2010 Brower Youth Awards :: Oct 19. San Francisco, CA.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Herbst Theater
401 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA
7:30 pm

Attend for free by RSVPing here.

For group reservations (10+ attendees) please email bya@earthisland.org

To purchase tickets to our VIP pre-reception 5:30-7:15 pm, go here.

Presented by Earth Island Institute's New Leaders Initiative.

For background, check out my post about last year's BYA Awards.

Bioneers Conference :: San Rafael, CA. Oct 15 - 17.

The annual Bioneers Conference, held each year in Marin County, just north of San Francisco, CA is coming up again.

I went through the program and picked out some things that I wouldn't want to miss, if I were going to Bioneers this year (which I am not):

Two panels:

Generation Ahead: New Legions of Activists Share How Leadership Is Inspired, Activated & Sustained
Join inspiring emerging leaders at the forefront of environmental and social change movements for a lively conversation. Moderated by Anisha Desai, Director of New Leaders Initiative and Brower Youth Awards at the Earth Island Institute. With Jessy Tolkan, Political Director of Green For All; Rachel Barge, Program Director of the Business Council on Climate Chnage; Shadia Fayne Wood, founder of Project Survival Media, a global network of youth journalists; and Annie Loya, Executive Director of Youth United for Community Action.


In The Groove: Cultural & Social Change Through The Power of Music
Music and the community it creates have shaped our culture and politics. Explore the cutting-edge of how musicians and music industry activists are catalyzing environmental and social change. With host Michael Martin, founder and CEO of Effect Partners and MusicMatters; Brian Allenby, General Manager of Reverb, a non-profit that engages musicians and their fans to promote environmental sustainablity; others TBA.



Documentary Films:

Living Downstream


If you're not going to Bioneers then check out the film screenings listing here.


Yert



Can't find a list of screenings for this film.


Play Again



List of screenings here.


Reporter



List of screenings here. Apparently it was on TV and I missed it ... bummer! I love Nicholas Kristof.

Ashoka Youth Venture Community Panel :: Berkeley, CA, Sat March 6

I'm coordinating HeadCount's outreach table at the Saturday night March 6 Galactic show at San Francisco's Fillmore. But my day will start off with this event - SUPER psyched for it!

Ashoka Youth Venture Community Panel
Brower Center - Goldman Theatre
2150 Allston Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
10am - 3pm

Youth teams will present their social ventures to a panel of local community members who will decide if they are ready to both receive up to $1,000 in seed funding and join the global Youth Venture Community.

The youth teams are incubating projects addressing a wide-range of issues: improving relations between youth and police in Oakland, CA; increasing access to fresh produce in West Oakland, CA; using hip hop to spread anti-violence messages; and adopting rural schools in the developing world.


photo: Youth Venture Team competing for the prize in Southern Indiana

At this event, attendees will also learn about a new partnership between The Earth Island Institute's New Leaders Initiative and Ashoka Youth Venture. The partnership will kick off this fall.

The New Leaders Initiative cultivates and supports bold environmental youth leadership and houses the Brower Youth Awards. Ashoka Youth Venture inspires and invests in teams of young people (aged 12-20) as they start and lead their own sustainable social ventures, connecting them into a powerful global network.

For more info about the Brower Youth Awards check out my previous posts about the Awards here. For more info about Ashoka check out these previous posts.

To RSVP for this free March 9 event go here.

The Real Food Challenge :: Making Waves Around the USA

I got involved in the Real Food Challenge's California student network after first learning about it from its co-founder, Hai Vo, a 2009 Brower Youth Award winner. I got to attend a workshop that Hai co-led at the 2009 California Student Sustainability Coalition Convergence at UC Santa Cruz.

From the Real Food Challenge Facebook page -

RFC is a nation-wide network of college students who want to see more food that is community based, fair, ecologically sound, and humane in our dining halls - food that we call "real." We are creating more student farms on our campuses, and demanding curriculum that educates about the importance of Real Food. We are working in solidarity with farmworkers and food service workers for fair working conditions and living wages. We are fighting to reduce the carbon footprint of our campus dining halls.

Here's the RFC's latest update - got this email message the other day:

The past month has been quite a whirlwind - 7 amazing Real Food events in just 3 weeks. In Montana, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, California, Massachusetts and Vermont, close to 600 young real food activists came together to learn, network, and plan campaigns that will reshape their communites' food landscape.


photo: SYFAS

Our first report is back: The Southeast Real Food Summit (aka the Southeast Youth Food Activist Summit, or SYFAS--pronounced "sigh-fess") was a big success. On a weekend with record-breaking snowfall, over 150 youth and allies made their way to UNC Chapel Hill. The big question: how do you get schools with thousands of students, spending millions of dollars on food, to invest in a truly just and sustainable food system?


photo: SYFAS

Watch your inboxes over the next week for highlights from our other events, and more about what's next for the youth food movement. For now: SYFAS!

Faithfully Yours,
The Real Food Challenge Administrative Team

p.s. Two friends from SYFAS were just in the news! Rob Jones of CROP MOB was in the New York Times. The entire University of Central Florida crew got the attention of a Florida newspaper for their hot "Honest Eats" campaign. Check 'em out!


photo: Crop Mob

From the New York Times article - The Crop Mob, a monthly word-of-mouth (and -Web) event in which landless farmers and the agricurious descend on a farm for an afternoon, has taken its traveling work party to 15 small, sustainable farms. Together, volunteers have contributed more than 2,000 person-hours, doing tasks like mulching, building greenhouses and pulling rocks out of fields.

“The more tedious the work we have, the better,” Jones said, smiling. “Because part of Crop Mob is about community and camaraderie, you find there’s nothing like picking rocks out of fields to bring people together.”

