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Better Than We Found It: Climate Action Conference
Join us for a two day Climate Action Conference! This is a hybrid event with both virtual and in-person components! You may attend either day or both.
Day 1 (10am-5pm) will be a virtual conference with a variety of workshops/discussions with topics like ending single use plastic and starting your own non-profit organization. This day will also include a panel discussion with local young activists from national organizations.
Day 2 (10am-4pm) will be at Camp Bothin and where we will provide hands-on workshops about ways to make your life and community more sustainable from gardening and composting to beekeeping and native plant protection.
Day 1 will be virtually on Zoom at home. Day 2 will be on site at Camp Bothin. There will be breaks throughout the sessions and participants will choose their desired workshops. Lunch and snacks will be provided on Sunday for all registered participants.
Come meet other Girl Scouts who are passionate about how we can all build a more sustainable future! You don’t want to miss Better Than We Found It: The GS NorCal Climate Action Conference.
By attending you will complete multiple steps of the Eco Advocate badge for Ambassadors, Eco Explorer for Seniors, and Eco Trekker for Cadettes.
Registration is closed for this event. Email lfialkow@gsnorcal.org to see if there is room.
Please note: Cadettes are welcome to register for this event, previous materials said high school only, but this event is open to all Girl Scouts grades 6-12. Thanks!
**CONFERENCE SCHEDULE (Descriptions Below)**
Virtual Sessions for November 6th:
10-11am: Opening Ceremony and Panel Discussion with Young Activists
11:15-11:45am: How We Can End Single Use Plastic with Sierra Club Co-Chair Susan Hopp
12:00-12:30: How to Start Your Own Non-Profit
12:45-1:15pm: Combining Environmental Sustainability with GS Higher Awards Projects
1:20-2pm: En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator
2-2:30pm: Virtual Yoga
2:30-3:45pm: The True Cost of Coal: Interactive Presentation Through Art and Storytelling
4-4:45pm: Serving on the Youth Advisory Council for the UN Ocean Decade by Heirs To Our Oceans
In-person Sessions for November 7th at Camp Bothin: (order of sessions and timing TBD)
**DESCRIPTIONS OF SESSIONS**
Virtual Sessions for November 6th:
10-11am: Opening Ceremony and Panel Discussion with Young Activists
We’ll open our conference with some meaningful words from Congresswoman Barbara Lee and GSNorCal CEO Marina Park followed directly by our panel discussion.
This panel discussion will feature Allison Cooper who is a leader for the Youth-Led Mobilizing Team of 350 Bay Area, Giulianna Pendleton the Environmental Advocacy Assistant for Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and Karina Lopez a leader in the Sunrise Movement and student at UC Berkeley. They’ll talk about how they got involved in the movement to end climate change, the impact that young people can make, the power of telling your story, and how YOU can get involved. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions as well.
11:15-11:45am: How We Can End Single Use Plastic with Sierra Club Co-Chair Susan Hopp
Join us to learn about how single-use plastic is wreaking havoc on our environment and what is being done to turn it around. Co-chair of Marin’s Sierra Club and professor of Sustainable Management, Susan Hopp will lead us through an interactive workshop on this issue, how it relates to social justice, and how we can get involved locally to have global impact.
12-12:30pm: How to Start Your Own Non-Profit
While employed at Google, Aisha 世平 Thiessen started saving the burrowing owls at the beginning of the year 2017. When she started organizing volunteers to plant California native plants to enhance their habitat in Shoreline Park, Mountain View, California, there were no owls left at that location. 4 years, ~750 plants planted later, there were 51 owls, including a record-high count of 35 owlets. To pull this off she started a nonprofit in order to receive tax-exempt, tax-deductible, and often company-matched donations in order to purchase the plants to plant for the owls.
She is going to teach you how to start a California 501c3 non-profit yourself so that you can also receive and spend donations on your projects to save our planet, starting with your local community. See more on her project by visiting savetheburrowingowl.org
12:45-1:15pm: Combining Environmental Sustainability with GS Higher Awards Projects
Do you want to merge your passion for saving the planet with a Girl Scout Silver or Gold Award? Come hear from Girl Scouts who’ve completed “green” themed higher awards as well as GSNorCal Council Staff to get your questions answered and start the steps towards executing your project.
1:25-2:40pm: The True Cost of Coal: Interactive Presentation Through Art and Storytelling
The Beehive Design Collective is a volunteer-driven non-profit art collective that uses graphical media as educational tools to communicate stories of resistance to corporate globalization. The purpose of the group is to “cross-pollinate the grassroots” by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images that can be used as educational and organizing tools. The most recognizable of these images are large format pen and ink posters, which seek to provide a visual alternative to deconstruction of complicated social and political issues ranging from globalization, colonialism, militarism, resource extraction, and climate change.
The “bees” will lead a presentation for us titled The True Cost of Coal, based on both their large format poster and their new rhyming narrative book. It tells stories gathered from Appalachia on the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining practices and its complex history on communities, animals, and the environment.
2:45-3:10pm: Virtual Yoga
Let’s move our bodies! Enjoy some stretching, yoga, and meditation as we process our connection to nature, what we’ve learned today so far, and to recharge for the final sessions.
3:15-3:55pm: En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator
We hear about all the problems but what about the solutions? Environmental educator Ann Brown will lead us through a powerful role-playing simulation to explore, test, and compare the efficacy, equity, and multi-solving benefits of 18 different climate solutions.
4-4:45pm: Serving on the Youth Advisory Council for the UN Ocean Decade
Youth from Guam, Puerto Rico and coastal Northern California who are members of the US Youth Advisory Council for the UN Ocean Decade (US YAC UNOD) speak to the importance of women empowerment and how crucial their voices are in mitigating the effects of the global climate crisis.
The US YAC UNOD members will touch on the anthropogenic origins of climate change and how intersectionality leads to human rights violations exacerbating the crisis. This diverse group of youth leaders will showcase perspectives from different areas that are most vulnerable to climate change, and they will introduce the US YAC UNOD and its efforts to empower, educate and strive for change.
Perhaps you too could be a US YAC for UNOD youth leader! The US YAC for UNOD is an Heirs To Our Oceans initiative. www.H2OO.org
4:45-5pm: Closing Circle
In-person Sessions for November 7th at Camp Bothin:
Beekeeping and Pollinators
Led by our own park ranger at Camp Bothin, Christian Jensen will talk about how to become a beekeeper, show you what equipment is used and maybe even let us try some of first batch of honey that our Bothin bees produced!
Backpacking 101
Led by former National Park Ranger and highly experienced backpacker Theresa Northcutt, learn about what to bring on a backpacking trip, how to pack it all in your bag, and other tips to make your backpacking journey into the wilderness a success!
Native Plants and Climate Hike
Learn from environmental educator Ann Brown about the roles that native plants play towards protecting our climate, how to identify them, and how you can be a citizen scientist who helps collect data on the impacts of climate change in our local area.
Gardening, Composting, and Food Systems
In this hands-on workshop from inside Camp Bothin’s organic garden, you will learn how to grow your own fresh food, compost your waste into fertilizer and the role that making different food choices plays on global emissions and climate change.
Rally Sign Making
What part of this movement has you fired up? Pick a catch phrase and put it on a sign that you can use to make your voice heard at a climate march or rally. Supplies will be provided.
