Dear Educators and Administrators,
My name is Alistair Knox and I am the Youth Engagement Coordinator for CRFAIR and the Youth Food Network. As a non-profit organization, CRFAIR helps connect and support several local initiatives that seek to develop healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems in the Capital Region. The Youth Food Network is one of our many initiatives, and this summer I will be facilitating our first ever Youth Climate Justice Group.
The Group will meet from the beginning of June to the end of August and is oriented towards youth aged 15-25. The conversation series will be held 1-2 times per week and will consist of both meetings and field trips. These sessions will all center around promoting understanding and collaborative learning about topics such as local food sovereignty and security initiatives, learning how to navigate anxieties and emotions surrounding climate change, and understanding how our relationships with food relate to climate change. During these conversations, we will also be discussing how racial, sexual, and gender-based equity, decolonialism, and environmental advocacy are all vital components of climate justice. Over the course of our meetings, we will be compiling a list of suggestions and presenting them to the regional government to provide them with direct data on what changes youth want to see happen in our communities. There will also be a creative project that we will take on as a group over the summer.
I am reaching out to you all in the hopes that you may know of some students who would be interested in being a part of the Group. Any of their time spent on the panel can be logged as volunteer hours and all of the field trips (such as ecosystem restoration work and tours of local school farm programs) will be made available to them if they are registered for the panel. Sign up can be done through this google form which is also available on our website. They are also welcome to join the meetings without registering to test it out, but I encourage them to be signed up in time for our orientation on the first week of June (details on our website).
Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions you may have regarding the Youth Climate Justice Group. You may put youth in contact with me at alis...@crfair.ca so that I can answer any questions they may have and help them sign up.
Thank you for your time and I hope to hear back from you!
All the best,
Alistair Knox (He/Him) | Youth Network Coordinator
Good Food Network & Capital Region Food & Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable
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