Youth to lead environmental change

By Adam Norris, Bellingen Shire News - April 25, 2023

Each Tuesday throughout May and June, young people across the Bellingen Shire will have the opportunity to develop their environmental leadership skills in the Change Makers after-school program.

Developed by OzGREEN and held between 4pm and 5:30pm at the Coffs Harbour Botanical Gardens, this free program is followed by the Youth Leading the World two-day congress held on July 12th and 13th.

19-year-old OzGREEN Youth Activities Coordinator Sam Daykin believes that the best way to encourage environmental stewardship amongst youth is to first forge engaging, entertaining connections with the natural world.

“Young people can know and understand a lot of things, but until we experience it, it’s hard to build that passion for it. I think even though Bellingen is quite green, and a lot of people do care,

“I think building on those connection can really strengthen that passion. That’s the question we’re helping to answer – why do we care about the environment?”

While OzGREEN’s youth programs generally target people aged twelve to twenty-five, the Change Makers program is designed for a slightly younger demographic.

Kids aged ten to sixteen will have the opportunity to develop a range of skills related to conservation, sustainability and leadership.

“Each week has a theme. For example, one week will be the fashion industry, where we work on upcycling some of our old clothes with natural dying techniques.

“You [transform] an ugly t-shirt into something beautiful and with no waste, which is the main reason we’re looking at doing that. There’s also cooking with solar ovens, which is a great way for young people to see there are different ways of doing everyday tasks.”

“The program itself is running in two parts. Stage One of the program, which runs through the second term of school, is focused on building that connection with the environment, and the Second Stage in term three follows into asking, ‘What can you see yourself doing to care for the environment?’”

“So after going through and building these skills together as a group and [deciding] how they want to protect the environment, OzGREEN will then support those young people in doing that or get external people to come in and do courses with them.”

While the Change Makers program is a unique opportunity for youth-driven change, it is not the only local pathway to nature-based education.
There are a variety of hands-on events and workshops OzGREEN will be running throughout the year, including Gumbaynggirr talks, mental health skill-building, bird identification walks, and more.

“We’re doing activities like water-testing kayak trips, because it’s not only fun but you’re learning something as well.

“We’re doing macro-invertebrate studies, looking at these little bugs in the river and playing games around that to see just how much life there is in that river you’re swimming in.

“We’re also looking at doing a tree-planting festival, which is focused on learning about land conservation in a fun way. We’ve got a lot up our sleeves at the moment.”

Sam is hoping to encourage a large number of the Shire’s youth to attend the Change Maker program, and OzGREEN are willing to offer assistance in organising car-pools to the Botanical Gardens for those who might otherwise struggle to participate.

Change Makers is held from May 2nd to June 27th every Tuesday from 4pm to 5.30pm

To find out more, visit www.ozgreen.org/changemakers