[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbjabTS5kac]
Endearing, right? How can you not be moved by this kid’s passion for the environment?

At YEA Camp, we know that as a loving parent it warms your heart to see your kid display such enthusiasm for an important cause. We also know that it can be upsetting to see your child feel so helpless over wishing they knew how to make a difference.

Don’t fret, loving parents, at YEA Camp we specialize in empowering children and teenagers to make the world a better place. That’s why we’ve devised a helpful list so you can nurture your courageous kid’s activism.

1. Make It Fun

Look Ma, activism is a blast!

The cause itself may be super serious, but your kid’s fight for the cause doesn’t have to be.

Did someone say delicious vegan cupcakes? How about assisting your child in holding a bake sale to raise money for their cause?

I’ll have three, please! Okay, let’s make that four!

Tapping into their artistic or creative talents, using social media, or getting friends involved are other great ways to make activism fun. Your kid’s much more likely to stick with their activism if they have a good time doing it.

2. Connect With Organizations

Now that your child is inspired to care about a particular cause, it’s important that he or she understands that cause and sees how others are tackling the issue.

The best way to learn is by introducing them to respected organizations that are leading the way on their respective issue.

Don’t have time to do all that research? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a helpful cheat sheet of amazing organizations that are fighting for the environment, LGBT rights, human rights, animal rights and more.

3. Listen To Your Kids… Really Listen

Children are full of wisdom if parents take the time to listen to them, and we’ve got two epic examples of parents who do just that.

In this first video, a young child in Nepal finds out that his parents are taking his beloved goat to be slaughtered, so he does everything in his power to get his parents to spare the animal’s life. His tenacity and kindness are an inspiration to behold. Imagine the trauma if his parents had ignored his pleas.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwIK7cjfVpg]
In this second viral video, a toddler in Brazil has a heartfelt debate with his mother at the dinner table about the ethics of killing and eating other animals. His points are both innocent and poignant, as only a child can articulate.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrU03da2arE]
These videos aren’t depicting children throwing bratty tantrums. These kids are sensitive souls who realize that the adults around them are harming animals, and it upsets them. The parents are respectful enough to listen to their children’s merciful pleas and agree not to harm the animals. These are beautiful moments of compassion caught on camera.

Whatever issues inspire your kids to express their passion, your support empowers them to think for themselves and to pursue their compassionate nature to be a caring person.

4. Introduce Them To A Mentor

Say hi to Shelby!

A great way to learn about a subject is to seek guidance from someone who specializes in that field. Help your child find an expert who’s willing to advise them on their journey of discovery.

This is an area in which we really pride ourselves at YEA Camp. Our talented staff is comprised of highly qualified professionals with teaching credentials and expertise in youth development, as well as accomplished former campers like Shelby, with much wisdom to impart. We give each camper the counseling they need to get their activism off to the right start.

5. Join Them!

Joyce & her mother Mildred on their way to the People’s Climate March. What an inspiring team!

What better way to encourage your budding activist than to join them in their activism? Not only can this make it more fun (see #1) and double their impact, but it also creates a supportive family culture, where it’s understood that people care about others and stand up for what they believe in. Plus, you’ll definitely have more to talk about at the dinner table than what they learned (or didn’t learn) in school.

6. Well, Join Them… Within Reason

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Fg61KWing]
No kid wants their parent hanging out with them all the time. Give them space to follow their passion independently as well. Sometimes that could mean just giving them a ride somewhere, helping them manage their schedule, or asking if they need any help.

7. Say, “Yes, You Can,” Not “No, You Can’t”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdCbYflyD68]
See all those demoralizing insults Simon Cowell spewed at aspiring singers on “American Idol”? As a parent, do the opposite.

If your kid tells you that he or she wants to reduce homelessness in your town, don’t discourage them with details about how difficult it’s going to be. Celebrate that they care about such a crucial cause, and help them set goals for bringing about that change. Twelve-year-old Megan has raised thousands of dollars with her school club for homeless people in Boston.

Kids need someone to tell them to dream big, and to help them strive for their goals, not set low expectations.

8. Help Them Believe In Themselves

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DIETlxquzY]
All too often our worst enemy is ourselves. Kids can be really hard on themselves, shooting down their own great plans before they’ve even given them a try, because they’re afraid they’re not up to the task. As their parent, you can give them the confidence they need to tackle any undertaking, no matter how impossible it may seem.

Providing a safe and loving home environment, encouragement in their endeavors, as well as support, perspective and understanding when things don’t go as planned.

