In Their Own Hands: Youth and Community Leadership for Climate Action
Communities on the frontlines of climate change are not waiting for solutions to arrive. Youth leaders, women-led organizations, farmers, and grassroots groups are already developing responses shaped by their own environments, livelihoods, and priorities. Yet the people closest to these solutions often have the least influence over the funding and decisions that determine which approaches grow.
“In Their Own Hands” will explore what becomes possible when communities have greater power to lead climate action themselves. Drawing on case studies from different parts of the world, the conversation will examine locally driven approaches that are already producing results and what has enabled them to work.
But recognizing community leadership is different from resourcing it. What does it take for philanthropy to move beyond celebrating locally led climate action toward actually funding it? How can funders assess impact without imposing systems that disadvantage smaller or grassroots organizations? And when a community-led approach succeeds, what does responsible scale look like: growing the organization, replicating the model, influencing policy, or enabling other communities to adapt the idea for themselves?
The session will bring grassroots organizations into conversation with philanthropy, governments, researchers, development actors, and policymakers. By putting examples of community-led action at the center, it will explore how those with resources and institutional power can respond to what communities are already building rather than deciding in advance what they need.
The aim is to surface approaches worth backing and examine what needs to change in funding, partnerships, and decision-making for locally led climate action to move from the margins to a more central role in the global climate response.
What to expect
A participatory conversation grounded in real examples of community-led climate action. Youth leaders, women-led organizations, farmers, and grassroots practitioners will share experiences from their work, creating a starting point for discussion with funders, policymakers, researchers, and development organizations.
Participants will explore what makes locally led approaches effective, the barriers they encounter when seeking resources, and the different pathways through which successful ideas can grow, spread, or influence larger systems.
Who this is for
This session is for grassroots and community leaders, youth- and women-led organizations, farmers, philanthropic funders, development practitioners, researchers, governments, and policymakers interested in shifting more resources and decision-making power toward locally led climate action.
What you will get out of it
Examples of community-led climate action already producing results in different contexts
Perspectives from youth, women, farmers, and grassroots organizations leading climate responses
A deeper understanding of the barriers that prevent locally led approaches from accessing funding
New ways to think about scale that preserve community leadership and local context
Opportunities for philanthropy and other partners to identify and support approaches already working on the ground
Hosted by
Creats International, Inc.