Join us as a Climate Leader Mentor volunteer!
Youth Challenge International is seeking diverse mentors to join our climate action network and support young social entrepreneurs and innovators who are making a tangible impact on climate change.
Youth Challenge International (YCI) is proud to offer the Youth Climate Leadership Program, a 6-month incubator program that supports youth Climate Leaders championing the climate movement as they build their own skills and community-based initiatives. Generously supported by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, this program is specially designed to enhance participants’ professional development skills while supporting their climate solutions. In October, we onboarded our first cohort of 30 Climate Leaders with their projects. Over the next 2 years, YCI will support 160 unique climate action projects led by young people through this programming.
As part of the program, Climate Leaders will receive comprehensive training on how to build leadership skills and strategically design sustainable, climate-focused projects while deepening their understanding of climate science, design thinking and traditional ecological knowledge. Climate Leaders will also have access to customized coaching and mentorship in addition to financial support to help grow their skills and climate initiatives.
What you’ll do:
- Support participants to uncover their own insights, deepen their learning and further develop their critical thinking abilities
- Draw on your own experiences that have led you to where you are, by sharing lessons learned or advice when appropriate
- Share resources and provide networking opportunities to mentees where possible by making valuable introductions
- Celebrate your mentees successes and help them navigate their failures
- Help keep your mentee motivated and accountable to their goals
What we’re looking for:
- You specialize in climate change issues, entrepreneurship, sustainable business or any other focus relevant to our Youth Climate Leadership Program.
- We are seeking a balanced mix of early, mid, and late-career professionals from various backgrounds that are able to contribute diverse perspectives, educational insights and lived experiences. There is no age limit on who can qualify as a mentor, and we encourage early-career individuals to get involved.
The details and time commitment:
- 5 virtual meetings with your assigned participant over 6 months (1 ‘get to know you’ intro meeting and 1 off-boarding conversation plus 3 project support sessions) – 5 hours
- Participation in mentor onboarding session – 1 hour
- Completion of 2-3 feedback surveys to share how the experience is going with your mentee – 1 hour
- Coordination with your mentee to schedule times for sessions or other ad-hoc communications (within parameters agreed to by you and mentee) – 1 hour
- Total Commitment = 8 hours over a 6 month period to mentor one participant
Our commitment to you:
- We respect and value the time, expertise and contribution of all of our volunteers and mentors To demonstrate this, our commitment to you is:
- We will always ask you to opt-in to mentoring in any given Climate Leader cohort (We are running 4 cohorts over the next two years)
- We will endeavour to match mentors with participants that align to their interests/geography/expertise wherever possible – if requested by the mentor
- We will always confirm a mentorship match with you before making a connection to a participant
- We will ask participants and mentors to sign a mentorship agreement that outlines expectations and roles of both mentors and participants to ensure everyone is aligned
- We want your mentorship relationship to be productive for both you and the mentee — if there are issues, we will be there to help troubleshoot and come to a resolution that meets both parties needs
Interested in getting involved?
YCI’s Youth Climate Leadership Program gives youth the opportunity to lead, create and implement community-based climate action initiatives thanks to funding from Ontario Trillium Foundation.