The affable, articulate Jones, 27, is part of the group’s grass-roots core, organizing events and keeping them moving. The Mob was formed during a meeting about issues facing young farmers, during which an intern declared that better relationships are built working side by side than by sitting around a table. So one day, 19 people went to Piedmont Biofarm and harvested, sorted and boxed 1,600 pounds of sweet potatoes in two and a half hours. A year later, the Crop Mob e-mail list has nearly 400 subscribers, and the farm fests now draw 40 to 50 volunteers.


For more info about the Real Food Challenge and how you can get involved in your community, go here

Brower Youth Awards now accepting Nominations & Apps for 2010 Class

I received this Facebook message today from the Brower Youth Awards:

We’re looking for six amazing leaders, ages 13-22, to award with a $3,000 cash prize, an all-expenses paid trip to San Francisco to speak at an inspirational award ceremony, media coverage, and ongoing leadership support. If you know someone looking to take their activism to the next level, this award can do it.

Apps are due on May 15, 2010. More info here.


photo: 4 of the 2009 Brower Youth Award recipients

For more info about the 2009 Award recipients and the Brower Youth Awards check out this October 2009 Pop Culture Activist blog post.

Ready to be Inspired?

photo: 2007 Brower Youth Awards winners @ the 2007 awards ceremony - Flikr NadineW.

Last Tuesday night I attended the 2009 Brower Youth Awards ceremony at San Francisco's Herbst Theater.

It was an AMAZING night!

The awards ceremony recognized and honored this year's winners of the Brower Youth Awards.

The annual Brower Youth Awards, established by the Earth Island Institute, honors six young people for their outstanding activism and achievements in the fields of environmental and social justice advocacy. Each winner is awarded $3000 and brought to San Francisco for the award week and a backcountry camping trip. The Brower Youth Awards not only promote the accomplishments of these young leaders but also invest in their continued success by providing ongoing access to resources, mentors, and opportunities to develop their leadership skills through Earth Island Institute’s New Leaders Initiative.



This year's winners are:

Robin Bryan, age 21 - from Winnipeg, MB
Robin helped save nearly one million acres of boreal forest from industrial logging.



Learn more about Ryan here.



Sierra Crane-Murdoch, age 21 - from Middlebury, VT
Sierra co-founded Power Past Coal to spotlight communities impacted by the mining, processing and burning of coal.



Learn more about Sierra here.



Alec Loorz, age 15 from Ventura, CA
Alec speaks to thousands about the impact of climate change on the next generation.



Learn more about Alec here.

Also check out an older blog post that I wrote about Alec, here.



Diana Lopez, age 20 - from San Antonio, TX
Diana co-created an organic garden at a site in San Antonio, Texas, as part of the struggle for environmental justice.



Learn more about Diana here.



Adarsha Shivakumar, age 16 - from Pleasant Hill, CA
Adarsha created Project Jatropha for a biofuel solution in rural India.



Learn more about Adarsha here.



Hai Vo, age 22 - from Irvine, CA
Hai Vo transformed the food purchasing and eating practices at universities across California.



Learn more about Hai here.


Rickshaw Films produced the short videos to introduce the rising eco stars and their work. These films were shown at the Brower Youth Awards ceremony.

In addition the films I really enjoyed the 2 performances by Youth Speaks. Founded in 1996, Youth Speaks is the leading nonprofit presenter of Spoken Word performance, education, and youth development programs in the country. Check out some of their work on the Youth Speaks YouTube channel.

California Student Sustainability Coalition Conference - November 6 - 8, 2009 @ UC Santa Cruz Campus

photo: Spring 2007 Convergence - Flickr CSSC.

Join Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange & the Green Festival, as well as students and young leaders from across California -- including Erica Fernandez, a Brower Youth Award (BYA) winner 2007, and Alec Loorz, Kids vs. Global Warming & BYA winner 2009 -- as we all come together to build community and organizing capacity amongst individuals, campuses, and campaigns in the student sustainability and campus greening movement. Share skills and resources, learn about what your peers are doing, network with other schools, and have fun!

2009 Student Sustainability Coalition Convergence (Conference) @ UC Santa Cruz Campus - Friday, November 6 - Sunday, November 8, 2009.

Check out the Convergence Schedule here.

Workshops available at the Convergence include topics like Real Food Challenge, On Campus Organizing and Water Justice, Eating the Power of your Plate, UCSC Campus Sustainability Plan/Campaign Strategies, Sustainable Consumerism, Power Shift: California to Copenhagen, Environmental Education for the Next Generation, Fair Food: Socially Just Farm Labor in America.

To register for the event (for a very reasonable fee; or apply for a scholarship) go here. Discount if you register by October 28th.

I attended the Spring 2009 Convergence at Cal Poly, and it was fantastic! I'm sure that this one at UC Santa Cruz will be great, too.


photo: by Ryan Andersen - Birds eye view of lunch during CSSC's Spring Convergence 2009 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.


The Convergences are organized by the California Student Sustainability Coalition - a project of the Earth Island Institute

Founded in 2003, the California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC) is made up of student organizations from all over California that collaborate to advance sustainability in all areas of human endeavor.

We are an active community of young leaders who are empowered to integrate sustainability into all aspects of our lives and work. Our goal is to catalyze and create life-affirming change in ourselves and the institutions we engage so that we can rise to the unprecedented challenges of the twenty-first century and thrive.

While we were founded in the University of California (UC) system, we are rapidly growing to include California State University (CSU) and California Community College (CCC) campuses, as well as private universities and even a handful of high schools.

You can sign up to receive their e-newsletter here, as well as read past editions of the e-newsletter.