It’s our ECO2school adoption anniversary! 

This month marks one year since we adopted the ECO2school program from The Climate Center, and, with it, our fantastic Senior Program Coordinator Kevin Anderson. Much like any growing family, we had no idea the changes that we would go through or the bonds that would form living and learning in the time of climate change and a global pandemic. Covid, the challenges of online learning, and repeated local climate disasters have significantly impacted our community’s youth and educators. It also provided a unique opportunity to pause, listen to our youth, and respond to what is needed now.

According to the 2021 Youth Truth Survey “Leading Through Listening: Student & Community Voices in Sonoma County”, only 34% of high school students feel part of their school’s community, and only 37% feel part of their community. Woah! Only ⅓ of our high school students feel connected to this place we live in! No wonder 70% of them report feeling depressed, stressed, or anxious (with higher proportions amongst our LGBTQ youth). 

In our listening sessions, we learned students care about climate change and want to know how to take climate action, but they are also overwhelmed by what they are learning and feel like they don’t have agency to make a meaningful difference. They want to be a part of the solution but often feel marginalized, unheard, and tokenized. They are told they are the “hope of the future”, and yet this creates a tremendous sense of responsibility about their future and a sense of isolation – as if it is up to them alone to solve this crisis.

At the heart of all Daily Acts’ programs is our desire to remedy this crisis of connection and help people feel empowered to take action and be the change. Through ECO2school, we are responding to the needs of our community’s high school youth by providing trauma-informed climate education that goes beyond climate literacy and includes hands-on service-learning projects through STEAM education, teaches leadership skills, and provides pathways for authentic civic engagement.

We are meeting students where they are, providing mentorship, building resilience skills, and boosting opportunities to speak their truth, share their knowledge, and be heard by their community. In this way, we are supporting our youth to become place-makers, reimagine their communities as climate-smart, and express their cultural richness in ways that connect communities. In essence, we are working with our youth to support them in creating climate-smart, resilient communities they want to be part of. 

This year we invited students to design solutions to environmental and climate issues in their community. The Green Heart Community Design Challenge inspired over 200 students to explore climate-smart design models, resulting in 15 inspiring and innovative design submissions. We will feature 15 youth and their designs at our upcoming Green Heart Community Design Challenge Showcase. To receive a recording of our showcase, please register here.  We hope you will join us in celebrating and supporting the young visionaries and climate leaders in our community! AND we hope you will take the time to listen to the ideas of young people and support them in co-creating communities that connect and inspire.

With gratitude,

Nichole Warwick
Leadership Institute Programs Manager