ORGANIZE A COMMUNITY EVENT

A community climate event can take many forms including:

• Community Climate Night

Host an online or in-person Community Climate Night to inform community members about the goals of TransformTO and how they can get involved.

• Climate rally

Hold your own school community climate rally.  Create eye-catching signs and march around the block or on a busy street near the school.

• “Green collar” career fair

Organize a “green collar” job or career fair to introduce students in your school to the variety of careers in different fields (e.g. trades, business, non-profit, government) that contribute toward climate solutions. 

• Film festival

Host an online or in-person film festival open to the school community. Choose a current, thought provoking film or short films and follow up with an opportunity for interaction and discussion among participants. 

• Gardening event

Teach people how to plant seeds and grow food in pots on a window, on a balcony garden, or in their yard.

• Food festival

Host a food festival focused on how food choices can be healthy, tasty and climate friendly. Include activities such as vegetarian cooking lessons, sale of healthy climate friendly foods, food tasting, and a working session in your school garden (if you have one). Invite students, neighbours, etc. and local food businesses.

• Outdoor fun day

In warmer weather, organize an outdoor fun day with a climate theme targeting families with children. Set up games and booths with an educational twist so that participants can learn something and be inspired to take climate action. Set a good example with eco-friendly foods and snacks and a zero-waste policy.

• Fashion show

Do some research on the links between fast fashion and climate change and invite students in your school to design climate conscious outfits and participate in a fashion show. Perform the show for the student body and consider an evening performance open to the community. Use the event to raise awareness about fashion choices that are good for the climate. 

• Talent show

Host a talent show with a climate twist. Invite students and members of the wider community to share songs, poems or short skits that focus on climate solutions. Follow up with a Q & A session with performers.

Once you have an idea of what you are trying to achieve with your community event, you can start the planning process. Partners will be critical, and the involvement of any adults who are willing to provide support and guidance will make it much easier to deliver a successful event.

If you want to have an amazing, well attended and educational event that inspires people to take more action on climate change, it’s best to make a plan!  You may want to use the Community Climate Action Plan template to guide your work. Think carefully about what you can successfully pull off with the resources available to you. Here are a few questions to consider:

• How much time do you have available to organize this event?

• What will appeal to your target participants?  

• How will you convince people to attend? How will you advertise the event?

• What partners or resource people can help you out?

• How will you delegate tasks among the members of your group?

After going to all the trouble of organizing an event you definitely want to make sure people show up! Developing creative marketing tools will help ensure a great turn out. Here are a few tips:

• Address event promotion strategies as soon as you start planning your event

• Develop visually appealing materials (e.g., posters) and/or innovative ways of reaching out to your target audience

• Think about your target participants and the best ways of reaching them (e.g., flyers around the neighbourhood, a note in the school newsletter, posts on social media, PA announcements, an article in a local paper, notes home in different languages)

• Rally support by speaking directly with prospective participants (e.g., information booths, classroom visits)

• Use more than one strategy to get the word out!

Other Climate Action Guides

• United Nations: Youth in Action 

• Community Climate Council: Resource Guide to Community Climate Action for Youth

Music

What better way to bring people together to create a festive and relaxed environment than with a bit of music. There are some great songs out there that focus on climate change and making a difference. Here are a few examples - do some research and find out more, or better yet, get people together to write and perform your own song! 

• Voices for Climate Change - by a group of Jamaican Artists

• JAHBOY - Karma Of The Butterfly Effect (Official Music Video)... A Youth Climate Change Protest Song - by Jahboy from the Solomon Islands in the Pacific

• N'we Jinan Artists -  "BEYOND THE ROCKS" // Tsay Keh Dene Nation, B.C.

• I Stand - feat. Xiuhtezcatl, Aaron Ableman and Finian Makepeace

• Samian. La Terre a des Maux. Album "Le Messager" Vidéoclip Officiel 

Youth Videos on Climate Action 

• Stand Up, Stand Together with Xiuhtezcatl: The Adulthood  

• School strike for climate - save the world by changing the rules | Greta Thunberg | TEDxStockholm 

• Vanessa Nakate: Leading Africa's climate activists

• How These Youth Climate Activists Are Changing the Future | NowThis

• How Young Climate Crisis Activists Changed the World | NowThis 

• Indigenous Climate Action 

Project Drawdown Video Series

Climate Solutions 101

Climate Solutions 101 is Project Drawdown’s 6 part educational video series that focuses solely on solutions, centering game-changing climate action based on its own rigorous scientific research and analysis. These videos could be part of a climate conversation strategy: show the videos and use them to spark discussion about actions that can be taken right in your community.  

Community Festivals

Festivals are a great way to get people together to share ideas and celebrate climate solutions.  Here are a couple of great examples to inspire you:

• The Climate Action Film Festival (CAFF)  is an event open to participation by activists, students, and anyone interested in climate change, hosted by SunCommon (based in the USA). The 2021 CAFF went online and included short and long films to teach viewers about climate change and inspire them to take action to live in a better world.  Check out their 2021 program and see if you can host a similar event in your community.

• In 2018, the City of Edmonton invited youth from around Canada and the world to participate in their Festival of Youth Voices event. High school students shared their stories about their country and the problems that have arisen because of climate change. For example, Julia, a high school student, explained that Edmonton is developing different sources of energy that are sustainable and healthy for the environment. Check out this article to find out more about the event and think about how you might be able to organize something similar in your community. (Contributed by Yuktha K. TDSB student)

Reference List for Community Climate Events

• Primer 2: TransformTO - information and slide deck to use as conversation starters

• Project Drawdown’s Climate Solutions video series: Climate Solutions 101 

• Fridays for Future Toronto website