Update / Amber Urgency Alert regarding Summer Program and Grant Initiative

Folks:

I guess that wasn't the "starter's gun" I heard the other morning. Anyway, you might wish to consider it next year, at which time you could imagine the possibilities that might have taken place in 2005. If you have any thoughts about "what" that might have looked like you could share them here. I would be interested anyway. Perhaps the invitation to Sol Conference 2006 in Atlanta wasn't too far off the mark as we had speculated earlier. Sounds about right to me now.

Best,

Jim

Looks like they started without us (not so).

Hi there,
As you know at the SoL Sustainability Forum this past October, the
Sustainability Corsortium reached out to begin a Youth Leadership Program.
The excitment to create more and to help develop a memorable experience for
Youth Leaders continues within the group. Carol Gorelick and I have been
called to action to see if we can make a richer and deeper youth oriented
program happen. Since we returned home we've been working on a proposal
for a summer camp - our goal is to make this happen for the summer 2005 which
we believe is aggressive but doable. Based on my respect of you I am hoping
you can join us at least in the beginning to help sculpt and mold the program.
I am looking at a few days for an hour conference call because we will have
a few Youth Leaders on the call we will nee dto hold all conference calls
after school hours. Please let me know if you can join us.

The dates are:
Nov. 17 after 5 e.s.t.
Nov. 18 after 5 e.s.t.
Nov 22 after 5 e.st.

The beginning strawman mission is as follows:

PURPOSE:

To establish a Youth and Education Sustainability summer camp within the
SoL Sustainability Consortium so that we can bring selected Youth Leaders
from around the world to build an active youth community that applies
organizational learning principles to the next generation in a way that
leverages the experience and research developed over the 5 years of the
Sustainability Consortium existence and builds on the current momentum to
address social issues related to sustainability.

Will we bring Youth Leaders from around the globe to engage in
collaborative projects with supporting Consortium Organizations in a way
that raises awareness and increases action so that we transform the
environmental footprint of today
Renee M. Kaspar
4 Westland Street
Watertown, MA 02472
617.924.8714
renee.kaspar@verizon.net


Hi Renee:

I just learned of your e-mail yesterday regarding the development of a Sol Youth Summer Camp initiative in our Sunday Youth Communications Focus Group meeting at the observatory via Katelyn Smith. I asked her to forward me your e-mail to review. We would all like to join you in your conference call this afternoon if that is still possible (Time? We are getting together at 4:30Pm EST). Our phone number here is 248-335-4791. Please let me know if this is possible. Additionally, if you have any additional pertinent information (or encapsulation of same) emanating from your pervious meetings and/or an agenda for today’s call, that you deem necessary to our fuller understanding, please forward and I will cover before the call with our youth participants.

We are very excited about the possibilities this represents.

Much continued success.

Best,

Jim Ross, Director
McMath-Hulbert Observatory


Youth and Education for Sustainability Camp Retreat


PURPOSE:

To establish a Youth and Education Sustainability summer camp within the SoL Sustainability Consortium so that we can bring selected Youth Leaders from around the world to build an active youth community that applies organizational learning principles to the next generation in a way that leverages the experience and research developed over the 5 years of the Sustainability Consortium’s existences and builds on the current momentum to address social issues related to sustainability.

We will bring Youth Leaders from around the globe to engage in collaborative projects with supporting Consortium Organizations in a way that raises awareness and increases action so that we transform the environmental footprint of today’s world.

OUR OBJECTIVES:

Raise Awareness
Increase Action
Get young people engaged with real time/real life project working collaboratively with supporting organizations
Transform the environmental footprint of today’s world.

BACKGROUND:

There is a SoL Youth and Education Network (YEN) but it has no traction.
The Sustainability Consortium began in 1999 and has demonstrated success through projects. The focus to date has been on environmental issues.
Concern about the social issues for sustainability is evident in the Sustainability Consortium membership e.g., a Women Lead Sustainability subgroup has formed, another subgroup is forming around the social issues (BP, Slumberger, Unilever are participating).
Several SoL events have successfully included a youth component.
Global Forum (Finland)
Annual Meeting (Boston)
Sustainability Conference (Dearborn)
There is a desire to integrate youth more directly in SoL events in the future.

