THE CHICAGO YOUTH ALLIANCE FOR CLIMATE ACTION
Youth Climate Summit

WHO WE ARE

The Chicago Youth Alliance for Climate Action is a student-led nonprofit organization that promotes environmental education and engages government officials, private-sector organizations, and community members in constructive dialogue. Through our hands-on approach to environmental education and activism, CYACA educates, engages, and empowers Chicago youth to take climate action in their communities and beyond.

Our MISSION

The Chicago Youth Alliance for Climate Action, CYACA, was founded in 2015 to educate, engage, and empower young people across the Chicagoland area to take action on climate issues which will affect our generation for years to come.

The Chicago Youth Alliance for Climate Action is a student-led organization that promotes environmental education and engages government officials, private-sector organizations, and community members in constructive dialogue. Through our hands-on approach to environmental education and activism, CYACA educates, engages, and empowers Chicago youth to take climate action in their communities and beyond.

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Executive Board

NOTABLE ALUMNI

Thanks to our Partners and sponsors

Our INITIATIVES - What we do

Educate

Join us at our monthly General Assembly meetings to hear amazing speakers from all different backgrounds and get educated on environmental issues. Being a member of the CYACA general assembly opens up opportunities for lively discussion, networking, and environmental action.

CYACA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

General Assembly meetings occur Thursdays at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and the first Saturday of every month at public libraries throughout the city. Hear updates from our two project teams (Political Action Team, School Sustainability Board), sign up for member opportunities, and learn from our Speaker Series presentations!
Free snacks at GA Meetings

Caroline Wooten- Organizing Workshop

Wooten is a conservation organizer with the Illinois Branch of the Sierra Club. Wooten works with Illinois Sierra Club members, groups, and partners throughout the state to build grassroots power to win on clean energy and climate issues. She helps plan and lead trainings on issue and electoral organizing, and works with members and volunteers to help build and strengthen relationships and shared work with groups working on social justice campaigns.

Wooten will lead an Organizing Workshop: Organizing and Campaigning for Political Change, in which we’ll learn about strategies for creating legislative change within our communities and our schools, as well as gain insight into our political philosophies and campaigning preferences.

Ted C. Fishman - Writing Workshop

Fishman is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author of China, Inc. and Shock of Gray, with work featured in the The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Chicago magazine, and Bloomberg Business Week. Fishman has been a fellow at the think tank for the US Chamber of Commerce and a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Center on Longevity.

His recently published work in Chicago Magazine, entitled “Shape of Water,” is a topical discussion of what climate change means for our city and what policy measures we should take to prepare ourselves for the worst.

Fishman will direct a Writing Workshop in early 2019: Talking and Writing about the Environment, in which we will learn about the best strategies for communicating what climate change means to us and how to address it.

Rebecca Ratliff - Effective Politics Workshop

Rebecca Ratliff is a volunteer co-leader of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby chapter. Passionate about empowering volunteers to make personal breakthroughs in exercising political power, her experience includes climate policy, grassroots organizing, and lobbying on the local and national level.

Engage

We believe it is important to engage our elected officials on environmental issues. Our team members write letters to our elected officials, discuss current environmental policy issues, and attend lobbying workshops. By working on campaigns with alongside prominent environmental organizations, we ensure that youth’s voices are heard.

POLITICAL ACTION TEAM


The Political Action Team is a group of committed, passionate CYACA leaders who work on our campaigns to make sure youth voices are heard. This includes trips to Springfield and D.C to lobby our legislators, as well as getting involved in political and climate campaigns.

Become a General Assembly member to get more involved! If you’re already a member, talk with one of us or check the calendar for our next meeting!

About our campaigns

This year, along with our School Sustainability Series, CYACA is working on Ready for 100, the People’s Climate Movement, and the IL Climate Strike. We need to make sure the transition to renewable energy is just, equitable, and protects frontline and communities of color most affected by these issues. Find out more about these campaigns here:

Ready for 100 Chicago Collective

Chicago just became the largest city in the US to commit to 100% renewable energy by 2035! Help us make this plan happen! The youth of Chicago have a unique stake in the resiliency and health of our city. By forming a RF100 Chicago Youth Council, we can ensure that our voices are heard in the decisions made about our future.

Communities are ready for 100%
Find a Ready For 100 campaign or city that is committed to—or powered by—100% clean energy near you. Learn more or take action now!

Clean energy is here. Let’s make it for everyone.
City by city and state by state, it’s time for an equitable and just transition to 100% clean, renewable energy.

