Youth Lead the Way: Science Centers can Foster Empowering Settings for Youth-Led Climate Action

Responding to urgent climate-related needs, youth around the world are leading collective actions. Below a team from OMSI shares examples about how a collaboration between youth and a science center supported youth empowerment for collective climate action. OMSI would like to encourage colleagues to continue learning about following youth leadership for similar social goals.

By Maria Zybina, Research and Evaluation Assistant; Todd Shagott, Research and Evaluation Data Systems Coordinator; Marcie Benne, Director of Engagement Research and Advancement

“I feel more confident than ever in my own understanding of this issue [climate change]. I feel empowered in my understanding, in my ability to educate, and in my ability to make change.”

This powerful statement captures reflections of a Youth Lead the Way program participant on their experience in the OMSI Youth Advisory Research Board and is congruent with statements of increased climate awareness from other youth participants.

This awareness is important not only because it provides youth with a better understanding of the issues, but also because it allows the youth to better communicate about climate and influence the awareness of their close communities. Such influence positioned the youth as experts, with youth reporting[1]  that “family or friends ask me about things related to climate change,” and enabled them to have conversations about climate impact issues that were “ultimately more comfortable and focused than they used to be.”

What is the Youth Lead the Way program?

Youth Lead the Way: A Youth Advisory Research Board Model for Climate Impact Education, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a collaborative effort for climate change between youth, climate partners, and a science center— in this case, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). Youth Lead the Way integrated two well-established methods—Youth Advisory Board (YAB) and Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR). Through YABs, young participants  influence real, observable change. Through YPAR, participants are positioned as experts, creating knowledge that further influences social change. By integrating the most empowering aspects of YAB and YPAR—providing participants with opportunities to influence real change and create knowledge as experts—we developed the Youth Advisory Research Board (YARB), which helped amplify the youth voice and fostered their confidence in addressing climate impact in their communities.. This method shaped an environment (or setting) that supported YARB members’ agency and feelings of empowerment.

As a result, the youth led climate impact education and advising at OMSI; OMSI supported the youth. Centering the aspirations and intentions of the youth and following their lead was critical for this project, but something OMSI staff needed to better understand and practice. Through 16 months of the project, from June 2021 to September 2022, a cohort of selected youth (ages 16-21) held paid employee positions at OMSI as climate science educators for the public and advisors for museum professionals. Youth Lead the Way programming supported youth in building skills for success in both of these roles. Youth participated in trainings on climate impact, science communication, research methods, storytelling, and leadership. They developed their capacities for climate leadership by working as actual advisors and educators for the museum.

Youth Advisors

To create their advisor roles, the youth were provided with a short list of running museum projects and their possible needs so each participant could choose a project based on their interests and/or prior experience. Specifically, the youth provided guidance to their OMSI colleagues by reviewing and updating exhibit copy; collaborated with the Exhibits team on developing sustainable exhibit fabrication practices; and took an active part in planning and implementing activities for community-based earthquake resilience.

Youth Science Educators

To create their educator and story developer roles, youth researched their own questions related to local climate change impacts, such as wildfires and urban heat islands, and explored opportunities for collective action in their communities. Each youth chose the communication mode they believed was most suitable to convey their stories. Eventually, youth climate stories featuring videos, games, and a climate art gallery, were presented in multiple venues, including community spaces identified by youth and OMSI.

What are examples of the OMSI YARB as an empowering setting? 

A science center can host a YARB for collective climate action and contribute to its empowering setting through commonly accepted factors such as supportive staff, trainings, clear communication, effective structures and meaningful roles. These common factors appeared in the data as contributors to the OMSI YARB as an empowering setting, but we highlight some examples specific to collective climate action so that other institutions may be encouraged to undertake similar work.

Throughout the study of the project, youth shared their insights on the OMSI YARB as an empowering setting for collective climate action. Their insights were synthesized into four categories of empowering settings (identified in prior research*):

• Belief System is a culture that provides opportunities for members to grow and change through an increase in their  motivation and awareness.
• Relational Environment is an atmosphere in which members feel support, caring, and a sense of belonging. In other words, interpersonal and intergroup relationships are nurtured.
• Opportunity Role Structure has to do with how easily members can take roles that are meaningful to them and allow them to be engaged in a substantive manner.
• Core Activities are essentially the things that members do that help them accomplish the goal of the setting, while also being provided an opportunity for skill development and the development of self-efficacy.

Examples below illustrate youth-identified empowering factors of the OMSI YARB that are specific to collective climate action, in each of the four categories:

• Belief System
  • Having the agency to direct the program for community action for climate impact (identified as the key premise of the OMSI YARB)
• Relational Environment
  • Making connections with others invested in climate action
• Opportunity Role Structure
  • Strengthening capacities to educate close community members, like family and friends, on climate change
• Core Activities
  • Increasing confidence engaging with the public as changemaker and ISE professional.

We provide these specific examples so you can see that supporting a YARB for collective climate action is within reach for science center staff members.

The time for action is now

We stand at a point in history when “climate crisis is widespread, extraordinary, and intensifying.” ** We need collective action—people working together, in an informed  way, to positively change their community. Youth around the world are stepping up to the call for collective action to prevent and prepare for local and global changes in the climate by promoting public engagement. Groups like Zero Hour, Fridays for Future USA, Sunrise Movement, and many other youth networks across the country have already created opportunities for public engagement through public rallies, lobbying, and community organizing. The days of neutrality within the informal STEM learning (ISL) community are coming to an end. To be leaders, we must commit to supporting positive change. By partnering with and learning from young climate leaders we increase our knowledge, relevance, reach, and inclusivity, while supporting the next generation of leaders with resources specific to our field.

* Maton & Salem, 1995; Maton, 2008

** United Nations, n.d.

Want to learn more? Check out related summaries from the Youth Lead the Way project website.

1. A youth-authored guide for working with youth
2. A practitioner-authored guide for how to support a Youth Advisory Research Board
3. An evaluator-authored guide on lessons learned from the Youth Lead the Way program
4. A researcher-authored guide with an evidence- and theory-based model of the OMSI-based Youth Advisory Research Board as an empowering setting.

Still have questions about the project? Contact Scott Randol at srandol@omsi.edu

References

 Cammarota, J., & Fine, M. (Eds.). (2008). Revolutionizing Education: Youth Participatory Action Research in Motion. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203932100

Dimond, J. P., Dye, M., Larose, D., & Bruckman, A. S. (2013). Hollaback!: The role of storytelling online in a social movement organization. Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 477–490. https://doi.org/10.1145/2441776.2441831

Maton, K. I. (2008). Empowering Community Settings: Agents of Individual Development, Community Betterment, and Positive Social Change. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41(1–2), 4–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9148-6

Ozer, E. J. (2016). Youth-Led Participatory Action Research. In Advances in Child Development and Behavior (Vol. 50, pp. 189–207). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acdb.2015.11.006

Perkins, D. D., & Zimmerman, M. A. (1995). Empowerment theory, research, and application. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23(5), 569–579. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02506982

Powers, C. B., & Allaman, E. (2012). How Participatory Action Research Can Promote Social Change and Help Youth Development. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2199500

United Nations. (n.d.). On the frontline of Climate Crisis, worlds most vulnerable nations suffer disproportionately | office of the high representative for the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and Small Island Developing States. United Nations. https://www.un.org/ohrlls/news/frontline-climate-crisis-worlds-most-vulnerable-nations-suffer-disproportionately