What is Environmental Action Civics?
Environmental Action Civics is an educational approach where youth work in partnership with adults to identify a local environmental issue and engage with community members to take action by advocating for systemic changes to policies or practices.
A central element of Environmental Action Civics is a commitment to prepare youth, especially those from historically marginalized communities, to engage in local environmental decision making now and in the future.
Here's the roadmap.
Consider us your pit crew.
Youth and adults worked together, in partnership, to choose the issue and strategy and carry out the action plan. Adults and youth shared responsibilities and power throughout the process.
Youth led and were responsible for tasks throughout, using peer accountability measures.
All project decisions were made as a group with all voices at the table, using discussion, deliberation, debate, voting methods, criterion-based decision making, etc. to decide the issue selection and solution.
3+ community members (including those impacted by the issue) were engaged to better understand the issue and inform an equitable and impactful action plan.
Youth advocated for a policy or practice change to decision
makers in their community.
The action aimed to create
long-term, systemic change that addresses the environmental issue.
To navigate this road, you're going to need some tools.
Here's where we come in.
What People Are Saying
Whatever role you play, we have resources for you.
COMMUNITY INVENTORY LIST
Use this resource to help students understand community concerns. An inventory is inquiry driven, collects some kind of data, and leads to a list of strengths and concerns of the defined community.
Facilitators: This is a great activity to help educators think through ways to begin the Environmental Action Civics process.
ENVIRONMENTAL CITIZEN ACTIVITY
This activity solidifies what it means to be an Environmental Citizen. Try this activity as an entire class, led by you or a student leader, instead of breaking up into smaller groups.
Facilitators: This is an excellent way to kick off a training!
Here for Professional Development?
We offer research-based webinars, workshops, and collaborative problem-solving sessions. Open to educators of all kinds, facilitators, and more. See you there!
Click HereQuestions? Contact Our Team
Chesapeake Bay/Mid-Atlantic Educators
Sarah Jennings, Program Manager
Organizations
Krysten Dorfman, Program Manager
Colorado Educators
Taylor Ruffin, Program Manager
Nationwide
Alyssa McConkey, Chief Program Officer
Our training programs are part of ee360+, an ambitious five-year initiative that supports a diverse cadre of environmental education leaders to increase environmental literacy for everyone, everywhere. NAAEE leads the initiative through a cooperative agreement with U.S. EPA and seven partner organizations including Earth Force.
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