Check out our new publication on youth grassroots movements and their role in the environmental-decision mang.

The publication “Let Grassroots Grow” was created by the YEE team as a follow-up of our long term project of the same name. In April 2018, when we submitted this project proposal we only had a small idea about what will happen in August of the same year. Just a few months later, the first School Strike for Climate by Greta Thunberg occurred, causing the wave of following events of climate strikes, demonstrations, and rising number of young climate activists openly fighting and advocating for their future.

Environmental grassroots movements represent a bottom-up approach as an alternative to the current institutionalised politics. They also foster youth-led sustainable change in society by organising activities that tackle environmental problems in the communities. Learning about the local projects and bottom-up initiatives and their important role in the current climate change mitigation, while witnessing the passion and determination of young people gathering in all streets of the world was a clearly unique experience. The year 2019 provided us with many unprecedented and valuable insights on the topic of grassroots movements. The Let Grassroots Grow project was a great opportunity to discover this topic with young people through the projects’ four phases: a seminar in Ireland, webinar series, a training course in the Czech Republic, and 7 local actions in 6 countries, building the expertise of youth organizations needed to support youth-led environmental grassroots projects.

We published this booklet as a guide for all young people and youth organisations to discover what are grassroots movements, their role in the society´s history and current climate change mitigation efforts, and to provide them with a tool-kit to create their bottom-up movement for their local issue to become a global one. There are also useful resources and links on the topic – to give you some ideas on what to read next or if you want to dive into the topic further. We believe all young people are capable of creating movement and mobilising communities for a positive global change. We hope that you will find this publication as a useful resource to explore and initiate your own grassroots movement or support an existing one, whether you are a young individual or a youth organization willing to elevate a movement to be part of a bigger movement to bring change. Enjoy!