Season 3, Episode 20: Chris

In Season 3, Episode 20 of Climate Action Figures, host John Whidden welcomes Chris from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) and shares a QuickFix from Shaurya recommending the Outrage and Optimism podcast for hopeful climate conversations. Chris explains CPAWS’s conservation advocacy and public engagement, then details CPAWS Southern Alberta’s Youth Conservation Collective (YCC), a program for 15 to 18-year-olds that supports marginalized youth and others with environmental passion through mentorship, networking, field trips, and youth-led conservation projects tied to CPAWS campaigns (e.g., coal mining impacts on waterways and trout, sustainable forestry and stewardship). YCC is funded primarily by Environment and Climate Change Canada. Chris cites Steve Irwin as an inspiration, encourages writing MLAs/MPs as climate action, and finds hope in building community, especially through YCC.

00:00 Welcome and QuickFix

01:23 Why CPAWS Matters

03:03 Youth Conservation Collective

04:00 Who Can Join

05:09 Mentors and Matching

05:56 Apply and Program Flow

07:18 Projects and Campaigns

09:09 Time Commitment

10:47 Year One Highlights

12:28 Building Conservation Community

13:18 Funding the Program

14:09 Chris Inspirations

15:17 Climate Action and Hope

17:12 Closing Thanks

https://www.youtube.com/c/outrageandoptimism

https://cpaws.org/

https://cpaws-southernalberta.org/education/youth-experiences/youth-conservation-collective/

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Transcript

Chris 0:00

Hey, hey, I'm Chris, and you are tuned into Climate Action Figures.

John 0:13

Hello and welcome to episode 20 of Season three. Thanks for taking the time to join us. As always, my name is John Whidden, and this week on the show you get to meet Chris. First, this week's QuickFix, which comes to us from Shaurya, who is our guest in season two, episode 10 and Shaurya said, I listen to a podcast called Outrage and Optimism that does not shy away from challenges, but leaves me with hope. So thank you to Shaurya for that and we welcome you to check that podcast out and welcome Chris.

Chris 0:54

Thank you, John. I'm happy to be here.

John 0:56

What do you think about that QuickFix?

Chris 0:58

Honestly, I think that's a great QuickFix because when it comes to climate change, a lot of people do care about it. We're not as alone as we think we are. We are just shy, we just think that we are alone, and the more we talk about these issues, the more we are vocal about it, the more comfortable it is to have these conversations and the more people realize that they are not alone, they are surrounded by good company.

John 1:23

Now Chris, I am very familiar with the organization you work with, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society because I've done some program development and delivery for CPAWS, as we call it. Even the touque is on brand this morning. What is it about this organization that draws you?

Chris 1:39

To go back to the, the earlier comment, how vocal CPAWS is on conservation advocacy. They are constantly in the front line, trying to get these issues out to the public so people are aware. But what I really like is how they want to include the public into conservation action into climate action, because not one voice is going to save these issues. It's. All of our voices combined, and CPAWS is a fantastic place for people of all ages to come together and have that unified voice that we need, a healthy planet, a healthy environment in order to have a healthy civilization and to have a healthy, uh, experience in this life.

John 2:24

I, I agree completely with you on that. What drew me in, at the beginning as a, as a donor first, and then as a participant, was just the, the sense that the people in CPAWS are in it for the right reasons. They're not in it for great salaries or fame and fortune, but they're doing important work. And it's really wonderful, even now that I work with CPAWS, to to get these emails that say, here's something that maybe should be on your radar. Or they will have a letter writing campaign saying, here's an important issue and this is what you might send to your Member of Parliament. Very helpful in many ways. Now within CPAWS, Chris, you're involved with initiative, an initiative called YCC. Can you tell us what that stands for and a little bit about it?

Chris 3:12

Absolutely. Uh, YCC uh, stands for the Youth Conservation Collective and it is newest program, CPAWS Southern Alberta chapter specifically, where we are giving a headstart in the conservation careers of people in marginalized communities, and young people, helping them find out what it is about conservation that they are interested in, giving them hands-on experience with conservation and networking them with organizations that engage in conservation and also providing mentors. You were one of those mentors, to help give them guidance on their career paths and helping them as they create their own conservation action project that they can contribute to their communities.

John 4:00

So let's start with the mentees themselves. How exactly are they chosen?

Chris 4:04

Because we are trying to make conservation spaces much more inclusive, we do go to places where the population of the people are largely from minorities so that we can give them those opportunities that they would otherwise not have. People who face a lot of barriers to enter into conservation spaces.

John 4:25

and if someone is not part of a marginalized community, are they a possible participant as well?

