The Founders' Huddle: Strengthening and Resourcing the Youth Climate Movement
Co-hosted by Youth Climate Collaborative x Adapt2Win x ChangemakerXchange
Across the United States and beyond, founders, nonprofits and grassroots organizations are already helping communities respond to extreme heat, flooding, droughts, severe weather and other growing climate impacts. Yet many of these leaders are working in isolation, often unaware of others doing parallel work down the street or across the country, without a shared space to compare notes, troubleshoot common challenges or find ways to team up.
The funding imbalance makes this fragmentation even more urgent. Less than 10% of global climate finance goes toward adaptation, while youth-led initiatives receive less than 1% of climate funding. The generation that will live longest with the consequences of climate change is receiving the least support to address the impacts communities face today and prepare for the future it is inheriting.
This working session gives youth climate founders real time and space to get to know one another: to talk through what they’re building, the strengths they bring, the challenges they’re facing, and where they could use help or have help to offer. Together, participants will map where their work overlaps and surface concrete opportunities to collaborate, from shared projects to joint funding bids, while breaking down the fragmentation that keeps founders from finding each other in the first place.
The session will also serve as the launch point for a new US Youth Climate Founders WhatsApp group and monthly meetings, creating a space for these relationships, conversations and collaborations to continue well beyond Climate Week.
In the final 30 minutes, invited funders will join the room to hear directly from founders and take part in the conversation, before continuing informally at the Youth Climate Founders, Funders and Allies Mixer that follows.
PLEASE NOTE YOU MUST REGISTER FOR THE NEST TO ATTEND. WE WILL SEND YOU A COMPLIMENTARY CODE.