Problem Statement: The youth in Kandy require training and mentorship to take leadership as environmentally conscious leaders to fight climate change locally and globally.  

 

Target Group: The youth in Kandy, more specifically undergraduates of law and social sciences at University of Peradeniya.

 

Proposed Solution: At a time where the world is faced with a global health and climate emergency, the need for environmentally conscious leaders to spearhead the mission of combatting climate change is a crucial need of the hour. Also, taking into consideration the need for individual and collective action at all levels: local, regional and global, it was decided to conduct curated and focused Climate Action Boot Camps virtually and non-virtually bi-annually to groom environmentally conscious leaders starting with the youth in Kandy, in order to facilitate sustainable advocacy, long lasting and impactful change. The Walk the Talk Climate Action Boot Camps are a three phased initiative founded upon three key pillars – Learn, Act and Advocate through Leadership.

 

Hub Activities: 

1. Walk the Talk Boot Camp – The Walk the Talk Boot Camp, primarily focusing on the first pillar Learn, is aimed at imparting the necessary knowledge and skills on how to be environmentally conscious leaders. Accordingly, it was decided to conduct virtual or non-virtual boot camps to a selected group of 60 youth per boot camp bi-annually.

 

The first Walk the Talk Boot Camp was held over the course of 3 days to a group of 60 undergraduates. The boot camp encapsulated three main topics on the 3 days. The first two sessions were facilitated by the Climate Reality Leaders of the Global Shapers Kandy Hub and the third session was facilitated by a professional writer and story teller.

• Session 01- Climate Change, Sustainability and Gender - 4 November 2020


• Session 02- Building a community through environmental activism - 7 November 2020
  


• Session 03 - Story Telling for impactful change - 11 November 2020
  

 

The next Boot Camp is scheduled for Mid - 2021 with a new batch of leaders in Kandy. 

 

2. The Bingo Challenge – The Bingo Challenge, primarily focusing on the second pillar Act, aims to ensure the knowledge and skills acquired through the boot camp is put in to fruitful practice. Hence, the bingo challenge enumerates a list of activities a responsible citizen and leaders should incorporate into their lives in adopting to a sustainable living style. Completing the Bingo Challenge was made a pre-requisite for all participants to fulfil prior to receiving a certificate of completion of the Walk Talk Boot Camp.

 

3. Experience and knowledge sharing session with the Just My Nature Climate Leaders – A review session will be conducted with the participants of the Boot Camp four months consequent to the boot camp to receive feedback on the best practices and drawbacks in their journey as climate activism. The feedback thus received will be utilized to improve the standard of each boot camp that follows there on. Also, the experience and knowledge sharing session will act as a networking platform for the climate activist to network and collaborate to strengthen partnerships led by each of them. The first experience and knowledge sharing session is scheduled to take place in Early March 2021.

 

Short Term Goals:

• Ensure a minimum of 60 youth from Kandy participate at each boot camp


• Ensure a minimum of 40 participants complete the bingo challenge and adopt sustainable living styles


• Ensure a minimum of 10 participants actively take leadership as climate activists

 

Long Term Goals:

• Build a strong community of Walk the Talk boot camp trained climate activists to actively lead sustainable and impactful climate change initiatives in Kandy


• Conduct Walk the Talk Boot Camps out of Colombo with the help of the climate activists trained at the Walk the Talk boot camps held in Kandy


• Partner with Governmental, Non-Governmental and other Social Service and Environmental Organisations and connect the participants with them to provide the opportunity for the participants to render their support to the initiatives led by those organisation

 

Available Metrics:

• 60 youth from Kandy participated at the Walk the Talk Boot Camp


• 14 participants fully completed the Bingo Challenge


• 5 participants partially completed the Bingo Challenge


• Out of the 60 participants 31 participants took the time to submit the post boot camp survey form


• Out of the 31 participants who submitted the post boot camp survey:
  
  
  
  • 80% of the participants loved the overall experience of the Boot Camp
  
  
  • 84% of the participants stated they were highly empowered to actively lead through climate activism
  
  
  
  


• 10 boot camp participants, participated in the follow up experience and knowledge sharing session 

For more info on Impact Metrics see Impact Assessment Report 

Collaborators: Just My Nature Environmental Organisation led by Global Shaper and past curator of Kandy Hub Piyumani Ranasinghe