Register

A two-webinar series

Fostering Youth-Centred Impact
April 17, 1:00-2:00 ET

and

Leveraging Social Media to Better Engage Youth
April 24, 1:00-2:00 ET

Free on Zoom Webinar

*Please note, all registrants will be provided with a link to the recording and presentation slides following the sessions. The recording will be available for 60 days.

Webinar 1: Fostering Youth-Centred Impact

April 17, 1:00-2:00 ET

This webinar will be led by two of Youth Climate Labs senior programs staff. It will focus on best practices surrounding engagement in programming such as hiring, training, and retaining youth. Additionally presenters will look at how to reach youth in programs who may be experiencing barriers to attend.

They focus on long term and short term youth employees so you're prepared in advance of seasonal summer job positions. They'll go over youth motivations in navigating careers, desires in roles and ways of working,and how this informs YCL's work.

The team will also share the Youth Climate Lab toolbox and specific case studies for participants to see how to apply these concepts and leave with the knowledge on how to create and manage supportive opportunities for youth within your organization.

Our Presenters

Siobhan Takala

Siobhan is the Senior Programs Manager. She directs the implementation of YCL programs, including managing program staff, supporting program design, and managing internal processes that ensure YCL programs have their intended impacts. Siobhan grew up engaging in social justice movements, and education on the climate crisis. She was Co-Founder and Co-Director of Let’s Sprout, a youth-led initiative dedicated to youth creativity, authentic leadership and environmental education, and has been named a Top 25 Environmentalist by The Starfish Canada.

 

Cameron Armstrong

Cameron Armstrong (she/her) is the Senior Programs Specialist at Youth Climate Lab. She is a mixed Filipina environmentalist and youth advocate who was born and raised on Treaty 1 Territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her interests focus on environmental justice, youth advocacy, water protection, and centring BIPOC youth in climate spaces. She is passionate about community-led solutions that are rooted in anti-oppression and restorative justice. Cameron is also the Manitoba Regional Organizer for Climate Reality Project Canada and also sits on the Consider Climate, Manitoba Steering Committee through this role.

Webinar 2: Leveraging Social Media to Better Engage Youth

April 24, 1:00-2:00 ET

This webinar will show the importance of online presence and social media communication to advance youth engagement in your organization.

The YCL Impact Manager and Senior Communications Specialist will go over best practices for all the major social media platforms based on research and youth engagement best practices. They will explore what to be mindful of when communicating online about sustainability to youth, including greenwashing. Additionally, they'll go through case studies with participants on communicating about climate change, demystifying concepts and jargon to youth and how to communicate accessible recruitment strategies.

 

Participants will leave with a clear understanding on how to best utilize different social media platforms, how to communicate with a youth audience in a clear effective and engaging way, and how to structure your communications to achieve your intended reach.

Our Presenters

Kate Ashwood

Kate is the Impact Manager at Youth Climate Lab, leading the measurement, evaluation and learning of the organization and communications strategies to amplify organizational impact. She also manages the Activate (You)th fee for service, collaborations and partnerships. Kate grew up in Ottawa (Anishinabe and Algonquin territory) engaging in local and global social justice movements. Through informal and formal learning settings she learned (and continues to learn) about the intersectionality of climate change with systemic social injustice.

 

Jess Cholette-Barr

Jess is the Communications Specialist at Youth Climate Lab, where she is responsible for creating and curating content for YCL’s social media platforms. Born and raised in Toronto, Jess is a recent graduate who is passionate about social, economic, political, and environmental justice. Jess is passionate about youth-centred climate justice spaces, and is always seeking new opportunities to learn, grow, and connect. She graduated with a Combined Honours degree (BA) in Environment, Sustainability and Society from Dalhousie University, and Contemporary Studies from the University of King’s College.

How to choose your stream:
ENGO representatives may self-select from the three workshop tracks based on their previous learning experiences with decolonization content.

Introduction to Decolonization in the ENGO Sector is designed for first-time learners and those with limited comfort exploring the Session topics. Sessions will be lecture-style making limited space for group discussion. Breakout rooms will be used intermittently to encourage first-time learners to practice discussing topics and gain confident understanding of materials.

