Youth Engagement
Young people are not only future leaders, but current ones. Youth movements and activists have been vital to social progress across time and place. Our youth programming supports young changemakers across British Columbia to explore global issues, build skills, and take action rooted in justice, solidarity, and sustainability. We create space for youth to connect, co-create, and drive meaningful change, here at home and around the world.
Past Youth Engagement Initiatives
Climate Change Branch
The Climate Change Branch (CCB) was a multi-year initiative that sought to build youth capacity in policy, research, advocacy, public engagement, and project and budget management to advance youth leadership in global climate action. The youth-led group consisted of students, activists, writers, researchers, and future scientists, designers, politicians, engineers, and architects.
Together, with support from BCCIC and others, they developed policy recommendations to accelerate climate action, informative reports and guides such as a climate justice toolkit for municipalities, and hands-on and practical resources for educators and students, like their green jobs toolkit. Among other things, they also advocated for change directly at United Nations forums, and elevated the voices of youth activists on their podcast, Y Talk Climate.
Their accomplishments have proven that young people are credible and legitimate voices in governance, from the municipal to the international level.
SDG Bootcamp
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Bootcamp engaged motivated and engaged youth across BC that were interested in becoming active SDG changemakers in their own communities. The bootcamp was a 6-month-long practice-focused training program that approached the SDGs as a transformational agenda and sought to educate, mentor, and inspire its participants to promote social change and sustainable practices.
With its focus on public engagement, the course helped participants foster the skills needed to effectively communicate and create dialogue that will promote social change related to the SDGs. As a part of the course, participants developed leadership skills and learned about leveraging the SDGs for transformation change. As the course also aimed to provide mentorship, participants are given opportunities to practice their personal, social, and systems skills to push for a more sustainable future.
Throughout the program, the group was immersed in presentations in communities around BC and learning from experts on topics like conflict, social change, and systems thinking. Each year the bootcamp ran, it came to a close with a delegation to the High-Level Political Forum in New York where bootcampers were able to put the skills they have formed and practiced to the test.
Student Placements
BCCIC partners with several universities and colleges across British Columbia to provide students with diverse opportunities to connect with activists and organizations in the international development sector, including BCCIC members, global South organizations and activists, and more. For example, we regularly take on students in the University of British Columbia’s Canadian Foreign Policy course. Through a 4-month long Community-Based Experiential Learning placement, students take on diverse research projects related to Canadian foreign policy.