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Youth Leadership in Sustainability

Develop skills and knowledge to join this critical conversation

Youth · Leadership · Sustainability

The Planet is waiting for you. Are you ready?

  • You want to learn the skills and knowledge that will allow you to play a leadership role in protecting our planet.

  • You want to develop a strong background within one of the most promising new job fields of clean and green technology.

  • You want to learn from environmental leaders in unique, hand-on, inspired and often outdoor settings

  • You want to understand sustainability from Indigenous perspectives

  • You will be in Grade 11 or 12 next year.

  • You can get to and from Trent University and PACE at PCVS on school days.  Students from both public school Boards (KPR and PVNC) are welcome.

The one (fall) semester 4-credit Youth Leadership in Sustainability program could be the program for you!

YLS at a Glance Watch "YLS 2018 in Action" Video

YLS is now accepting applications for the fall 2021 semester

Click on the Program, Setting, then Get Involved tabs for more info.

YLS is a Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB Program in partnership with

We gratefully acknowledge funding support from Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), an agency of the Government of Ontario.

YLS Virtual Open House January 13 7PM

Join us to learn more about YLS. Wed Jan 13 7PM. Register here to get the link.

Applications are now being accepted for the Fall 2021 class. 

Click on the Program, Setting, then Get Involved tabs for info, then click on the link for the application form.

Our YLS Instagram Feed

Instagram post 17890906522871239 Instagram post 17890906522871239
We had the great pleasure and fortune to spend 45 We had the great pleasure and fortune to spend 45 minutes with National Green Party leader Annamie Paul.  She seemed to intuitively understand the “world view” of YLS students, insofar as she related to their thirst for more knowledge, their frustration, their fears, and their desire to engage in positive action.  She struck us all with her accessible communication style and straight forward and only mildly partisan approach.  She subtly nudged all of us to dig in on the political side – whatever side that might be – because it is there that such important decisions are made. 
And thanks to our YLS student Gabe who set the zoom up with Anamie. Gabe worked on Anamie’s leadership and by-election campaigns and got to know Anamie first-hand.
Thank you @annamiepaul for such an engaging session and thank you Gabe!
Making a presentation to City Council is a “comi Making a presentation to City Council is a “coming of age” experience for young active citizens.  Tonight was budget deliberation night for Ptbo Council.  Amidst bundles of nerves and second guesses, nine YLS students stepped up to the microphone at City Hall to share their priorities for City spending.  Many spoke to the need for new $ for climate action within the reality of COVID challenges. Others spoke to the need for new capital funds to address youth homelessness.  And Emilie spoke to the need for funding to revitalize downtown as we emerge from the pandemic.  Both the Mayor and Ptbo Examiner Reporter Joelle congratulated them on their to-the-point, clear, confident depositions.  Jasmine, Gabe, Dionna, Jewelle, David, Juliette, Maddy, Emilie and Kat – don’t underestimate the significance of the milestone you reached tonight.
 And you’re just getting started!  Congratulations.
“Decide what future you want for yourself and yo “Decide what future you want for yourself and your children, and every day, make decisions that move towards that future”  We watched Christina Figueres’ message to the world yesterday, on the 5 yr anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement.  Christiana was the UN’s chief negotiator of our landmark agreement, and she pushes relentlessly forward with her mindset of “Stubborn Optimism”. The class just finished reading her book (co-authored by her UN peer Tom Rivett Carnac) “The Future We Choose” where she sets out a powerful and fresh new approach to winning the climate fight.  If you haven’t already, check out Christiana’s and Tom’s podcast series “Outrage and Optimism” from within their “Global Optimism” presence on the net.
So … what do YOU want?  And will YOU do to secure that?
Hay is for Horses, Straw is for Houses. So started Hay is for Horses, Straw is for Houses.
So started our straw bale construction workshop today with @straworksinc. @campkawartha is replacing their health center with this sustainable building show/education piece.  Deirdra, Miles and Solomon of Straworks Inc stepped us through the benefits of straw bale construction then showed us how to trim, compress, place and stuff the bales into the walls.  Holes were then stuffed with straw, and cellulose fibre (shredded newsprint) was pressed into window ledges and headers.
This health center will be a NET NEGATIVE carbon impact in construction, insofar as it sequesters 12.5 tons of carbon in the straw, wood and cellulose.  Subtract the 7 tons of carbon in the other building materials, and you have a net 5.5 ton carbon SINK!  This is a radical departure from carbon dense fiberglass insulation bats, concrete foundations, and ashfault shingles.
The YLS team flew into action and had the large wall filled in about an hour – nicely done, team!
This sort of day is exactly what YLS is intended to be – exploring the practices of tomorrow’s low carbon world, using our hands, learning new skills from local expertise (Straworks), and helping an environmental leader (Camp Kawartha).  We will all watch the rest of the work progress towards a ribbon cutting before next summer’s campers arrive on the shores of Clear Lake.
Lots of folks live lots of years in Ptbo and don’t know about Harper Park in the south end of the city (just N of the casino).  Therein lies the importance of place-based education.  YLS alumni @_jacob.bowman knows the park as well as anyone  - especially the rare urban brook trout population in and just outside the park.  He toured us through he park, focusing on biodiversity resources and he discussed his work and others’ to protect the natural features of the park from surrounding development impacts and new road construction associated with the casino. Glorious day to be walking in the trees and beside the brook. We finished with a view of the  quite remarkable brook trout stream/urban ditch – who’d a thunk!?  Big thankyous to Jacob for the tour and his leadership!
Load More… Follow on Instagram

Video: “YLS 2018 in Action!”

About YLS

Youth Leadership in Sustainability is an innovative 1-semester program that will prepare grade 11 and 12 students for leadership roles in sustainability initiatives at the local and global levels.

YLS is Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB program in partnership with Trent University, the Kawartha World Issues Centre (KWIC) and Fleming College.

Our classroom is on Trent University campus and at PCVS, and the program will take us into the community, the forests and the region!

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