Call for participants in a Youth Climate Champions Bootcamp

Posted on June, 28 2022

Apply now to participate in a climate bootcamp aimed at fast-tracking young people who want to have a meaningful voice in climate action.

The Youth Climate Champions (YCC) programme, which was recently launched at an event in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, saw young and old come together to talk about how to take youth action beyond tokenism.

The YCC programme aims to capacitate, support and facilitate collaboration between young people and youth organisations interested in climate change. Planned activities include climate bootcamps, the establishment of a YCC steering committee, a podcast series, social media activist training, internships and training modules.

The YCC was launched under the banner of the Climate Ambition to Accountability Project (CAAP), a partnership between WWF South Africa, the South African Climate Action Network and the Institute for Economic Justice which is co-funded by the European Union.

The rationale behind the YCC programme is that young people in South Africa operate at the margins of climate policy processes and engagement has been largely fragmented. Because of this, the youth have limited access to resources, knowledge, expertise and opportunities to get involved.

As part of the project’s activities, the YCC programme will empower and train youth leaders, particularly those from disadvantaged communities to ensure more meaningful youth engagement in climate action and policy processes.

Among the upcoming activities is a bootcamp which will see 25 young people come together under the YCC banner to learn how to take meaningful action. The programme will include an intensive session on climate change, its impacts, and how this affects young people, interspersed with fun activities and outings.

The bootcamp will kick off with a virtual preparatory event from 26 to 30 September, followed by a five-day, in-person event in Gauteng from the 3 to 7 October 2022. Participation is open to anyone between the ages of 18-30 years old with an interest in climate action. Applications can be made at this link.

More ways to get involved:

Help us to understand youth climate issues in South Africa, please fill in the Youth Climate Champions questionnaire
If you interested in youth climate activities, sign up to the Youth Climate Champions network
If you are interested in climate work being done by civil society organisations, you can sign up to the Climate Ambition to Accountability newsletter

Panelists at the YCC launch included, from left, Crispian Olver (Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Commission), Mitchelle Mhaka (Programmes Coordinator for the African Climate Alliance), Zaynab Sadan (WWF South Africa), and Bulelwa Makalime-Ngewana (Executive Director of the Open Society Foundations)