Program Offerings
Youth Advisory Board (YAB) Program
About the YAB
The Youth Advisory Board (YAB) creates space for frontline youth from California to connect and collectively shape youth movements in their communities and state-wide. By prioritizing frontline youth voices in organizational decision-making, youth are given opportunities to develop skills in organizing, leadership, and facilitation. The YAB program is designed by youth for youth and aims to meet the needs and interests of the current cohort. By integrating the YAB program with Youth on Root’s Convenings and Curriculum programs, youth gain a variety of knowledge and skills to participate in grassroots environmental justice movements.
Objectives
Equip youth with leadership and strategic thinking skills
Offer mentorship and opportunities related to environmental justice
Provide tools for community learning and youth engagement statewide
Goals
Prepare CA youth for leading state-wide convenings
Prioritize youth perspectives on Youth on Root programs and decision-making
Support youth’s individual goals and organizing
Promote and share youth-led movements and Youth on Root programs
Intentions
Create a state-wide coalition of youth leaders
Center youth perspectives in decision-making and engagement
Connect frontline youth to state-wide network and resources
Applications Opening Soon
Interested in applying for the YAB? Know someone who’d be perfect for this role?
Reach out and we’ll send you an application as soon as it’s released!
We bring together youth, movement leaders, and organizations through retreats, local convenings, and our statewide Seeds of Change Summit. Convenings are intentionally collaborative gatherings co-hosted by local youth groups and campus organizations at California colleges.
Youth Power Convenings
Youth Take Center Stage
At Youth on Root events, 90% of speakers and presenters are always frontline youth under age 25. Our Seeds of Change Summit has been described by adult attendees as unlike any conference they’ve been to before, because youth have the microphone. For youth attendees, seeing people their own age in the spotlight empowers them to see themselves up there too.
Why We Gather
Youth deserve an intentional space to connect, collaborate, and build solidarity across the movement. For many attendees, Youth on Root events are the first time they’ve shared space with many others who share their experience. Our convenings create a bridge between regions, organizations, and generations.
Youth on Root’s first ever Seeds of Change Summit, UC Berkeley 2023
Seeds of Change Summit:
Hyper-local Organizing, Statewide Platform
Our statewide Seeds of Change Summit brings together youth organizers across regions to present their strategies, share their successes, teach about their communities, and build solidarity to enact statewide policy change. Frontline youth facilitate workshops to their peers, speak on professional panels as experts, and deliver keynote addresses, providing them with the platform to change the narrative on who are the experts of the environment.
Youth on Root’s second Seeds of Change Summit, UCLA 2025
Interested in collaborating with Youth on Root on a convening, or hosting an event at your campus or community space?
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CURRICULUM
OPEN SOURCE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE RESOURCES
Youth on Root is developing an environmental justice educational curriculum created by and for California youth and available to all in print and through our online platform. Our curriculum and toolkit of educational resources will include lessons, videos, projects, and a space for youth to connect with others on local environmental justice topics:
Lesson 1: History of Environmental Justice
Lesson 2: Intersectional Environmentalism
Lesson 3: Environmental Justice Issues: From Local to Global
Lesson 4: Storytelling for Justice
Lesson 5: Art as Activism
Lesson 6: You are an EJ Movement Leader
When we asked frontline California youth who come from communities affected by environmental justice what they would want to learn and be taught to their peers, this is what they said:
Anti-blackness and what environmental racism is
Indigenous acknowledgement, involvement and frameworks.
How can one be more involved in their community?
Environmental science and justice careers and opportunities
The importance of grounding ourselves + understanding EJ comes in different forms
More ways to get involved in the environmental justice movement that is easily accessible
What is CDR?
The history of the environmental justice community, where are the roots and how did it start?
Environmental justice issues around California and how they connect with Latin American EJ issues
By directly addressing the resource gaps for youth in environmental communities and providing access to youth-oriented and culturally responsive educational materials, we will work to amplify the voices of California youth as environmental justice activists through empowering and inclusive storylines, narrators, characters, and themes.
CURRICULUM WORKING GROUP
YoR recognizes that this important work cannot be done alone. In the spirit of the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing, YoR works in collaboration with experts from community-based organizations across California through a curriculum working group composed of adult and youth leaders from each participating organization. We hope to both learn from their expertise and “extend their reach” beyond their immediate service areas.
Each of these organizations represents communities that have championed environmental justice for decades. We hope to share their rich history while ensuring they “speak for themselves” through direct participation in the curriculum’s creation.
