Back in 2019, Salt Spring’s Peter Allan, his wife Lynda Monk and their still-in-school sons Jesse and Jackson had many dining-room table conversations about the state of the world and how to imagine a more positive future.
So when Swedish youth climate activist Greta Thunberg, then 16, came to Vancouver for an event that year, Allan felt compelled to get on a ferry and go see her speak.
“It was very, very moving,” he recalled, not only to hear Thunberg’s words but to see so many young people in the crowd of 10,000 around the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
The experience made him want to know more about what youth were doing to tackle climate change and an uncertain future.
“How do we learn these stories?” he asked himself. “How do we shine a light on what teenagers and younger people are doing and capable of?”
Then he realized that as executive director of the Salt Spring-based Institute for Sustainability, Education and Action (I-SEA), he had the answer. Through I-SEA, he could instigate an award program for youth to share their climate-action-oriented activities with others.
The event started small in 2022 and is now called the National Youth Climate Activism Award (NYCAA). It is stewarded by a group of young adults who manage the program and adjudicate the submissions. The entry portal opened last week at nationalycaa.org and will be open until Earth Day on April 22.
Entries from Canadian residents under the age of 20 take the form of a 500-word story or up to five-minute video detailing their impactful projects. Awards are $500 for ages 14 and under, and $1,000 for ages 15 to 19.
Finnegan Brown is a 2023 award winner from the Victoria area, who is now a UBC student and the NYCAA Youth Climate Cabinet chair. He encourages young people to apply for the award and share their climate-action activity stories.
“Taking action matters,” said Brown. “Not just for the planet, but for how it makes you feel. Greta Thunberg has said that when you take action, you don’t feel helpless or hopeless anymore, because you know you’re doing everything you can. And seeing other young people taking action gives all of us hope. That’s exactly what the NYCAA is about: showing youth that they’re not alone and that their actions matter.”
Winning the NYCAA is a huge confidence booster, he said.
“That validation often motivates recipients to keep advocating for sustainable solutions and to take their ideas even further. Many recipients go on to expand their projects, start new initiatives or step into leadership roles in their schools and communities.”
Brown said award-winning projects have ranged from an effort to bring together green clubs from CÉGEPs across Québec, to the development of eco-friendly watercolour paints at the South Fraser Science Regional Fair, to working with local coffee shops in Brentwood Bay to reduce single-use waste.
“There’s no single ‘right’ way to be a climate activist,” said Brown. “Sharing our stories helps inspire others and builds momentum for more youth to get involved.”
A number of Gulf Islands students were among the program’s early winners.
Brown’s biggest piece of advice is to not be intimidated against applying.
“No action is too small. Think globally, but act locally. Start with your school, your neighbourhood, or even your own backyard. And bring others along! Some of our favourite submissions are group entries from friends, clubs or whole classes working together.”
Brown said being involved in climate action makes him hopeful “because it reminds me that the future isn’t something that just happens to us. It’s something we actively create together.”
He said one idea that’s shaped how he thinks about this topic comes from his mentor, Ann Dale, and her newest book, Beyond the Edge: Reconciliation, Reconnection, Regeneration.
“Ann talks about hope not as passive optimism but as actionable steps we can take to push for change, both individually and collectively. Climate action helps me live that out. It connects me to people across generations and across Canada, and reminds me that we’re deeply interconnected with nature and with one another . . . Being part of this movement and learning from mentors like Ann [Dale] and Peter [Allan] makes a climate-safe future feel possible.”
Allan said he feels Youth Climate Cabinet members would like to see the NYCAA become “the most prestigious climate award for under 20s in the country,” said Allan. “There are other awards out there; there are provincial awards, and credit union awards, and there’s famously the Starfish 25, but nothing quite like this that’s youth run.”
He said he was thrilled when high-profile folk singer and activist Luke Wallace agreed to be a NYCAA spokesperson.
“I felt the need for the award to have a generational voice to speak to it and support it and he said yes right away. He’s been saying yes ever since.”
Allan is also grateful for support from a number of foundations, which are acknowledged on the nationalycaa.org website, including the Salt Spring-based Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring.
“These stories should be shared because they are an antidote to climate despair and helplessness, which is what we need,” Allan said.