About Us

Objectives:
The Sierra Youth Coalition, in each of our program areas, strives to achieve the following objectives:

Involve: empower youth in Canada to become active members of their community;
Educate: create a widespread understanding that all things are connected;
Change: challenge unjust and unsustainable systems by using a solutions based approach; and to
Invoke Seven Generations: ensure that the voices of future generations are clearly heard by decision-makers

Envisioned as a place to learn and grow, SYC aims to provide volunteers and employees with satisfying and meaningful work. This is achieved through a non-hierarchical and consensus based decision making model that allows equal access to information and a fair distribution of responsibility.

SYC Background:
The Sierra Youth Coalition (SYC) is the youth arm of the Sierra Club of Canada and has been active since 1996. SYC began as a small group with a vision towards the involvement of Canadian youth in pressing environmental issues. The SYC has grown into a national youth environmental coalition with members in all regions of Canada, and local groups operating out of high schools, universities and communities.

Through grassroots action, SYC aims to address unsustainable practices through a solutions based approach that promotes education for sustainability, bioregionalism, and sustainable communities. SYC acts as a networking and resource centre for youth between the ages of 15-26, concerned about environmental and social justice issues. Since our inception, we have run a variety of successful campaigns and initiatives, these have included (but are not limited to)...

1999: The Eco Echo Tour took skills building workshops across rural communities in Canada throughout the summer of 1999. These workshops were attended by youth in high school's, universities, colleges, and other youth focused community groups. This project began as an initiative on the East Coast, and due to its success, spanned nationally reaching communities and youth groups across the country!

2001: During the Climate Change Caravan, from May 7 through to September 20, 2001, a group of 40 concerned citizens, primarily youth, engaged in a self-propelled, fossil-free movement across Canada, starting in Tofino, British Columbia, via Newfoundland, and finishing in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This caravan of bikers and a bus powered by used vegetable oil complete with solar panels (all engineered by students) delivered The BET campaign to all Canadians. The Climate Change Caravan visited roughly 120 towns and cities along the way, making presentations about climate change to town councils, schools, and community groups.

1996-2003: In the area of Trade and the Environment, SYC has always thought it important to communicate strong messages to youth concerned about the impacts of increased trade liberalization and current trade negotiations on ecosystems and the human environment. SYC was active in the lead up to demonstrations in both Seattle and Quebec City. In 2003, the Sierra Youth Coalition coordinated the Deconstructing Dinner Caravan. On this bike tour, 18 Canadian activists rode from Vancouver to Cancun, Mexico in order to demonstrate against the WTO’s 5th Ministerial. Along the way, they collected stories about the connections between Trade, the Environment, and Agriculture. Education and information sharing are always priorities in SYC’s work, and reporting and documentation of our involvement in these events reached 1000s of SYC volunteers, members, supporters and youth.

1998-Now: The Sustainable Campuses Project is one of SYC’s most successful projects. 2005 markes our seventh annual National Sustainable Campuses Cerence. We recently received an award from the North American Association of Environmental Educators for outstanding environmental education on a regional level. Our Sustainable Campuses Network engages over 50 campuses from across Canada, the United States, and even Australia.

2001-Now: Our Community Youth Action Project works with high-school aged youth. We now run week long “Youth Action Gatherings�? in Atlantic Canada, the urban and rural Ottawa area, and on Vancouver Island.

2004-Now: The It’s My Future campaign challenged the investment practices of the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan. We urged teachers to demand that their pension not be invested in dirty energy such as coal power plants.

2004-Now: SYC has been working with the Sierra Club of Canada and the Arctic Indigenous Youth Alliance to protect the Mackenzie River Valley from the construction of a 1300 km natural gas pipeline.

To find out what we’re doing right now, check out our programs and latest news and events!