4-28-22

We had a fine meeting, Zooming with Ollie Mae (Easthampton, MA), founder of Youth Climate Action Now. Kevin, Kevin & Millie were there, and took notes to share on Monday.

Highlights:

1. Ollie Mae (cc'd) is the lead organizer of Youth Climate Action Now (YCAN), which started last year. She has been doing youth climate action since she was 11 (she's now 15). She's homeschooled and lives in Easthampton on an organic farm. There are about 5 main organizers of YCAN right now, but they've had events that drew as many as 90 people.

2. YCAN is hosting a Climate Poetry event on Monday. If we know any students who would want to travel to Easthampton, read related poems, and connect with other poets and youth activists (hopefully AFTER our own meeting with Mr. Donovan), reach out to Ollie Mae:

3. Ollie Mae has also reached out to apply to the the Massachusetts Youth Climate Coalition. There are forms that need filling out - big process to join. We'll see what Damon learns from his outreach there.

4. Ollie Mae has connected with Marisol from Sunrise Amherst and is working on a "Youth Empowerment Workshop" for the Sunrise Summit / Festival, possibly before the end of the school year. We should stay in touch and show up in force, once we know when that is.

Kevin asked a great question -- "What did you wish you knew when you were just starting out?" and Ollie Mae said it was that young people can do all of this themselves, when the older allies step back. We were a bit "deer in the headlights" today, this being our first outreach meeting, but we were very inspired and look forward to growing into our agency (sense of our own power and ability to do things).

Resources Ollie Mae shared:

• The YCAN Website, where events details are shared: https://sites.google.com/view/ycanupcomingevents/home

• The YCAN Instagram page, where they do most of their organizing: https://www.instagram.com/youth_climate_action_now

• The attached Youth Climate Leaders Toolkit, developed by Mass Audubon. This can be really helpful to us!