Well, with our first session of Virtual YEA Camp, we found out! And we couldn’t be more proud or excited for what we accomplished.

First, our campers did so much activism!

In less than 5 days, they raised (that we know of) $3,696 for the organizations of their choice (including Charlie’s Acres, Color of Change, Equal Justice Initiative, Greenpeace, Lambda Legal, and the San Francisco SPCA), registered or reminded 1, 294 people to vote absentee (by mail), and made 81 advocacy phone calls to decision makers! Incredible!

In a supportive community, working with other youth passionate about the same cause and with the mentorship of one of our amazing staff members — all of whom are past YEA Campers who have gone on to do tons of really impressive activism themselves — our campers achieved things they never expected they could, and they did it in such a short period of time!

We also did so many fun activities, from a yoga class and a vegan cooking class to a scavenger hunt and a pet cuteness contest! (It was an all-way tie!)

We got such great feedback from campers we thought we’d share a few of their comments from our anonymous evaluations.

It’s not too late to sign up!

Do you know any youth ages 10-17 who want to make our world a better place?

We still have 3 weeks left of YEA Camp sessions with amazing guest speakers, super fun activities, and lots of activism and inspiration making a difference on the cause of your choice.

Our incredible staff will be here supporting you along the way!

The upcoming sessions are:

• Exploring the Issues – July 20-24
• Amplifying Your Message – July 27-31
• Careers for Changemakers – August 3-7

In this upcoming week 2, some things we’re really looking forward to:

• amazing guest speakers like Genesis Butler, Julia Clark, and Zoe Weil
• a vegan Mexican cuisine cooking class with celebrity vegan chef Eddie Garza
• a dance class with a celebrity guest dance teacher and choreographer, SuzE Q
• a virtual visit to Farm Sanctuary to spend time with the animals

It’s not too late to register, so if you’re 10-17 years old and want to make our world a better place, join us for a week (or 2 or 3) that will help you make a difference for the future!

Details and get registered at www.YEACamp.org.

The post Virtual YEA Camp Is Officially a Success! appeared first on YEA Camp.

Yet, there is so much positivity happening as well.

Our inspiring campers — and the amazing things you have helped make possible through supporting them — are telling a different story.

SO MUCH ACTIVISM!

In the months since YEA Camp, our campers have done so much to impact their schools and communities and to speak out for what’s important to them. We will be sharing much more in the coming weeks and months, but here is just a small sampling of inspiring things our campers have done.

Fourteen-year-old YEA Camper Lauren in California turned heads at school and showed her support for Planned Parenthood by participating in the #PinkOut campaign. Her sign read “I #PinkOut for Planned Parenthood to fight back against attacks on reproductive rights. Join me! #StandwithPP today!” Go Lauren!

Thirteen-year-old Gaby from New York wanted to go to a march about police brutality in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign but knew she wasn’t going to be able to make it — so she did the next best thing. She leafleted about it at her school — and TWO TEACHERS AND FIVE OF HER FRIENDS went as a result of finding out about it from her! Go Gaby!

Ananya from New Jersey was recently named Greenpeace’s Volunteer in the Spotlight, featured on Greenpeace’s home page! Just 12 years old, Anaya gathered students at her school to participate in Greenpeace’s Climate Ribbon Project. The students created 160 ribbons for the upcoming COP21 climate change conference in Paris to show international leaders that youth care about our environment. Go Ananya!

Over a dozen YEA Campers from across the country fundraised and participated in Farm Sanctuary’s Walk for Farm Animals, including this group of campers who marched for YEA Camp in New York. After the walk, the campers had a mini reunion at a neighborhood veg restaurant! Love!

Fourteen-year-old Orianna from a conservative part of California convinced a teacher at her old elementary school to let her teach a weekly class about gender and stereotypes! The class has been going great, and Orianna has been reaching out to our YEA Camp community for curriculum ideas and tips. So far, she has taught lessons about gender as depicted by the media, which toys are meant for boys or girls and why, privilege, and more. Amazing! Go Orianna!

Ashley from Oregon, 16, recently started an Embody Love Club, as part of Embody Love Movement, which she first learned about at YEA Camp. The club helps promote positive body image and self esteem.

Ashley also writes for her school newspaper about social issues, and she is publishing a book that is a collection of literature entirely written by youth! If you know a teen who is interested in contributing, check it out here. Wow, Ashley!

As we reflect on all we have to be grateful for, we wanted you to see just a fraction of what you have helped make possible.

THANK YOU.

YEA Camp is made possible by so many people who contribute their time, money, heart, and energy to this labor of love, helping young people make a bigger difference on causes that matter so much.

We will be announcing our 2016 dates and opening up registration for next summer, as well as sharing some exciting new plans, very soon. In the meantime, THANK YOU for everything you do to make our world a better place!

The post So much to be thankful for and inspired by! appeared first on YEA Camp.

Her speech asked world leaders to create a world where children can grow up free of hunger, war, poverty, and pollution.

Twenty years later, environmental activists at the Rio+20 Earth Summit confront the failure of world governments to realize these goals. Severn Cullis-Suzuki once again delivered a speech, this one a crowd-sourced speech delivered on the same themes she spoke of 20 years ago.

With the conclusion of the summit, environmental and youth activists around the world have had to confront just how large that failure is. The summit produced lukewarm, vague goals that do not move the world any closer to the one envisioned by Suzuki 20 years ago.

On June 22nd, the UN Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY) issued their closing remarks on the Rio+20, opening with this statement: “I want you to imagine a generation that has been damned, imagine children deprived of a world without war, imagine a community where human beings are slaves to fellow beings and where disease and hunger are the order of the day. That is the future we warned you of in 92 and that future, is today.”

The need for youth and citizens to take their future into their own hands is the theme of their statement, and the theme of messages from many organizations from Greenpeace to 350.org to Oxfam.

“Rio+20 has been a failure of epic proportions,” Said Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo. “The only outcome of this summit is justifiable anger, an anger that we must turn into action.”

The takeaway message for youth activists, or activists of any age, is that creating a “world we want” cannot be left to governments or corporations, but must come down to us.

The closing words of the MGCY sum it up perfectly:

“So we will move forward for you.

We know this:
We need intergenerational cooperation.
We need innovation and creativity.
We need to embrace the values of sustainability, equity, justice and respect for human rights.
We need to recognise that material resources are finite, but human potential is not.

So get out of our way and..

We will create strong global institutions
We will create new paradigms of wealth and prosperity
We will act as the voice for future generations, one that you so wilfully ignored.
We will stand united beyond borders and bridge the national interests that divide us
We will implement what you have not.

We are moving forward decisively with action. We are not deterred.”

If you are someone who wants to be a part of the growing global movement to take action to bring about a better world, there is no better place to be than YEA Camp this summer! Join us for a week of activism training and making like-minded friends who care as much as you do. Camp is fast approaching, so visit www.yeacamp.org today for details on our camps in Oregon, California, and New Jersey.

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