Logo with three puzzle shaped speech bubbles on the left each with mountains, a city skyline, plants, and people reaching for the sky depicted. The works Youth Climate Innovation Lab to the right.
Read the Program Report (2022-2024)

The Youth Climate Innovation Lab is a cohort-based program for youth ages 18-30 living across Metro Vancouver to collaborate with municipalities, civic institutions and community organizations while learning, upskilling and creating bold actions to address climate challenges and advance a just transition.

Overview

The Youth Climate Innovation Lab explores the intersection of your passions, interests and unique experiences within the climate movement and alongside a committed group of community partners. Climate issues are part of a much larger system that includes health, wellness, economics, housing and social needs within communities. We know that climate conversations cannot just be had in isolation – they draw on principles of justice, equity, and decolonization, as well as the impacts felt across a variety of social, economic and environmental levels. Tackling the climate crisis requires all kinds of young people – artists, athletes, engineers, young professionals, and everything in between – to be a part of the movement and climate solutions.

This program takes a whole system approach and supports you in building a set of practical skills and tools that you can use to take climate action in your own community (arts or music, work, school, faith community, sports team, etc.) as you continue to take steps towards collective action. 

Building on CityHive’s prior innovation labs and a holistic evaluation of the most recent three year program cycle of the Envirolab (2019 – 2022), the YCIL was born of three key needs: 

  1. Municipalities and institutions need broad-based support from residents to pass and implement climate action plans. This requires meaningful engagement opportunities and ongoing relationships with key leaders and decision makers to build up the knowledge of the community on key issues being brought forward. 
  2. Youth are feeling more climate anxious than ever before and require spaces to build, develop and test the skills they need to take climate action. They also need meaningful opportunities to provide direct input into climate policies/plans, including opportunities for dialogue and discussion with key decision makers.
  3. Youth and municipalities need co-creative spaces for climate action to build lasting and impactful climate solutions. There need to be opportunities that place youth and decision-makers in the same room at the same table, centering on youth lived experience and perspectives to inform new directions for climate action.

This program encourages its participants to remain curious while rooting learning in practical  experiences. Following CityHive’s Knowledge-to-Action Framework, this learning journey allows local youth leaders to dive deep into exploring climate issues and challenges while applying a strong municipal and civic focus. Building on this knowledge, youth will work alongside their peers and a project partner to tackle a complex climate challenge, flexing their civic engagement muscles and applying the skills they have learned along the way. 

Learn more about the first cohort here. 

A photo of a room full of young people sitting at tables.
A photo of a room of young people sitting in rows and looking out of frame to the left. Two young people in focus in the middle of the room are smiling and clapping.

THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS

This program wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of:

This program wouldn’t be possible without the guidance and support or our steering committee:

The logos for the Vancouver Economic Commissions, the Social Purpose Institutes at United Way, OneEarth, the Community Energy Association, Climate Caucus, the City of Vancouver Climate Emergency, and the City of Coquitlam.