Illinois People’s Climate Movement

The Peoples Climate Movement grew out of the historic NYC Peoples Climate March in September 2014. Under the banner of To Change Everything, It Takes Everyone, the march was the largest and most diverse climate mobilization on record. In the subsequent five years, PCM has mobilized across the country in small towns and big cities alike. From Anchorage to Miami, Portland to LA, we took to the streets to Resist. Build. Rise. and to Rise for Climate, Jobs, and Justice.

In total, PCM has moved nearly one million people into action. We’ve built a broader climate movement of environmental justice groups, people of faith, labor unions, immigrants, communities of color, and young people all aligned to advance a climate action platform rooted in economic and racial justice. We’ve also helped states make significant policy gains and laid the groundwork for the Green New Deal.

The global pandemic poses unique challenges and raises real questions about how and when PCM can mobilize in the future. While we continue to believe that broad-based mass mobilizations are essential to moving decision-makers to act on climate change, we are suspending our efforts in order for our partners to focus on addressing the current crisis and in the hope that someday soon we can once again march with you side by side.

IL Climate Strike

Get involved with the IL Climate Strike, Chicago’s sister movement along with the global youth strikes for climate action to protect our future.

Empower

We work towards empowering youth environmental groups from all across the city through a coordinated agenda and shared resources. Members of the School Sustainability Board (SSB) serve as representatives of various environmental groups around the city, all working towards making our schools more sustainable based on data we collect through energy audits.

School Sustainability Board

This Fall CYACA has launched a school sustainability series. By merging with work from the School Sustainability Board, we’re working with students across Chicago to push their high schools to go Solar!

Currently, solar clubs are set up and running in high schools across the city. Interested in bringing solar to your school?

Current Active CYACA Solar Schols:
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NEWS

What 2020 Means for Us

2020 is a big year. The 2020 census will re-proportion congressional seats and determine how billions of federal dollars will be distributed in states, cities and communities across the country. The results of the 2020 presidential election in November, with first primaries starting in less than a month, will set the trajectory of federal policy on the climate for the next four years. On April 22, the world will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Locally, Chicago is anticipating a renewed Climate Action Plan from the city by the end of 2020. And many of us at the Chicago Youth Alliance for Climate Action (CYACA) are finding ourselves dealing with the reality of graduating high school in just five months.

As we wrapped up a year of climate activism in 2019, we joined the Illinois Youth Climate Strike on December 6, which drew out hundreds of students and allies despite low temperatures. The tone of the December strike echoed the demands of previous climate strikes: the City of Chicago needs to enact immediate climate solutions. The #FridaysForFuture strikes will continue this spring.

At CYACA, we wrapped up our year with goal-setting for our organization and created a list of New Year’s resolutions. Among organizational goals, which include planning a Youth Climate Summit at the Field Museum in April, we’ve been reflecting on what tangible steps we want to see the city and school district take this year.

I have been a student at Whitney Young High School for six years, and one goal that I have, along with many other Whitney Young seniors, is to leave behind a positive environmental legacy for our school. When CYACA began our CPS Solar Initiative at the start of the last school year, we didn’t realize how many energy- and conservation-related decisions had to be made at the district level, and that they were not being independently decided by schools. We have since worked with CPS’s recently appointed Sustainability Director, Sandrine Schultz, on exploring solar for our school and other energy conservation strategies. But the question of how we can hold the district accountable for its energy decisions remains important, as there is often a lack of transparency and urgency when students do not actively demand results. We still see a lack of urgency in the green transition for CPS and for the city as a whole—a city that has promised us renewable electricity in all buildings by 2035 and a fully electrified bus fleet by 2040 but has made little headway in enacting those goals.

For many of us at CYACA, 2020 means an abrupt transition into college and away from Chicago, the city that we have invested in with our activism for years. Before we leave, we want to see concrete legislative action on climate change from the city, which means that the Lightfoot administration needs to uphold its campaign promises. When we take our work to the next stage of our life, we want assurance that Chicago is protecting the health of its residents and the future of its young people.

Suzy Schlosberg

Co-Director, CYACA

Read the Mini Report!

CYACA just released our report that has been presented to Chicago Public Schools about our plan towards a more sustainable school district and students that are educated on climate. Read more below

LVEJO Toxic Tour!

The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization is holding a tour about the large impact that they’ve made in our community, and it’s open to everybody! Feel free to join CYACA on July 12th, from 5:45-7:45 PM.

We will be meeting at the Semillas de Justicia Garden (2727 S. Troy St.) and if possible, bring the requested $25 donation- if not, please contact Suzy. After the tour, there will be an optional group dinner at El Milagro!

CYACA + IL Youth Climate Strike for Climate Strike #2!


CYACA is partnering with IL Youth Climate Strike for the next strike! Be sure to be there on May 3rd!