Chris 4:31

Of course. And, uh, another big criteria that we're looking for is just the passion. We're really looking for people who are passionate about the environment and want to help with, climate action, but just don't know where to go, where to look, where to start. We want those kinds of people joining us, and creating those conservation projects

John 4:52

Now I've been involved with this as you've said, but there are many of these questions I actually don't know the answer to, like this one: What s the actual age range, for someone to be involved in this?

Chris 5:03

Yeah. Uh, and we are looking for people in high school, so 15 to 18 years old.

John 5:09

And then you pair these people with a mentor. How, how do you go about finding mentors?

Chris 5:15

So when we are looking for mentors, we're looking for people who have conservation background people who are educators who work in the school system, people who work as environmental engineers, people who do conservation or political advocacy, uh, whatever the background is that is tied to conservation is what we're looking for. And when we pair our mentors up with the changemakers is what we call the students who participate in YCC, we're looking at interest levels. What is it that the changemaker is interested in within conservation and what our mentors' professional backgrounds are? And based on those informations, we pair them up.

John 5:56

So are you looking actively for changemakers as well as mentors?

Chris 6:02

We will be looking starting April 1st. Right now we have a wait list open that anyone can sign up for to be either a mentor or a changemaker. And once April 1st comes in, uh, everyone who's in that wait list will be contacted, so that they can sign up for the live application.

John 6:21

So once the changemaker is paired with a mentor, by the way, is it a one-on-one situation or how does that go?

Chris 6:28

Great question. So basically it'll be three changemakers together, paired with two mentors.

John 6:34

So once that pairing has happened, what's next? What do they do together?

Chris 6:38

So together they'll be able to attend several field trips that we'll be organizing between September and December. They'll also have, biweekly meetings with the mentors so that they can get that career advice as well as advice on creating their own conservation project. And altogether they'll be creating a action plan.

John 7:00

So if someone is interested in being a changemaker or a mentor, how would they get in touch with you?

Chris 7:05

They can go to our, uh, YCC CPAWS website and they can sign up to the application on that page.

John 7:13

Great. Well, we'll include that link and a little bit of information in our show notes today. So once these groups are set up with the changemakers and the mentors, you mentioned that they might go on a field trip together and then they create a project. Tell us a bit more about what that might look like.

Chris 7:29

Yes. Uh, so they get to create a conservation project of their own choosing based on the campaigns that we run at CPAWS Southern Chapter. So we have campaigns that are focused on coal mining and its impact on our waterways, on species at risk, in particular trout. On forestry and how to have sustainable forestry land planning, how we are managing the land that we are living on, and how we can practice stewardship on that land, a few other campaigns as well.

John 8:01

So then they create their project and they present it somewhere. Is that right?

Chris 8:06

It depends on what the project is. And we've had a massive amount of diversity in, in, in projects, uh, where some of them were presentations. we had one group, create a presentation on native plants, the history of native plants, the importance of native plants. And that one was done in front of adults to learn about how they can take care of their own lawns. But if you're somebody who's not, a public speaker who's not inclined and, and is not interested in gaining those types of experience, and if you are, we, we have people to help you with that, but if you're not, one group created a brochure highlighting the history of fur trading in Alberta in particular with grizzly bears and the changes in legislation around grizzly bear hunting, and they went to community centers, they went to those little library boxes and they dropped them off there. So not everything has to be a group presentation. Not everything requires that. It depends on the person, their skills, and their creativity.

John 9:09

And if someone is interested in either of the roles and they're wondering what the time commitment is, what, what is that like?

Chris 9:16

we start a bootcamp in August where you get to learn about the details of this project and how to, come up with your own conservation plan. And then, the project is open from September, all the way till mid-December.

John 9:32

What uh, kind of a time commitment would they expect on a weekly basis?

Chris 9:36

Yeah, thank you for the question. It's a fantastic question. With our field trips, we have them biweekly, two field trips a month. Those are always on Saturdays. And we have biweekly meetings with the mentors, and those are about an hour long. So probably around on average,'cause it varies from week to week, I'd say two to three hours. but also John, I do wanna pass it on to you as somebody who is a mentor for the program. How much time did you dedicate to the YCC project?

John 10:07

Uh, flip it back on me. I see. I would say. On average from the end of August till December, it was probably an hour to two a week. It got a little busier at the end when we were doing a meeting to, hear some of the presentations and, uh, wrap things up. But generally it was, it was not onerous. And I should mention too if someone can't make it to a Saturday field trip, then that doesn't, prevent you preclude you from being part of this whole thing.

Chris 10:39

Yeah, that's the correct note to add that you don't have to attend all the field trips. There is a minimum requirement of how many field trips you need to attend.

John 10:47

Now this was the first year, this past year that the program took place. Uh, were there any big surprises for you at the end when you were, uh, thinking about successes and challenges?

