Youth Workshops

Youth in the Workforce

Workshops with youth in the workforce were held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Toronto, Ontario. Participants were between 18 and 29 years old. Here are their thoughts on environmental issues:

• Climate change is a complex issue. Youth have difficulties identifying its relevance to their own lives.
  
  
• Youth are unsure of how much of an impact their personal actions will have on climate change.
  
  
• Youth are concerned about personal economic factors, employment and job security, paying off student loans, health and shelter. Youth are concerned with youth unemployment and the lack of meaningful work. Many jobs do not provide youth with the opportunity for personal and professional development. Since youth are disconnected from the environment, climate change needs to be tied into what matters to them.
  
  
• Values and lifestyles are important to youth. Values need to be talked about in the schools, community groups, church, sports groups and other groups.
  
  
• Campaigns must be easy, convenient and affordable for youth. Young people need to be able to take simple actions in their daily life.
  
  
• Many of the youth participating were involved in local NGO's and believe that a public outreach strategy needs to be decentralized. The government should support grassroots initiatives and programs that are already working.
  
  
• There is a lack of youth input into decision making.
  
  
• Governments should play a larger role in helping to mitigate the effects of climate change. The government needs to provide people with incentives to make it worth their while to become more environmentally friendly such as cheaper bus fares, more bike lanes and places to have your bike, tax breaks, better public transportation systems, and other government supported incentives.

Here are their ideas about what can be done to reach out to youth and get them interested in climate change:

• Implement public awareness campaigns such as 'Buy Nothing Day' or boycotts.
  
  
• Change people's consumption patterns by setting examples among friends, family and peers.
  
  
• Fund employment, internship, co-op or exchange opportunities dealing with climate change to provide youth with experience in making and implementing policies.
  
  
• Provide funding (loans or start up grants) for youth entrepreneurs wanting to provide products and services that are environmentally friendly and will help to reduce green house gas emissions.
  
  
• Improve transit systems through cheaper bus fares, more bus routes and buses.
  
  
• Raise price of goods to encourage people to buy less.
  
  
• Provide funding for community based initiatives i.e. small organizations and core funding.
  
  
• Create opportunities for youth to network on global issues such as interacting on line to talk about global issues.
  
  
• Integrate environmental education into school curricula, and offer training programs to teachers on the environmental aspects of their subject matter to enable them to educate youth concerning environmentally friendly habits.
  
  
• Train youth in making use of environmental technologies in protecting and conserving the environment.

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