The Changemakers 2018 Fall Gathering Youth Planning Team. (Courtesy of Olivia Griset)
BRUNSWICK — A youth-led environmental education organization based in Brunswick will be able to draw more young people who are “unlocking innovation” across the state, thanks to a $25,000 Underwriters Laboratories Innovative Education Award.
The Maine Environmental Education Association’s Changemakers program is a statewide, youth-led initiative geared toward young people between the ages of 15 and 30 who are passionate about the environment, according to Executive Director Olivia Griset. The young people are paired with peer and professional mentors to provide training and resources to support environmental activism in their communities.
The program was selected for the award for its ability to “build collaborative environmental education networks reaching both urban and rural areas across Maine,” allowing students to “receive support and resources to further implement critical environmental projects, community service and groundbreaking initiatives to build sustainable solutions for their communities,” said Cara Gizzi, vice president of education and outreach at Underwriters Laboratories.
Changemakers are “true leaders in the field as they integrate social justice, equity and continue to break down barriers to find innovative opportunities to engage diverse stakeholders and empower youth to take the lead and drive change,” she said.
The award will help fund smaller projects that may only need a few hundred dollars to get off the ground, as well as transportation to and from larger networking and training events in the region and across the country. The award also includes them into a larger network of award winners throughout the country, giving them the chance to collaborate on projects and share ideas.
With this award, the Changemakers also will be able to expand its current program offerings, such as its climate community action project and increase paid fellowships as they look to “gain more members from rural, isolated areas.”
The program can connect someone on a small island with someone in Washington County, she said, “combatting the deep isolation that young people who are really passionate about environmental work” are sometimes feeling.
The decision to extend the definition of “youth” to people in their 30s was intentional, as she said there are often lots of programs for people in high school and college, but once people reach their early 20s and beyond, the services drop off, even though young professionals have a lot of creativity to offer.
“We’re bringing people together across differences who wouldn’t normally be in conversation with each other,” Griset said, and “focusing on the generation of creative ideas.”
There are “brilliant young people who are so passionate about Maine being a healthy place to live,” she said.
For example, Amara Ifeji from Bangor has won awards for her work “Testing the Effectiveness of Mycorrhizae in the Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals from Stormwater,” and is now leading trainings for other people who want to learn how to test the content and quality of water in their communities, Griset said.
It is important for young people to have their voices heard in discussions and decisions about the environment, she added, and Changemakers helps them use that voice to find networking opportunities in Maine so that hopefully they may stay in the state.
“It’s really exciting,” Griset said of their work and the award.
It is important for Changemakers and the Maine Environmental Education Association as a whole to work on building a network of people who are aware of how their health and the health of the natural world are connected, she said. “The way you live and move through the world impacts the world.”
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