ASSUMPTIONS:

Education is a critical issue for sustainability. SoL initiatives can inform this work And this camp can serve that end.
The recent SoL Sustainability Conference Youth Leadership Program confirmed that the participants, Young Leaders, learned by doing and by being treated as equals receiving support and empowerment from adult leaders that helped them achieve results. This experience contributed to the design of our approach.
Many people involved in SoL have expressed willingness to contribute and participate in youth and education initiatives.
A prescribed curriculum that is focused will inspire a different type of student with an interest in sustainability with the hope that this will produce future leaders in this important discipline.
Natural passion and desire to be involved with a mission driven program creates organic leaders – leaders with longevity and committed passion to these kinds of issues. But you start by saying you are selecting (targeting) Youth Leaders…so are you creating leaders or do you increase leadership capabilities, skills organically?

VALUE PROPOSITION:

THE CAMP:

The camp will have all the traditional camp activities such as swimming, hiking, rock climbing, and campfires, but will be so much more as its goal is to be a yearlong program developing Youth Leaders pioneering sustainability issues in their communities..
Serving as an environment that nurtures these motivated Youth Leaders, the camp will allow these Youth Leaders to connect with one another, share and explore their diverse cultures, develop a greater understanding about sustainability and engage and interact in activities supported by a learning environment.

The students will work on site with projects related to water, agriculture, energy and air, product development. The objective is for the Youth Leaders to collaborate with corporate sponsor volunteers where these volunteers will involve the young leaders work on real time/ real life problems that are relevant in their organizations i. ( corporate value propositions still need to be determined)

Camp Strategies: Some are principles, some are goals or objectives.
Provide activities that are fun
Build on the strengths of young people
Teach with experience and reflection
Provide a safe environment where they will free to express themselves
Offer caring relationships with positive adult role models
Involve youth in programming and decision-making
Have diversity within youth and leadership (Leadership of the camp?)
Set high expectations for campers and staff, and
Set clear rules and provide focused activity

Add ons: These are how you will deliver content
· Engage Young Leaders in healthy eating habit – maybe even a session mixed with Agriculture and nutrition
· Recycling
· Composting
· Closing feedback loops- have participants carry a trash bag with them all week, and put all of the waste they generate into it)

THE CONTINUUM

After the camp, year long continued support for these leaders is absolutely necessary to help them develop and execute their plan. We will provide continued coaching support, newsletters, web forums, and internet and web support. At the end of the session students will form groups based on ideas and projects and will be assigned an adult leader (is the adult a leader or coach, advisor?) to sponsor and support them on their initiative throughout the year. Who is responsible for the success of the project—the youth teams or the adult leader?
The camp retreat will serve as the foundation for a year-long program designed to help these young leaders initiate local school and community programs aimed at gaining the interest of other teens. At the camp, the Young Leaders will be provided with the proper tools to create initiatives, be set up with internet connectivity, and assigned a project team and mentor.
In addition, the Young Leaders will present their learnings at the 2006 SoL Forum. We will create a living knowledge asset that will capture and build on the learnings.

WHO ARE THESE YOUTH LEADERS:

Young leaders from around the country and around the world will be selected. They will be high school and college age students who have demonstrated a level of commitment to sustainability/community learning and systems thinking.
We will develop an application process so that teens can self-select. Through that process we will be able to determine their level of commitment to sustainability. Our belief is that true leadership comes from natural passion that is connected to a vision.
Our aspiration is to create a process that will identify teens with the passion and to equip them with the ability to create and bring greater vision to the work they’ve already done. Moreover, this passion and vision should empower these selected leaders to enroll other students within their respective school systems and communities to be part of the initiative.

THE PROGRAM FORMAT:

The format will be an admission only Summer Camp Program. The Steering Committee will discuss the appropriate number of students to be accepted the first year.

The program is 3-tiered.

First
The students will work on site with projects revolving around: water, agriculture, energy and air, product development. The objective is for the Youth Leaders to collaborate with corporate sponsor volunteers where these volunteers will involve the young leaders work in real time/ real life problems that their organization is working on.
(other potential topics: Active Citizenship, Architecture, Bioregionalism, Consumption, Ecology, Economics, Ethics, Living System, National Resources, Non-humans population, Technology, Wilderness)

Second
The Young Leaders will bring the project back to their schools and communities with the intent of engaging other young people in their locales. We would like the Young Leaders to have developed project teams at the camp and to stay connected with each other – rolling out their projects collaboratively. The intention of the global project teams is to keep the Young Leaders tied into the global interconnectivity of these issues and for them to provide each other with continued support. We will use electronic tools such as email, user-groups, blogs.

Third
The Young Leaders will design and deliver one or more sessions at the next SoL Forum in March 2006 to report on their findings and their experiences. This session will involve corporate participants as well as youth. A model for and success of active youth participation in a Sol Conference was demonstrated through the attendance of the (or participation of the) SEED group from Schlumberger at the Forum this past October.