Chris 10:57

Yeah, there were, and, and they were all happy surprises. I loved them. The biggest one was just the level of passion and creativity was insanely high with, with the changemakers that came to this project. The amount of, of diversity with the projects that they were planning, no two projects were the same. They may have had similar goals. They may have had similar topics, but the way they tackled it were completely different. For example, with grizzly bears, one group made a brochure to hand out in public events. Another cohort of changemakers made an illustrated book on grizzly bears and climate change that they wanted to read to their local mosque. So it was just, wow. With with the projects that came out. As a mentor, John, were you surprised by anything?

John 11:56

So many of them, the changemakers were so self-motivated. It made our job very easy. But, uh, a kind of a surprise for me was connecting with the other mentors. as much as I loved working with the changemakers, you know, riding the bus to a field trip with these, uh, really amazing people. It was, it was just great. I didn't go into it to network, but I, it just happened because there were so many interesting people that I wanted to talk further with. And, uh, so the bus trips were never boring,

Chris 12:27

Yeah.

John 12:27

say that.

Chris 12:28

And that's what I love, uh, the most about this project and actually, that's the main reason why I became the program coordinator here, was because my professional experience and background is in conservation advocacy. But the more I did it, the more I realized what we really need to tackle these issues is conservation community. And when I was pitched the idea of YCC. To me, uh, it was an opportunity to create a community, not just youth coming together and finding like-minded people, but multi-generational, connecting adults of different ages to one another, to see that they're all fighting the same fight, that they're all experiencing the same things. They care about the same things, and YCC really helped bring all these people together. So I'm, I'm glad you you brought that up. That's, uh, a fantastic point.

John 13:19

Now Chris CPAWS is a nonprofit organization and clearly going on a field trip to Banff is going to cost some money. So how is the program funded?

Chris 13:29

because we are not-for-profit, a lot of our programs are funded by several donors. We also have sponsors. For YCC in particular, our main source of income to do all these amazing things is through the Canadian government, ECCC, which stands for Environment and Climate Change Canada. Uh, they were the ones that provided us the funding to be able to do this project and bring these people together.

John 13:58

Well, that's great to hear that our government is taking on some programs like that to help youth grow and become connected into important things in their lives. Now, let's move along. You mentioned something about your past, and we haven't talked much about you, Chris. What have been your big inspirations in your life in terms of environmentalism?

Chris 14:17

it starts with finding somebody that's passionate about it. For me, it was, like many other people, Steve Irwin. He's the one that connected the environment to me, growing up. I didn't have a lot of opportunities to actually go out to nature, which means that everything had to be through books, through documentaries which is why Steve Irwin was so important to me. But when I had that chance to actually go out in nature, that just really cemented that inspiration and kept it going.

John 14:49

Some of our audience will not know who Steve Irwin is, so do you wanna just give us a bit of a background

Chris 14:54

He's the crocodile hunter. Steve Irwin,

John 14:56

Yes.

Chris 14:57

was a conservationist who would go out and advocate for animals. Uh, didn't matter how scaly they were, didn't matter how slimy they were to him they were all beautiful, crikey!

John 15:09

And has that led to a lifelong desire to wrangle an alligator or crocodile.

Chris 15:14

It's given me a great respect for those reptiles.

John 15:18

Now, before we let you go, Chris, we need to ask you what you've chosen for your climate action today.

Chris 15:23

All right, so for me, my climate action is writing letters and talking to my MLAs and MPs. It's a small thing, but when you pair my letter with many more letters of other people writing this, it does make a difference. It all adds up.

John 15:43

And I've heard that, uh, I've mentioned this before on the program, I think it's a hundred to one, like when they get one letter, they assume about a hundred people are feeling the same way and the one person just bothered to write it. So it is an important thing, even if you don't always get a response. And finally, what gives you hope?

Chris 16:01

It's a bit of a double-edged sword, but it's people. Find a community and build from there because people will constantly help you. If you get tired, and need to take a break because the news is very negative. There are other people that can continue that fight while you are recharging. So find a community. It could be YCC, it could be your religious center. It could be theater group. Find that community because you will find people that will help create a positive feedback loop for your inspiration. You're not alone.

John 16:42

and what's been one of the big communities that's been important for you personally?

Chris 16:46

me personally, it's gotta be my CPAWS community at the moment. And my friends. But number one would be YCC. I'm just so excited to build this again, year two, and to meet the new people and the returning people to create projects that are gonna inspire people, and it's going to make a difference.

John 17:12

Well, thanks so much for sharing your passion for this YCC and CPAWS with us today, Chris.

Chris 17:18

Absolutely. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I'm so excited!

John 17:21

And thank you dear listener and viewer. We will be back again next week, same time, same place to hear from another climate action figure. Until then,

Chris 17:30

Go Figures!