Young people in the Comox Valley will soon get a chance to do something about the climate crisis, and get paid doing it.
Youth Climate Corps B.C. (YCCBC) is partnering with the City of Courtenay to give local youth a chance to do something about the climate crisis, while building their skills and working on their career in the Green economy.
"Climate justice is everything," the YCCBC website says. "Lifting up the voices of those who most acutely feel the impacts of climate change will be the only way to effectively meet the challenge of addressing the climate emergency."
YCCBC Program Director Natalie Gerum explained that the "Youth Climate Corps BC is a nonprofit, a provincial nonprofit that works to create good climate jobs for young folks ages 17 to 30 across B.C.
"We work to develop transferable career skills that they can take into other avenues and other jobs that they have and they're looking to have in the green economy," she said.
The way they do that is by partnering with local governments and First Nations. They hire local youth and essentially provide additional workforce to help get local climate projects done.
"The work we do is not make work projects," Gerum said. "These are actually real initiatives that need to happen to make places more resilient. But there's also the youth leadership development in aspect and the career skills development aspect."
"What's also so critical is that young folks coming together with other young folks to do the work," she added. "knowing how eco-anxiety is impacting folks in that age group and that they are going to live a very different version of the climate crisis than we are currently. They're going to be more impacted ... actually nurturing hope through action and work is something that we've seen and I think research backs up as being one of the most effective strategies for that kind of youth mental health and well-being piece."
The program is modelled on previously-existing youth service programs like Katimavik and Canada World Youth. However, in the YCCBC model, they recognize that unemployment among young people in B.C. is quite high, and want to give local young people the chance to make a living wage while helping their own communities.
YCCBC and the City of Courtenay will asking local non-profits and organizations to submit proposals for work the youth will be able to do.
"In the next couple weeks, the City of Courtenay will invite local organizations interested in working with YCCBC to submit project proposals," city staff said in an email to the Record. "YCCBC can provide support for projects that advance climate change mitigation and/or adaption within the Comox Valley. They are looking forward to working with a combination of volunteer organizations, registered non-profits, public organizations, social enterprises, and agricultural producers.YCCBC is interested in supporting a variety of projects to provide local young people with diverse experience in climate action work."
The employees will then work in various fields through the summer to get skills across the board that can be transferred to other jobs in the climate sector.
"It can be really hard to enter the green economy and the green sector," Gerum said. "We're trying to give folks kind of that avenue in that they can run with then after the program ... with economic uncertainty happening in a very particular ways right now, giving folks the chance to make a living wage ... feels really important."
The job postings for the program are currently open, and will be until April 6. The two leading coordinator positions will be closing next week (March 26). To apply, visit the . The program launches in May.