Advanced Decolonial Theory and Application is designed for ENGO representatives who have experience with session topics and are ready to take chances by participating in potentially uncomfortable conversations to expose the root issues at play. These spaces are designed with safety of participants in mind with the goal of exposing the potential reproduction of colonial thinking/doing within the ENGO sector. Sessions will be conversational while making use of lecture-style teaching.

For Indigenous Ears Only - A Space for Reflection and Action is designed for Indigenous people who work within the ENGO sector and seek to connect with others to discuss experiences and vision decolonial pathways forward. These session agendas will be co-developed with participants.
Register Intro
Introduction to Decolonization in the ENGO Sector

Fridays, March 14, 21, 28 and April 4 (1-4:00 pm ET)

Session 1: Settler Colonialism 101

Introduce ENGO representatives to the fact that colonization is a structure and not an event. Identifies key ways that colonialism moves through individuals and organizations.

Session 2: Positionality

ENGO representatives learn how to articulate their social location within a settler colonial state, and in relation to potential Indigenous partners.

Session 3: Inherent Indigenous Governance 101

Introduce the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues. Examples provided.

Session 4: Building Better Relations

ENGO representatives will road test ways they can implement previous workshop key points to re-imagine partnerships with Indigenous nations.

Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)

All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.

Instructor:

Dr. Les Sabiston (Red River Métis) is from Aswahonanihk (Selkirk), Manitoba. Working at the intersections of political, legal, and medical anthropologies, as well as Indigenous Studies, Les’ work brings together critical social theories of colonialism, race, class, gender and sexuality with the political commitments of decolonization and aspirations of realizing alternative worlds informed by Indigenous futures. A guiding principle to his work has been to develop a more robust understanding of the ongoing process of encounter with Indigenous peoples in Canada, that is, how the state and its people interact with and understand themselves in relation to the original peoples of this land.

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Register Advanced

Advanced Decolonial Theory and Application

Wednesdays, March 26, April 2, 9 and 16 (1-4:00 pm ET)

Session 1:  Diagnosing Settler Colonialism in the Enviro Sector

Participants will be asked to share ways in which they have diagnosed and traced power in social justice movements and/or in the ENGO sector. This workshop will make space for discomfort as part of promoting decolonization.

Session 2: Inherent Indigenous Governance

A mix of advanced and introductory theory, this workshop delves into legal and political pluralism, naming the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues.

Session 3: The Nonprofit Industrial Complex

ENGO participants are introduced to theories and examples describing the Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the “Shadow State.” Purpose is to show how settler colonialism structures civil society.

Session 4: Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships

This workshop delves deep into how ENGOs can partner with Indigenous nations beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex while promoting deference to inherent Indigenous political leaders.

Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)

All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.

Instructor:

Dr. Damien Lee is a member of Fort William First Nation and holds a PhD in Indigenous Studies from the University of Manitoba, and a Master of Arts in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria. Dr. Lee has extensive experience facilitating/teaching adult-focused education at the post-secondary level and co-leads Gimiwan Research and Consulting. Gimiwan serves mainly Indigenous communities and Indigenous-led organizations by providing research and workshop services based in decolonial ethics and Indigenous worldviews.
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Register IEO

For Indigenous Ears Only - A Space for Reflection and Action

Tuesdays, April 1, 8, 15 and 22 (1-4 pm ET)

The Indigenous only space will be collaborative in nature but critical in approach. This track is a space for Indigenous folks within the ENGO sector to come together to discuss their experiences and work, with an eye to taking a position on what the sector might need to do in order to promote decolonization. Participants will use the first session to define our goals for the remaining three meetings. Therefore, session topics named here are proposals only.

Session 1:  Naming the Cannibal: Settler Colonialism in the ENGO Sector

Session 2: Proposed topic: Reflections on working in the ENGO Sector

Session 3: Proposed topic: Centering Indigenous Thought in the ENGO Sector

Session 4: Proposed topic: Visioning a Decolonial Environmental Sector

Cost: Free

Instructor:

Dr. Damien Lee is a member of Fort William First Nation and holds a PhD in Indigenous Studies from the University of Manitoba, and a Master of Arts in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria. Dr. Lee has extensive experience facilitating/teaching adult-focused education at the post-secondary level and co-leads Gimiwan Research and Consulting. Gimiwan serves mainly Indigenous communities and Indigenous-led organizations by providing research and workshop services based in decolonial ethics and Indigenous worldviews.
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