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Pitch

Training and supporting future environmental community leaders in Latin America.


Description

Summary

Many people have good knowledge about environmental issues in their community and they want to find a way to solve them. However, most of the times this knowledge and great ideas are overshadowed by insecurities and lack of confidence in people’s own leadership abilities. This program will empower people and offer training and continuous support to people who want to work in climate action in their area.
Participants will be able to develop campaigns and legislation against fossil fuels, create communities with clean energy, legislate for adaptation among many other actions. This will be done by participating in an in person training with online/phone follow up and support meetings. Participants will gain the skills to build successful campaigns and reduce tons emissions in their communities. In person trainings will be held in several parts of Latin America, creating more than 50 campaigns which will impact thousands of people through education and creating positive changes for the environment.


Is this proposal for a practice or a project?

Project


What actions do you propose?

During this project, 5-7 countries in Latin America will be visited to host 1-2 environmental leadership trainings. These 2-3 day trainings will teach people the skills they need to know to laugh educational and action campaigns to solve climate issues in their communities. They will learn how to recruit volunteers, meet with government officials, fundraise, write campaign strategies, lead a successful organization and more.
The participants will be selected depending on their interest to follow up the training with creating their own campaigns.
After this, all participants will receive continous support during 18 months remotely so they can continue learning and training on making their campaings successful.

The participants will create campaigns that will achieve:
Clean energy
Legislation against fossil fuels
Climate change education
Involving communities as volunteers
Legislation for adaptation
Reaching thousands through events, social media and bringing clean energy to homes


Who will take these actions?

Me and my organization, Colectivo de Acciones Sustentables, will be leading the training efforts and supporting participants through phone or internet meetings. 
The participants are also key actors since they will be using the skills gained through training to create big changes in their countries.These participants will become leaders who will train and manage volunteers, reach hundreds of potential campaign members, reach thousands in their region through education and making an impact in the government.


Where will these actions be taken?

These trainings will be held in the capitals of Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Chile, Panama and Mexico. Also,and in an effort to reach people in other areas, a second training will happen in a different city or town.
Another two countries will be chosen, depending on team availability, sponsors and time of year. These could be Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, Costa Rica or Nicaragua.

Around 10-20 leaders will develop in every locationand they will continue working in all of their campaigns in their same countries.


In addition, specify the country or countries where these actions will be taken.

Chile


Country 2

Puerto Rico


Country 3

Dominican Republic


Country 4

Panama


Country 5

Mexico


Impact/Benefits


What impact will these actions have on greenhouse gas emissions and/or adapting to climate change?

This project will have a large impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With a goal of creating at least 50 community campaigns across Latin America, that will mean that many groups of neighbors, schools, towns and other will be able to switch to clean energy, produce less pollution, use less resources and create new sustainable legislation in their areas. 
Due to the nature of this project, it is difficult to estimate a set quantity of gases that will be reduced since participants/future campaign leaders will be from different towns with different needs. They could live in a city of millions or a rural town of hundreds and their interests will vary depending on background and location.
In general, this will have a large impact by reaching thousands of people and making an aspect of their lives more sustainable, from energy to community leadership.


What are other key benefits?

This project has a variety of key benefits. These are:

Creating new leaders:
This initiative will create and support people who will continue to grow as leaders. After this is over, the new leaders will have gained a set of tools that will allow them in future years to continue being part of the climate movement and continue to solve environmental problems in their areas.

 

Moving Latin America's climate movement ahead:
In Latin America many people are aware of climate change, however, due to lack of funding and many other issue, many environmental initiatives get stuck on recycling efforts or education. This project will support people to create strong changes and inspire other groups across their countries to take similar actions.

 

Reaching people outside cities:
Many Latin American countries have a very centralized way of functioning, leaving people outside the capitals out of opportunities to participate in environmental initiatives o receive material to create their own. This project looks to offer more than one training per country, being able to reach people in rural areas and smaller cities with less resources.

 

Building a sustainable future:
The campaigns created by the leaders in this project will open the path to write new public policy that will help future sustainable development. In addition, new leaders will arise from the volunteers participating in the 50+ campaigns across the countries.

 


Costs/Challenges


What are the proposal’s projected costs?

One challenge will be reaching people in rural areas with little communication, an approach that will need to be done by radio.

Economic costs:

Core staff/Trainers, 2-3 people: 30,000
Flights and transportation for core team: 15,000
Lodging for team: 2,500

Training events
Training announcements physical, radio and internet: 2,000
Training materials(booklets, pencils, office supplies, projector): 2,000
Food during trainings: 1,500
Training locations rental: 7,000
Program t-shirts: 300
Travel support for low income participants: 4,000

Post training support:
Informative materials for each campaign (flyers, banners) : 5,000
Conference call program subscription (online): 150
Long distance phone call costs: 200
End of project certificate: 500


 

 


Timeline

Phase 1- Planning (2 months):
Create itinerary
Select country locations
Make training location reservations
Create in country contacts and connections
Start announcements for recruiting leaders

Phase 2-Recuitment (1.5 months)
Recruitment
Interviewing potential participants
Accepting participants

Phase 3- Trainings (1.5 months)
2 training programs (2-3 day each) in each country
Travel between countries
Create bases for later support

Phase 4- Support (18 months)
Individual support for each leader via calls and/or video chats
Country level support via conference calls, webinars and online training sessions
Send informative and support materials for their campaigns
Assist in website creation, working with the media, social media managing among other campaign needs
Contacting leaders with potential supporters locally and/or internationally

1-15 years: Campaigns will be won by leaders in the communities and new public policy will happen

15-50 years: The leaders created by the different campaigns will continue their work as activists, educators and community change makers. They will continue creating changes in their location and creating a climate movement culture in each area.

50-100 years: Leading for climate and environmental issues prevention will be part of the culture and history of each participating community. They will have benefited from years of working in the climate movement and will have sustainable development as a mandatory request for each new project.  
 


About the author(s)

Amira Odeh, resident of Puerto Rico, is a geographer who has been involved with environmental community efforts, environmental education, activism and leadership for the past 10 years. She has dedicated a lot of her organizing efforts to training environmental leaders on different areas of grassroots organizing. She has offered trainings in Puerto Rico, United States, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Australia. She also led a training program for youth with the Sierra Club's Sierra Student Coalition and is currently leading an online program for activists in Chile. She will be leading the implementation of this project and the training sessions.


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References