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Youth

Helping young people help us adapt

The Climate Centre supports young people everywhere who are engaging in critically important local and global climate action, as part of the Red Cross Red Crescent strategy on youth-led climate action.

The Climate Centre recognises the key role children and young people play in ensuring we do not suffer the consequences of a worsening climate. Filled with energy, youth across the world are ready to act, and on an unprecedented scale.

Millions of young people have expressed their concerns about climate change; and more than ever, they are listened to. Youth have drawn more public attention to climate change in months than than their elders have in the same number of years.

Our youth engagement, then, is essentially threefold: focusing on increasing awareness, engaging in practical action and enabling meaningful advocacy. 

Key documents and links

Y-Adapt:
Session plans for printing (Zip file)
Session plans for printing (French language) (Zip file)
Specialist session plans: Experience the environment
NEW: Specialist session plans: Water edition (Spanish, Arabic)
NEW: Water and youth campaign, exercises
Training videos

Other links:
IFRC youth engagement landing page
IFRC youth policy
Climate Training Kit
Internships
Children’s climate cards

Y-Adapt

Our flagship youth programme, Y-Adapt, is broken down into seven curriculum sessions, all available to download from the links in the box above: Introduction, the Climate Change Challenge, Map the Hazard, See the System, Act to Adapt, Choose your challenge, Join the Y-Adapt community, and a specialist session, Experience the Environment.

It helps young people understand climate change and take practical action to adapt to a changing climate in their community; there is also a special module for young people in our Climate Training Kit. (See also the link to the training videos at the bottom of this page.)

(Left, Y-Adapt with young volunteers of the Guatemala Red Cross.)

Youth climate survey
Survey

Youth climate survey

We are surveying young staff and volunteers between six and 30 from all over the world asking them to tell us how they are contributing to the strategy on climate action by youth, and here is the exciting part: three lucky winners will receive a 500-euro prize to put towards youth-led climate action with their National Society.

But hurry! The survey closes on 15 December with winners announced next month. (The three dots on the survey landing page take you to options in Arabic, simplified Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog and Urdu.)

Complete the survey

Strategy

With the IFRC we launched the Red Cross Red Crescent strategy on youth-led climate action on 22 April, Earth Day, 2022, created by and for young people.

A series of international consultations, surveys, and virtual engagements were held, and the strategy in available in Arabic, English, French and Spanish.

We are now collecting stories of action from youth across the globe to monitor the implementation of this strategy. Want to be inspired? Take a look at the world map below (extract) and click the link to register and add your humanitarian initiative.

Youth action worldwide

The Youth Advisory Group

The Climate Centre Youth Advisory Group on Climate works to expand the enthusiasm for youth-led climate action across the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, and advise on the implementation of its strategy for such action.

The group, which is being expanded in 2023, also supports regional contributions to the annual Red Cross Red Crescent climate and youth summit, promotes climate action through an online community, acts as focal point for the IFRC Youth Commission, and advises the Climate Centre’s own programme management team.

It comprises six Red Cross or Red Crescent staff or volunteers, aged 18 to 30, from each of the six IFRC regions. The founder members are (alphabetically from top left):  Ana Gabriela, Adnan Khan, Doris Mwikali, Hayley Payne, Marc Tilley, Saad Uakkas.

News story
Event

Climate and YOUth Summit

The third Climate and YOUth Summit on 16 November 2023 connected young people from around the world to explore connections and synergies from across different regions; more than 700 registered to attend. Through discussions, skills-based workshops and examples of work, it provided space to catalyse connection and inspire action for young people already engaging in climate action or looking for an entry point. Click the button below for the agenda and here for the full programme.

2023 agenda
Climate and YOUth Summit
Video

Y-Adapt training

This video, the first of a series of nine, will help you when preparing to facilitate Y-Adapt sessions.

Training video collection