After running three consecutive, and successful, summits, we are looking forward to the fourth annual WNY Youth Climate Action Summit on Saturday, May 30th, 2020. We have worked hard to build connections throughout the the Western New York community, and would like to thank all of our partners and sponsors who helped to bring together an incredible group of youth and mentors last June 1st to form vibrant community. All who participated left with energy, knowledge, networks and plans for what to do next, and actionable steps in place to make those plans move forward. We had 140 students study the science, art, humanity, locality, communities, means of production, agriculture, and social justice of climate change at Buffalo State College. For more specifics, download our past Program 2019.
Climate change poses an existential threat to the well-being of societies and ecosystems around the world. While this can often seem overwhelming, individuals have the power to effect real change once they acquire the necessary leadership skills and knowledge. Delivering these attributes to a new generation of young leaders is the goal of this summit.
Over the course of our first three summits in June of 2017, 2018, and 2019 we brought together over 400 high school students from across 20+ WNY school districts to Buffalo State College to partake in a full day of climate change education and leadership training. The students were given an aspirational message to take with them into their communities and developed a plan to carry out actual significant change.
We are now at the point where students that were at our first summits are now college students adept at activism and inspired to seek change. These youth are now able to return to our summit and teach the lessons they have learned and continue to inspire. This provides returnees a sense of leadership and ownership of the summit, as well as granting an aspirational tone to all those in attendance. All of this in the stunning, new LEEDS certified Science and Math Center of Buffalo State College.
About
If you would like some more details about what we are about, or what the workshops entailed – we encourage you to take a close look at our program, downloadable below. Please explore the sponsors and partners page of this site for more information about the various organizations and individuals who helped make this event transpire.
- WNY Climate Youth Fellows
- Basics of Climate Change
- Wind turbine challenge
- Citizen Science
- Building a better solar panel
- Key Note speakers on Climate Change in WNY
- Advocacy training
- Team Action Planning
- Open-space brainstorming
- Keynote speakers
- Writing community-based action plans
- Transport to Miss Buffalo
- A Miss Buffalo harbor cruise to bond and network
As you can see, the opportunities for the youth of WNY to network, learn, and gain the tools needed to affect change are offered in abundance at this summit. Students attend the summit through a nomination process. Teachers and mentors nominate students, and then those nominated students recieve registration materials. We have found this system to be a workable one, where students have a known adult-link to the summit organizers (who nominate many students themselves!). Nominations will begin soon, most likely by early March, with registration to follow in April.
