Tag Archive for: AYEA

AYEA Kicks off a Summer of Arts in Action!

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Alaska Youth for Environmental Action (AYEA) is gearing up to host our annual fall Youth Organizer Summit in September, and with applications open for just 2 more days, this Summit is already shaping up to be our biggest and best yet since we resumed in-person gatherings post-pandemic! We already have applications pouring in from across the state! Here at AYEA, we’re very excited about this fall’s Summit because it marks the beginning of AYEA’s next 2-year statewide campaign cycle. AYEA is youth-led, meaning teens choose and lead all of AYEA’s projects and campaigns. The teens that gather this fall will decide on an issue that is important to them and their peers and then build and execute a statewide campaign that seeks to address it!

This also means that it’s time to tool-up with some new campaign skills! To build excitement and skills in preparation for AYEA’s next moves, we’re excited to host a series of Arts-in-Action workshops this summer for teens in Fairbanks, Kodiak, and Anchorage! Know a teen in one of those communities? They can register here! 

Community organizers have long used art to tell stories and make bold statements that inspire community action – and AYEA is no exception! Scroll down to see some inspiring art and messages that AYEA teens have created over the years! From raising awareness about plastic bag bans and statewide youth climate strikes to direct action with art at the state capitol building to demand education funding (not once, but twice!), AYEA teens know the power of a bold statement or eye-catching art piece to share their message!

At our summer workshops, teens will learn arts-in-action techniques like screen printing, block printing, and banner painting that they can use in their communities. They’ll also get to create and share their own messages about whatever issues are important to them! Any teens who attend the fall Summit with these new tools under their belts will be poised to help their fellow organizers develop art and messaging to launch their new campaign. 

We even kicked off the summer with some art at Trailside Discovery Camp’s Youth Leaders in Action week, where AYEA teens joined Trailside youth to learn about the impacts of climate change on Alaska’s ecosystems, and actions we can take to address it. Along with the help of an AYEA teen, Trailside youth tried out some fun block printing skills and worked on creating their own messages for action.


AYEA Arts in Action workshops are coming up next month in the following places. Help us share with teens you know!

Fairbanks Workshop – July 7
Kodiak Workshop – July 20th
Anchorage Workshop – July 31


A big Thank You to the Martha Levensaler Fund and the Alaska Conservation Foundation for supporting this project! We can’t wait to share the inspiring work that is created! 

A New Year In Youth Engagement

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[cs_content][cs_element_section _id=”1″ ][cs_element_layout_row _id=”2″ ][cs_element_layout_column _id=”3″ ][cs_element_text _id=”4″ ][cs_content_seo]With each new year comes new opportunities. Many of us sit down with family, friends, and loved ones to make resolutions: exercise more, eat better, and scroll less. With these resolutions, we want to build a better, brighter future for ourselves. But what about our communities? What resolutions can we make this year to build ourselves and each other up? The answer lies with the present and the future. It lies with young people.
Young people are the next generation of community leaders. They are coming into leadership now through elections, organizing, and programs like AYEA. Although young people are ready to harness their voices and work for their communities, they are frequently left out of vital decision-making. Corporation CEOs, Governors, United States Senators, and people in power making money from big oil avoid facing youth who bear the burden of climate change and climate anxiety. In Alaska, where the arctic is warming at double the global average and communities face more extreme impacts of climate change, this issue is particularly prevalent. Alaska’s teens deserve the tools, the network, and the hope to leverage their power against these giants and create a bright future for themselves and their communities. You can help them access it.
This past fall, 12 young Alaskans gathered in Anchorage for AYEA’s annual Youth Organizer Summit to imagine a better future together. Youth Organizers chose and began to plan their statewide project to protect & increase Alaskans’ access to local food through action & education. Throughout the pandemic and as climate change impacts worsen, the challenges surrounding food access and Alaska’s supply chain have become increasingly evident and extreme, showing that food security and access are significant issues across the state. AYEA Youth Organizers hope to make a difference for their local communities and Alaska through their ongoing project. They have big plans this next year. They will build out local AYEA chapters and raise awareness around the issue of food insecurity and access by bringing attention to food costs and access in rural Alaska. Collectively they will uplift the stories of those most impacted, learn and teach about traditional foods and subsistence practices, provide hunter training, and build greenhouses and community gardens. They will continue their advocacy throughout the year, culminating in Juneau during our annual Civics & Conservation Summit.
As our ocean rise, our climate becomes more extreme, and our food systems destabilize, leaders continue to invest in false solutions. It’s time leaders prioritize youth. It’s time they hear the facts and face the truth.
Alaska Youth for Environmental Action will be helping young people make their voices heard in Juneau at the 2023 AYEA Civics & Conservation Summit. The Civics & Conservation Summit is a unique opportunity for Alaskan teens to travel to Juneau, learn more about the AK State Legislature, connect to their representatives, and impact the passage of bills. The summit breaks down barriers between delegates and the Alaska State Legislature. By focusing on specific bills within the current Alaska State Legislative session, delegates will gain communication, advocacy, and civic participation skills. The summit culminates with constituent meetings between delegates and their legislators – when they can advocate for the bills and topics they care about!
Alaska’s young people are smart, creative, and passionate. With the tools, network, and support they deserve, young people can leverage their power and influence positive change for their communities. Any Alaskan teen 13-18 can apply to attend the summit themselves, and adults are encouraged to nominate delegates.
The new year is a time to be hopeful, and there’s good reason to be. At The Alaska Center, we work with inspiring, brilliant young Alaskans working tirelessly towards healthier, happier communities. It’s hard not to be hopeful. Help us kick off AYEA’s 25th year to a great start, and know that you are an integral part of the fight for a better tomorrow. Join us this year in making a new resolution: to support Alaska’s youth in becoming our next generation of community leaders and changemakers. 

