12. c. Honor and support the young people of our communities, enabling them to fulfill their essential role in creating sustainable societies.
Earth Charter
For the second year in a row, Earth Charter International (ECI) Secretariat and Youth Action for Change (YAC) collaborated in offering a five-week short course entitled, “Youth Leadership, Sustainability and Ethics.” Due to the success of the first ECI and YAC short course last year, over 350 applications were received and 45 participants were selected. The course took place between October and November.
Upon completion of the first ’Youth Leadership, Sustainability and Ethics’ short course last year, the core group of participants continued to meet independently online and eventually formed the Earth Charter Youth Task Force (YTF) . YTF is a group of international youth working together online to promote the Earth Charter globally among all young people. The Earth Charter Youth Task Force is open to everyone!
To read YTF’s goals and objectives, click here.
Course Description:
The problems of today’s world are more complex than ever. They are highly interconnected and interdependent. We face climate change, vast exploitation of natural resources, population growth, growing gap between rich and poor, social inequity, among many others. To be able to respond to these challenges future leaders need a new and innovative interdisciplinary approach.
This short course aims to support the participants to identify their role as leaders for a more sustainable future and to help them to learn what the common, global values are. The aim is that after the course the participants are aware of the principles for sustainability and they will comprehend how those can be used as a tool on an individual and organizational level. The course drives for positive change in participants’ everyday lives and attempts to create a sense of global responsibility.
The ultimate aim of this short-course is to further develop the skills and capabilities necessary to conduct Earth Charter inspired action projects in the participants’ own communities and link the participants with the wider youth community working for more sustainable future.
Course dates and times:
- Week 1–October 18th-Ocotber 24th– Getting to know the Earth Charter
- Week 2–October 25-October 31st — The Earth Charter and Sustainable Development
- Week 3–November 1st-November 7th— Youth Sustainability & Leadership
- Week 4—November 8th-November 14th — Learning from Successful Projects
- Week 5—November 15th — Planning for Sustainable Action Projects inspired by the Earth Charter
At the close of the course, a total of 20 participants completed all of the assignments and final projects and will receive a YAC and ECI certificate for a job well done. This group of participants was very active and passionate about creating sustainable change within their communities, and this was extremely evident in their final project presentations, which can be found here, as well as all of the recordings from all five sessions. The hope is that these participants will become the next Earth Charter leaders to lead our future generations towards a more sustainable world!