…so, what do we do about it? Here are just some of the questions a few of the U.S. youth climate movement “old guard” brainstormed last spring to get conversation going. Talk amongst yourselves…
- What is the “middle-aged” equivalent of the youth climate movement– as in, what could/should climate leadership look like for us as activists as we “age out” of the youth movement? Should youth movement alumni simply join and help shape existing organizations as professionals and volunteers, or is there also a need for an alternate model/older youth movement parallel outside of these structures? What would that look like? (Note also need to plug in adults who have not been previously active.) How do we build a truly integrated movement across age groups?
- How have their youth climate movement experiences tangibly impacted the careers and lives of existing “age-outs?
- What is unique about the youth climate movement model of organizing and leadership?
- In particular, how has the youth climate movement created “ordinary” leadership (giving youth access to leadership roles in mainstream movement), and how has it created extraordinary leadership (close working relationships between young leaders that will endure for decades, hundreds of new paid leadership positions for recent grads, etc.)?
- How can mainstream climate/environmental organizations and foundations best support the youth climate movement and individual leaders in retaining and building on these unique niche movement roles/value added (as opposed to supporting the status quo/youth organizing and advocacy becoming more like existing mainstream models)?
- What best practices from the youth climate movement could transfer to “adult” movement building on climate change and/or to organizing and advocacy on other issues?
- What, if any, are the common pre-condition and /experiences that lead to someone becoming a youth climate movement leader? (In other words, to what extent does the youth movement forge its own leaders, and to what extent does it seek out a set of people with particular personalities/skillsets/interests developed even earlier in life?)
- How can we use the access and experience of “age-outs” to engage and provide space for our peers that might not have found a place in the roles of the youth climate movement?
- How can we build on and expand the youth climate movement’s efforts to diversify the climate movement as a whole?