P.S. Make good on your promise by nominating a young person today as a delegate to the 2023 Civics & Conservation Summit, March 17-21 in Juneau.
Nominate a teen by Jan 7th, apply to be a delegate by Jan 15th, or learn more at ayea.org or by emailing ayea@akcenter.org.
The Alaska Center

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Lathrop student starts Fairbanks chapter of environmental action organization

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Josie Adasiak, a sophomore at Lathrop High School, joined 12 teenagers from across the state at the Alaska Youth for Environmental Action (AYEA) Youth Organizer Summit at the end of October to address climate change in Alaska. She is also leading the AYEA chapter in Fairbanks for local teens.

The four-day conference was packed with information and learning about activism and community organizing, Adasiak said. “It’s easy to feel dejected about climate change, like nothing is being done, so it was really encouraging to be around people who care as much as I do,” she said. It felt good to be working towards solutions, she added.

“I’ve always been really connected with nature,” Adasiak said. “I’ve seen the impacts of climate change in real time throughout my lifetime.” She recalls frequently skiing on the Chena River in elementary school in third and fourth grade, but by sixth grade her class went skiing once because the river wasn’t frozen enough. “I want to protect [the environment] and keep this stuff for future kids,” she said.

Last summer, Adasiak got involved in the Community Roots Program at Calypso Farm where she worked out of the Hunter Elementary School garden and sold fresh foods to the Southside community. She connected with her community through food and learned about food justice and security, she said.

The statewide goal is “protecting Alaskans’ access to food through action and education,” Adasiak said. Alaska is reliant on food being shipped from the Lower 48 and around the world, she said.

Adasiak is using the community organizing skills she learned at the AYEA summit to start an AYEA chapter in Fairbanks with local teens. Young Alaskans are the future of Alaska, Adasiak said. They plan to work with legislators to advocate for environmental and food-related actions.
“People who are food secure don’t always think that many Alaskans are not food secure,” she said. She will work to bring awareness to food insecurity and introduce more community agriculture projects.

Her goal in Fairbanks is to bring local foods to people in the community, she said. Adasiak said subsistence living is really important to many Alaskan communities, and she wants to make sure that is still an option for people.

You can learn more about AYEA and get connected to the local chapter at AYEA.org.

