Eco Teen Action Network

The Problem

Young people globally care deeply about extinction and conservation and have tremendous passion and creativity of expression as excellent filmmakers, artists, social media messengers, creatives, science and tech entrepreneurs, etc -- and are eager to be change-makers. They need to be more intentionally engaged as collaborators.

Our Proposal

The Global Co Lab Network collaborated with the Smithsonian Conservation Commons to create the Eco Teen Action Network that focuses on climate change, fighting plastics, hunger and other issues related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Teens are reached globally via an annual video contest on the SDGs that could focus specifically on conservation or extinction and then teens come together to act in virtual rooms they lead with adult mentors. We are proposing a specific focus on extinction and/or wildlife conservation and how teens can work creatively with others from this network to advance tech solutions with teen savvy, creativity, and passion. This could take many forms, such as marketing your solutions, education/raising awareness, testing prototypes, giving feedback, helping to design, etc.

We Assume that...

young people - particularly teens - are very tech-savvy

teens are comfortable entering virtual rooms if they trust the environment

there are gaps to be filled on local and global challenges that teens can be helpful in addressing

teens want to engage with other teens who are equally serious and passionate about the subject for which they are convening.

there are adult mentors who want to work with teens

teens can be very creative

teens, when incentivized, will work hard on issues they are passionate about

with proper encouragement and guidance, teens can be extremely articulate and effective advocates for change

any teen can join from anywhere on the planet if they are passionate about an issue we focus on, can speak English and can access the internet

Constraints to Overcome

What we do is labor-intensive, carefully connecting teens with stakeholders, mentors, and helping to educate them as change agents, one teen at a time. We don't do this via classrooms which is typically the way teens might connect virtually via class led projects - we do this through teen-led virtual rooms with zoom, whereby, and other safe spaces with trusted mentors from a number of well-established organizations. We find teens who are committed to working outside of school and passionate about change-making.

Current Work

Learning from our experience with the TEN teen speakers from the Eco Teen Action Network and Teens Dream at the Earth Optimism Digital Summit and focusing on how to build on this experience and broaden our outreach and scope.

Current Needs

We seek partners eager to engage teens in helping address wildlife conservation and/or species extinction. We specifically need mentors and concrete agendas teens can advance. We find the teens who work on our platforms from anywhere in the world. On a more practical level, we are always fundraising as our operation is extremely low budget and run by volunteers, which is not sustainable to scale.