9. Set A Positive Example

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zoS2IfXRW4]
Be the type of person who rescues a baby elephant who is stuck in a mud hole. Your kids will be better people with a role model like that. Whether it’s rescuing an animal (have you noticed we like animals at YEA Camp?), donating money to a nonprofit or candidate, volunteering, or conserving, the lessons your kids learn from watching you will last a lifetime.

10. Teach Intersectionality

This one’s a Level 5 on the empowerment scale, but it’s important to note that oppressive institutions—racism, sexism and so on—are interconnected and you’ll expand your child’s understanding of the world by helping them make those connections.

Does your child care about the environment? Great! Teach him or her the ways in which pollution disproportionately affects poor people and people of color, or how the environment is negatively impacted by the meat industry.

Does your child want to stop bullying? Fantastic! Teach him or her about how LGBT youth are nearly twice as likely to be bullied than their non-LGBT peers.

We need the next generation of advocates to be aware of the interconnection of the many different issues we face and to be allies for these different causes.

Best Parent Of The Year!

Thank you for being your kid’s greatest champion! We need more brave young change-makers in this world, and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

You’ve raised a compassionate kid who wants to make a difference. It would be our great honor at YEA Camp to meet your wonderful young activist (the camp is open to kids ages 12-17) and guide him or her to follow their dreams. At YEA Camp, they’ll be surrounded by like-minded peers and adults who want to help them, and they’ll develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to take action on what really matters to them.

Follow the above tips (and send your kids to YEA Camp or nominate someone who you know would love it!), and they’ll be well on their way to achieving great things, because any parent should support a kid who’d really rather visit a broccoli farm than support animal abuse at the circus.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7yMZGA2lzg]

The post 10 Ways Parents Can Empower Their Courageous Child Activist appeared first on YEA Camp.

Some updates about YEA Camp 2014:

• 

  YEA Camper Madison (left) at a school event she organized to raise awareness about LGBTQ issues

  We are expanding to bigger venues in all of our locations, and yet with camp still 3 months away, our camps are a quarter of the way full. We have seen a real increase in awareness and interest in our program across the country this year and appreciate your help spreading the word!

• We are excited to be creating some powerful new curriculum for our post-camp mentorship program to provide added support to campers throughout the year and to help them take more strategic action.

• 

  Ana, a future YEA Camper!

  Thanks to the generous support of donors like you, we have already offered scholarships to several outstanding campers like Ana (left), who are so excited to be coming to YEA Camp! Ana had this to say about YEA:

“I am very active in the activist community in San Diego, but would like to find teens with similar ideologies as me. I want to learn how to successfully campaign and convey my knowledge of issues that I am passionate about to others. From extensive research on YEA Camp, I believe that it was created with teens like me in mind.” -Ana, age 14, San Diego

Ana is right! YEA Camp was created with teens like Ana in mind, and we are so greatful to our donors that we can offer amazing young people like her a chance to attend our life-changing program. We will continue our commitment to never turn applicants away for financial reasons.

Some recent exciting developments to report:

• We have hired a highly successful PR firm to work with us on getting some big media for our program! This means more campers, supporters, and demand for further expanding program.

• We have been accepted for a consulting project grant through the Oregon Organization Development Network! We are working with ODN’s amazing team of consultants to strengthen our strategic plans for long-term growth.

• We have been working with a grant writer and have submitted five proposals, with more in the works, to increase funding to our program. Being awarded any of these carefully chosen grants will help us expand our efforts to reach more young people wanting to bring about change in their communities.

• We have just hired our second paid year-round staff person! This is huge for us and we are so excited to be able to increase our capacity with more program support!

• Check out this great article about us in Metro Parent Magazine: “Camp Can Change the World!” P. 35

This is shaping up to be a great year for us and we are already realizing many of our goals and dreams. Our three camps in 2014 will have 100 teens and over 40 staff members. We can’t wait to get started!

If you don’t already, follow what we are up to on Facebook and in our e-newsletter. And if you know a young person who you think would be perfect for YEA Camp, please share our website with them! www.yeacamp.org

The post YEA Camp Spring Update! 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.

The post Youth Activists Declare Rio+20 Conference on Climate Change a Failure appeared first on YEA Camp.

Young social entrepreneurs and leaders in countries across the globe convene in annual summits (the next one in Pittsburgh is in October 2012) and in global days of action.

This week OYW hosted a “Wake Up Call” day of action on February 21st. Youth leaders across the globe called on their political leaders to take action for jobs, the environment, accountability, equality, healthcare, and education.

For more information or to get involved with One Young World, visit their website or their Wake Up Call action website.

The post International Youth Activism Highlight: One Young World appeared first on YEA Camp.