Dear Daily Actors,
After nearly a year of preparation and anticipation, we are overjoyed and proud to announce the successful adoption of ECO2school! Yes, that’s right! It’s a rockin’ and rolling, youth leadership program focused on climate solutions!
ECO2school brings real-life climate change solutions and actions to student leaders. Using project and service-learning models, the program supports students to choose green transportation options and career pathways and provides curriculum on the climate crisis for educators. Youth leadership is cultivated through our Youth Advisory Board and school-based eco-clubs, and we empower youth voices for equitable climate solutions. Begun ten years ago as a program of The Climate Center and the brainchild of Amy Jolly (who innovated, nurtured, and grew it into the award-winning program it is now), ECO2school now operates in a dozen high schools in Sonoma County while collaborating with schools and organizations across the greater Bay Area.
Daily Acts is proud to support our youth as they step into civic and community leadership through experiential, community-based projects including action campaigns, slow streets, and tactical urbanism. We will soon pilot the new Green Heart Challenge, providing scholarships for youth leaders to focus on environmental solutions, and support the development of a youth cohort for the Leadership Institute.
This next year presents some real challenges and opportunities as youth continue learning from home. Daily Acts is busily adapting ECO2school to address these new needs while continuing to provide the resources and tools needed for proactive climate action. Knowing youth are being impacted by the stress of climate change and that stress is exacerbated by the pandemic, we are integrating stress management and mind-body medicine skills into our curriculum to further support our youth.
Through ECO2school, we empower youth to Be the Change. We are thrilled to be adopting this program and expanding our Daily Acts family! Please join us in welcoming ECO2school, Kevin Anderson program coordinator, and all of our youth leaders to our Daily Acts’ community!
Take heart, take action,
Nichole Warwick
ECO2school and Environmental Health Programs Manager