Environmental Justice Youth Leadership Academy Toolkit

Project Duration:

2026- present

Location:

Multi-site project across California 

Background:

The Environmental Justice Youth Leadership Academy (EJYA) Toolkit is an effort to develop resources for community organizations across California interested in engaging youth in environmental justice community-centered programming. This toolkit will be co-designed and piloted with youth, tribal partners, community-based organizations, and UC Davis undergraduate students  and will focus on putting young people at the center of the environmental justice work already happening across the state. The resources are intended to support community partners just starting out with youth environmental justice programming as well as those interested in deepening youth programming already underway.

Our research at the Center for Community and Citizen Science has shown that Youth-focused Community and Citizen Science (YCCS) offers a powerful way to deepen learning and engagement within diverse communities- a potential asset that can sometimes go underutilized. In communities that have been historically under-resourced and overburdened, community science can be a strategy that lets both adults and youth build and act on evidence-based solutions for their own health and wellbeing, on their own terms.

Across California, environmental justice organizations have long focused on community driven EJ work, but youth aren’t always included as partners. Realizing authentic youth-engagement  means more than serving young people. It means embracing youth-focused community science and youth participatory action research (YPAR) as ways of working, and being intentional about meaningful youth engagement, including naming and addressing the barriers that have long kept young people on the margins of environmental justice work.

Bringing this work to life across California takes capacity: the skills, tools, and social capital young people need to take ownership of their local environment , and generate evidence and take action on issues that matter most to them. Investing in youth as environmental justice leaders moves California closer to its vision of restoring, protecting, and enhancing the environment while safeguarding public health, environmental quality, and economic vitality — and closer to CalRecycle’s mission of a truly circular economy.

Goals:

Identify best practices and key activities for engaging youth in environmental justice programming.

Work alongside youth, tribal partners, community partners and UC Davis undergraduates to develop, pilot, and share a scalable Environmental Justice Youth Leadership Academy model — ready for community-based organizations, tribal partners, and youth-serving institutions across California to adapt and put to use.

Connect partners with UC Davis undergraduates and UC/CSU/community college research and program partners

Activities:

Conduct a statewide scan of youth-serving environmental justice organizations, so the Academy model is grounded in what’s already happening across the state.

Build a Community of Practice with youth-serving environmental justice and tribal organizations to co-design an Academy model that’s both scalable and adaptable.

Pilot the Academy model with tribal and community-based partners, and let their expertise and feedback shape what it becomes.

Offer technical assistance and support to tribal and community-based agencies working with youth engaged in community science.

Host a statewide Youth Summit that brings youth leaders and partner organizations together to learn from and celebrate one another.

Evaluate progress along the way, to make sure the model stays accessible, desirable, feasible, and relevant to the young people and organizations it’s built for.

Partners: 

UC Davis Institute of the Environment, UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center, Central California Environmental Justice Network, Youth on Root, Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California, The Ecology Center, Save California Salmon, The Rose Foundation, Alianza Coachella Valley, and Pacoima Beautiful. 

Funders:

CalRecycle