eco-friendly clothing options.

Essentially, consumerists can be very influential into the operation of a corporation. For example, you have the choice to buy coffee that is shade grown, or isn’t. After you’ve bought a product, you have two options: to add another plastic bag to your collection (and eventually a landfill) or to purchase a reusable bag for groceries. If a conscious effort is made by youth, and the rest of the population, more corporations would be looking for alternate options to satisfy their customers.

Next time you go shopping, remember to bring your own bag, or ask about an organic cotton line - and flip back the tag of your clothing to see where it is made. These little steps are the ones that truly count in making your lifestyle eco-friendly, and contributing to the betterment of Mother Earth!

The Community Champions Competition

The Safe Drinking Water Foundation’s Community Champions Competition is open to all students, individually or in a group, who are in either grade 11 or 12 who have participated in any of the Safe Drinking Water Foundation’s (SDWF) education programs and who are interested in promoting safe drinking water in their communities.

Contest Submissions
Here are some ideas of what you might like to do in order to compete in the Community Champions Competition:

A play
A public forum with speakers and an audience
Community challenge/competition
Other creative ideas… the sky’s the limit!

How to Submit Your Work
Send us a video recording of your presentation; if you do not have access to a video camera we’ll accept a photo record or a written transcript of your work.

The Prize
One $1000.00 prize will be awarded to the winner of each of the following three categories: Rural, Aboriginal and Urban Schools. The prize will go towards that class’s high school graduation.

Or contact the Safe Drinking Water Foundation by email info@safewater.org or phone (306) 934-0389.

New Brunswick Sustainable School Challenge

This year, with the New Brunswick Sustainable School Challenge, junior high students around the province can take a closer look at sustainability in their school. The new program invites youth to check out their school’s practices through an environmental audit that explores biodiversity, waste, water and energy consumption. Students and teachers can use the audit as a great first step for environmental action or a fun-way to evaluate efforts that are well underway. Students are also visited by Big Blue, the interactive climate change caravan, where they can play with all sorts of renewable energy gadgets that help us reduce our green-house gas emissions.

How Do I Get Involved?
To get your school, classroom or student group involved, please contact Julie, Julie@fallsbrookcentre.ca or call (506) 375-7383.

For more information about Falls Brook Centre and to learn about other youth programs like our agriculture apprenticeship program and our outdoor leadership camps, visit our website www.fallsbrookcentre.ca.

“Youthforce” Documentary

TakingITGlobal and Insync Video have released a documentary that follows 3 youth delegates from Canada, Zimbabwe and Mexico at the 2006 XVI International AIDS Conference. Watch them make their voices heard in “Youthforce: Delivering a Message on HIV/AIDS”.

Visit www.youthforcefilm.com to view the trailer and chapter samples, and to download the film to your iPod or computer!

UNESCO photo contest

UNESCO’s (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) launched a photo contest on September 1 st, 2007 to raise youth awareness about the state of the planet. The theme is The Changing Face of the Earth.

Each contestant is invited to submit a single colour photo depicting her or his personal testimony of the Earth’s rapidly changing landscape in a positive or negative way. The photo should illustrate one of the ten themes from the International Year of Planet Earth, which are:

Soil – Earth's living skin, Planet Earth in our hands
Groundwater – towards sustainable use
Hazards – minimizing risk, maximizing award
Earth and health – building a safer environment
Climate change – the ‘stone tape’
Resource issues – towards sustainable use
Megacities – going deeper, building safer
Deep Earth – from crust to core
Ocean – abyss of time
Earth and life – the origins of diversity

Photos can show rural or urban scenes and should capture changes to the landscape caused by natural phenomena or resulting from human intervention.

Each of the winning contestants will receive a copy of two UNESCO books: Explaining the Earth and The Changing Face of the Earth. The names of the 40 winning contestants will be announced in the April 2008 issue of A World of Science and on UNESCO’s science portal.

Who’s Eligible, Deadline and More Info
Anyone from 15-20 years old can enter, and the contest closes on January 31, 2008. Winners will receive one of 40 prizes.

Mobile Jam Fest

The 8 Goals Campaign is proud to announce Mobile Jam Fest, the world’s largest youth creativity festival, a series of short film competitions on the Millennium Development Goals.

Are you between 14 and 25 years old? Are you or your group interested in global development and human rights? Do you want to get involved locally in global efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals? These competitions are for you!

Every 8 weeks, Toronto-based Mobile Jam Fest will challenge young global citizens to create a new film on one of the eight Millennium Development Goals:

Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
Achieve Universal Primary Education
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Reduce Child Mortality
Improve Maternal Health
Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases
Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

These competitions provide you the opportunity to create films that represent what you feel about the world and our place in it. The top winner of each competition will receive $500 in tuition, $500 towards a social project, or an Xbox 360 Entertainment console.

Deadline
The deadline for submitting your short film on Goal 1 is November 1 st at noon, Eastern Daylight Time (9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time).

Want more info?
Visit mobilejamfest.com/mdg to learn more and take part in the competitions.

Training and Field Experience Scholarship

Canada’s New Noahs is a great professional training and field experience program for the conservation and management of endangered species.

Wildlife Preservation Canada is searching for an enthusiastic young Canadian scientist willing to participate in a rigorous ten-month professional training program. After the program, you may also have the chance to participate in a six-month Canadian internship placement and learn the methods of endangered species management pioneered in Europe by the late author and naturalist Gerald Durrell and in North America by Richard Fyfe and Dr. Tom Cade.

Canada's New Noahs will be offered scholarship funding to travel and work, starting on the island of Jersey in the English Channel at the Trust's International Training Centre. Here you will receive four months of training, working alongside zoo staff members and receiving hands-on experience in methods of captive breeding and management. An incredible experience, you’ll have the chance to work with the unique collection of endangered animals at the zoological facility of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

After this, you’ll head off to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, once the home of the ill-fated Dodo. On Mauritius, you’ll work for six to seven months as a field assistant to the Trust's on-site field research, captive breeding and re-introduction programs with endangered birds in Mauritius.

When you return from Maritius, there’s the possibility of a six-month Canadian internship placement working with Canadian endangered species.

Post secondary degree in biology, zoology, veterinary or related studies
A passionate interest in wildlife conservation
A natural talent with animals and experience in observing and caring for them
Ability to work closely with others as part of a team
Ability to work independently when necessary with a minimum of direction
Ability to be flexible and open-minded
Ability to laugh at oneself -- even while struggling to save the world
Excellent health, climbing skills and a love of hiking
Good written and oral communications skills
Fluency in French an advantage, but not a requirement

How Can You Apply?
The successful applicant will be expected to be available from March 2008 to January 2009 to participate in this program.

Application packages for Canada's New Noahs are available from:

Wildlife Preservation Canada
RR#5, Hwy 6 North, Guelph, ON N1H 6J2
You can email: admin@wildlifepreservation.ca for a package as well.

To save paper, it’s best to email for the application, or download it from their website at www.wildlifepreservation.ca.

If you wish to receive the package by post, a fee of $5 will be charged to cover handling fees. Cheques are to be payable to "Wildlife Preservation Canada".

The application deadline is November 30, 2007, so get your applications in soon!!