NEXT STEPS:
· Form a steering committee to identify the: (Jeremy Seligman, Oran Hesterman, 2 Youth, Facilitators, Food Project, Dean from Dean’s Beans)

o amount of time the students Youth Leaders will come together
o age range
o selection process
o location, venue (we have some connections with Duke or Cornell or Detroit)
o program curriculum
o number of students we will host
o Infrastructure requirements
o costs to run the program

· Identify and engage potential sponsors to secure funding

o the Society for Organizational Learning -Sustainability Consortium and member organizations.
o solicit grants from the EPA, World Resource Institute, W.K. Kellogg Foundation and other agencies

Partners
Coca Cola? Karen Flanders, Plug Power-Roger Saillant, Info from Paul Higgins, Andy Acho- Ford, Gary Mayo- Visteon, Skyles Boyd- DTE, Brigitte Tantawny-Monsou- Ujnilver, Simone Amber- Seed, Deans Beans, Environmental Defense, Biomimicry Folks-Janine, Catherine, Kellogg Foundation, Food Project-MASS, Carol Gorelick- YEN Linda Booth Sweeney, LuAnn Reilly, Carolyn Hendrickson, EPA, WRI, Green Mountain- Michael Dupee CSR, Nike – Bill Malloch- Nike Foundation- (Maria Eitel), UTC Krista Pilot- Shawn ? Jamie Cloud and Maya Agarwal, Sibel Bulay- Ford skoyluog@ford.com

Potential Universitys Venues: Duke- NC (UNC), Cornell: Stu Hart other guy Joe met, U Mich- Tom Gladwin, Andrew Horning, Sam Moore- his school, John Winter- his school, UNH, Sustinability Institute
A First Sketch on the Model:
We will reach out to schools that have already been defined by the consortium and encourage teens to apply. Teens will be supplied with an application with an explanation of how to apply to the program. There will be a selection board reviewing the applications determining admissions. The ages will range from 16-22 which incorporates young leaders at both HS and college levels collaboratively working together. The youth from the Forum 2004 will help to select and be part of the community.
The goal this summer is to bring in 30-50 young adults (this number to be determined by the steering committee). The ratio that would lead to an effective model would be to choose a few students per school at a ratio of 2 students per every 150 students of the student body. This ratio is important because of impact and effectiveness the young leaders will have on their community upon their return. They will be able to provide each other with consistent support working collaboratively to roll out their initiative.
When the students arrive at the camp they will working with experienced SoL facilitators and staff, by participating in a wide variety of educational, real-time projects and recreational activities designed to create new learnings, community building, leadership development and by sharing stories and through experiential exercises..
We imagine the framework of the retreat to look somewhat like this:
Opening Night
§ Welcome
§ Dinner
§ Mixer and Social
§ Fun games and activies to begin the thinking process
§ We will have a Keynote speaker, some sustainability games (such as Jamie’s fish game) and present the experiential problem that they will work on throughout the weekend (example of an idea – a community project such as building or reconstructing a local area park – the goal is to use systems thinking in the design and construct a new product or approach to a business issue) We will work with an experiential learning and design firm to properly orchestrate this.
First Project
§ Open with some new speakers that provide some additional background
§ Leadership training, icebreakers, sustainability training
§ Beginning working on first project (air, energy, agriculture, water)
o Planning time w/ sponsor volunteers
o Breakouts
o Execution of problem solutions and building
A few days later
§ Finish project
§ Discuss roles of the future
§ Break-out session on how to bring this back to their schools
Repeat the process for 4 full projects
The closing:
§ Prepare presentations for parents / schools / and Forum
§ Local dinner reception with parents and sponsoring organization
o Presentations
o Awards and recognition


Model being used at Camp Coke that we should think about – www.campcoca-cola.com but the age is older—highschool and college versus soon to be 8th graders….would this influence the design? Will the same students return for 5 years?
Year One - Leading MyselfDuring the first year of the program, our soon-to-be 8th graders will spend four weeks at camp learning more about themselves and developing fundamental leadership skills while participating in adventure activities and experiencing the best of camp life.
Year Two - Leading OthersThe second year of the program will build on the first. Campers use their newly discovered leadership skills to plan an exciting TREK and to be leaders for camp activities.
Year Three - Leading in My CommunityIn the third year of the program, the emphasis will begin to shift toward the community. Campers play a larger role as volunteers and leaders at home. While service is emphasized each year, during year three campers create and implement their own community service project with the help of an adult sponsor.