Celebrating Our Champions for Youth
Reflections from the Seeds of Change Summit, grown-up-to-grown-up
At the 2025 Seeds of Change Summit, attendees over age 25 gathered after a day of youth-led workshops
and presentations to reflect and take action. We took a small bite out of a big question:
What happens when we sit back and listen to frontline youth organizers with no agenda
but to support them, and then what do we do with all we've learned?
If there's one thing I've learned from working with young people for fifteen years, it's that they don't wait for permission to act. So we focused our discussion on action, knowing that it's not about solving an enormous problem in a day—it's about taking a note from the Youth EJ Organizer's Playbook, and believing wholeheartedly that community-driven solutions are possible, achievable, and inevitable.
First, we shared the most important things we learned from youth at the Seeds of Change Summit, and where they fell in the spectrum of youths' vision, capacity, needs, and more. Here are some of the things our Champions brought into the room:
Key learnings from attending youth-led workshops and presentations at the Seeds of Change Summit on August 30th, 2025
Our Next Steps
Groups came up with wonderful ideas for how to champion youth organizers, including hosting in-person and virtual gatherings to hold ourselves accountable to taking action on our support plans, "gamefying" our organizing to make it more fun and build connection, exploring mutual mentorship opportunities, and collaborating on events.
Group work from the Seeds of Change Summit Champions for Youth Workshop on August 30th, 2025
What Can Youth on Root Do to Help Adult Allies Be Active Champions for Youth?
To close our discussion, this new coalition of Champions for Youth identified what is needed to successfully support youth EJ organizers:
Resources (continued learning, workshops, modeling - the tools youth are using to organize)
Accountability (follow up calls, reminders)
Connection (in-person meet ups, intergenerational spaces, mentorship, a bridge to connect with youth)
Grace (for ourselves and each other, rest and return - we're in it for the long haul)
It was clear that more opportunities like the Seeds of Change Summit are needed and wanted to build bridges between generations, especially if we’re going to turn the current political turmoil into lasting revolution and win the fight for environmental justice for all.
Youth on Root is Ready to Be That Bridge
As we wind down the year and ease into our annual Winter Pause, rest assured the Youth on Root team is in reflect-to-create-mode. Guided by the leadership of our Youth Advisory Board, we are dreaming up offerings for organizers and allies of the Youth Environmental Justice Movement in 2026. We welcome your ideas and input, so don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Want to be the first to hear about Youth on Root’s new resources and offerings for
Champions for Youth? Become a monthly donor of any amount to join the collective
in planting consistent seeds of growth for frontline youth organizers.