Originally published on November 12, 2022 by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Moving Through Climate Anxiety

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Join The Climate Strike

People across the world are contending with a swirl of climate anxiety. Across our state, we navigate the trauma of lost economies, crops no longer growing abundantly, salmon not making it to our communities, and, most recently, storms becoming more destructive than we have seen in 100 years. Our people are hurting, and our youth have taken on a considerable weight to fight for a future within all of this. In a study published in the Lancet, students from ten countries reported 59% of youth experiencing extreme worry while 84% experienced moderate worry about climate change. Our youth in Alaska is no exception.

Even though the anxiety is justified, when it gets to the level that it freezes us up, it becomes unhelpful and doesn’t serve us or our goals. We must give options and build hope through action and policy to help us and the generations that will lead us move forward through these dark times.

Community advocacy is a medium with meaningful and immediate effects. We’re not past the point of no return. Every effort we make today helps reduce the negative impacts of climate change we’ll feel tomorrow.
Moving forward into next year’s legislative session, we will have great opportunities to advocate for policy and funding that will support investments in renewable energy infrastructure and much more. We also can advocate for community-based solutions like getting our schools’ foods sourced locally, reducing energy consumption in our public buildings, prioritizing plant spaces and community gardens in city neighborhoods, and defending the Indigenous stewardship of carbon sinks. Community-based solutions allow us to make a change that works with and for all Alaskans.

We’re not experiencing climate change effects alone. And we will not create viable climate solutions alone. This network we are building with all of you will motivate the change we need to see.

We’ve got an opportunity to build that network now. Alaska Youth for Environmental Action will be part of the Global Youth Climate Strike on September 23 in Anchorage Town Square from 1:00-3:00 pm. Alaskan youth will strike in solidarity with young people across the world. It’s our responsibility as adult allies to support their efforts and amplify their messages. The young people of Alaska deserve a just future, and it’s time our leaders recognize this and prioritize #PeopleNotProfit.

We hope to see you there.

Earth Day and the Electric Cooperative

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Tomorrow is Earth Day, a day to reflect on and celebrate our home and our future. Now more than ever, we need to support policies designed to protect our planet and the systems that enable life, including the climate system.

The headlines are full of dire warnings about climate change, and it can feel like an insurmountable problem and that we are well behind the eight ball. Yet, as we face steep challenges, we must also realize that there is hope:

The children and teens of today are perhaps the most engaged and galvanized generation the world has ever seen on the need for climate justice.

The conservation movement is beginning to recognize the value of Indigenous knowledge and work to decolonize their practices while amplifying Indigenous leadership.

The Biden Administration is the most climate-oriented administration we have ever elected, and with enough pressure, we could see him make some dramatic and effective climate commitments.

More and more, the economic argument for renewable energy is now almost irrefutable.

The movement that started Earth Day resounds in all of those who are taking action to protect our climate and our planet: The Alaska Youth for Environmental Action leading climate strikes, the youth plaintiffs in the Sagoonik v. State of Alaska youth climate action lawsuit, advocates for climate policy action at the state and federal level, even those who serve on our electric utility boards and those who advocate with our utility boards to increase the share of renewable energy that utilities produce or purchase. There is hope, and there is action, and both are going to help us as we confront the challenges of climate change head-on.

That is why tomorrow, on Earth Day, The Alaska Center is hosting a Climate, Care, and Community event to highlight the importance of getting involved with your local electric utility entitled “You are your utility.”

Do you pay an electric bill to Matanuska Electric Association, Golden Valley Electric Association, Chugach Electric Association, or Homer Electric Association? If so, that makes you a member-owner of your electric utility! Want to know more about your rights as a member-owner and ways to get involved with local energy democracy? Join us TOMORROW, April 22, at noon to hear from member-owners across the railbelt who stepped up to create change in their utilities!

JOIN THE ZOOM SESSION

More people getting involved with their electric utility leads to a greater diversity of thought and increased transparency and accountability for our electricity providers. We will be relying on these cooperatives increasingly to unlock carbon emission reductions in the transportation and industrial sectors of our economy, so ultimately, our electric cooperatives will have a significant role in decreasing carbon emissions.

It may not be the sexiest way to celebrate Earth Day. Still, we believe that even actions like increased participation in utilities can lead to significant changes in our ongoing fight to protect our beautiful planet.

See you tomorrow,
The Alaska Center