Dear John,
Two weeks ago we announced that we’re all in for building a youth-led convergence taking on climate change.
Now I want to give you a bit more detail about how we’re going to get there.
Because we take building and sustaining onramps to leadership for young people seriously, we are forming a steering committee that is reflective of our network and includes the voices of those we want to amplify. This committee will be the heart and soul of this effort.
We will center youth of color and those most immediately directly affected by the climate crisis in Power Shift 2021 planning. Acknowledging and addressing the many ways in which race, gender, physical and mental ability, class, sexual orientation, religion, age, citizenship status, language, level of formal education, geographic location, and other identifiers are often used to exclude, isolate, and oppress us, we will strive to make the convergence accessible to all who want to participate.
Together, we will shape an equitable future and the paths we take to get there.
We are committed to compensation in order to make the Steering Committee accessible -- because we know that not everyone can afford to work without compensation. We also know that our own resources are limited.
Power Shift 2021 will be a massive national youth convergence that will bring together at least 3,000 young people for three days of trainings, workshops, and panels and action.
To change everything, we need everyone at the table. To us that means putting the folks most immediately and directly impacted by the climate crisis at the center of organizing this effort.
The Steering Committee and other planning teams will handle everything from branding and comms to logistics, programming, recruitment, and fundraising. We have a lot of exciting and intentional work to do and we need your to make sure the right people are at the table.
Putting on a convergence that matches the enormity of the climate crisis is an audacious effort that will require all of our resources and more.
We are committed to making this an accessible experience for the leaders of Power Shift and we need your help to make that happen.
Thank you for all that you do! See you at Power Shift 2021!
-Hope Ghazala
Network Director
