One of our most prized assets as a destination (place to visit) is the access to nature and its awesomeness. But the local stewards are in need of a fresh vision and a new generation of support
Young Voices, Big Impact is a local initiative by AWARE (Association of Whistler Residents for the Environment) which “set out with a simple but powerful purpose: to meaningfully listen to the opinions of young people across the Sea to Sky region in relation to the environment.”
We connected with AWARE to find out more about this initiative and how Whistler’s youth are helping to move the dial on environmental initiatives throughout the Sea to Sky Corridor.
Young at Heart
AWARE has always recognized that youth are vastly underrepresented in environmental decision-making spaces and are often underrepresented in environmental conversations overall. The group – which began in 1989, as Executive Director Pegah Pourkarimi reflects, as “a committed group of local residents that brought recycling to the area” – has always valued the inclusion of young people in their projects.
COVID, however, put an end to the face-to-face environmental mentorship program, Project Now, that the NGO used to run. Emerging from the effects of the pandemic has given rise to a renewed Strategic Plan for the organization, with one of the strategic points centring around exploring and implementing ways of engaging with local youth; thus, the mobilizing of the Young Voices, Big Impact initiative.
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Reaching Out
Renewed youth outreach began in January 2025 over the course of six months, with data being amassed through surveys, in-person group and club meetings and visits. Employing a Participatory Action Research approach, youth were key in helping design the questions and outreach models for their peers: shifting the conversation from consultation to co-creation.
Opinions were gathered from those between the ages of 14 to 30, with 86% of respondents being high school students from Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton. The ultimate goals of the initiative were not only to find out what environmental issues are of top priority to local youth, but equally, to devise ways to ensure that moving forward, “there are visible roles, decision-making power, and long-term support for youth-led action” in the Sea to Sky region.
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Hope is an Active Verb
The results of the survey process surprised Pourkarimi, and yet “injected hope into my heart.” Following the compilation of findings, Pourkarimi was infused with a sense of “right on, we can do this!” In the position of AWARE’s Executive Director for more than a year, they go on to elaborate that “this generation wants to actively participate – but are broken because they have been left out of the conversations.” AWARE is bringing them back in.
Local Action Style
Overwhelmingly, 60% of high schoolers expressed an interest in more hands-on climate action and sustainability-related activities and learning, rather than online, digital interfacing. Examples which led the list were a desire to participate in hands-on conservation activities, learning wilderness skills, even tree planting, not ‘clicktivism.’
There exists a definite, overriding desire to get involved, to do meaningful actions, on the part of the area’s young people. The questions asked were specific to the Sea to Sky region, with participants listing as their major local concern ‘Damage to the Natural Environment and Wildlife.’ The most important climate actions identified by participants were ‘reducing plastic use’ and ‘transitioning to renewable energy.’
Despite Greta Thunberg’s international influence as a pivotal youth environmental lobbyer and activist, the ‘Climate Strike’ campaigns associated with her were at the bottom of local youth’s list as a way to engage proactively in supporting environmentally restorative initiatives.
Environmental Damage
There was less interest expressed in wanting to get involved on the local political level – partly understood as feeling jaded from being left out of the process for so long, or only consulted in tokenistic capacities; as well, as the political sphere being partly responsible for the current predicaments we find ourselves in.
That being said, the Resort Municipality is also actively seeking ways of increasing youth involvement – and many of the outreach findings that AWARE just gathered, align with those that the RMOW have amassed.
The youth of the Sea to Sky are not a passive bunch, and they represent a wide range of socio-economic and cultural diversity. Local Indigenous youth, in particular, noted how they felt their Traditional, Land-Based Knowledge wasn’t being included where it should be, and expressed a particular sense of being left out of needed conversations.
Now what?
What next? The results are in. Key to AWARE is keeping the momentum up in order to be able to activate and mobilize the next phases of youth involvement. The organization is looking at hopefully securing a strong funding model for next year to be able to facilitate local youth in “being catalysts for activation.”
In the meantime, AWARE is actively trying to form a Young Voices, Big Impact Committee of high school students to begin meeting this Fall. The NGO, though unsuccessful as of yet, to have any youth join their Board of Directors, now has two youth representatives on their standalone Advocacy Committee, which reports to the Board.
Equally, the organization has actively slated opportunities for youth to be involved in all of their current campaigns – from Zero Waste Management and Circular Economy projects, Priority Habitats, to their Active Transportation programs – providing as many avenues for active youth engagement as possible.
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Think Globally, Act Locally
AWARE’s focus is regionally based; however, it fits into nationally based dialogues around youth involvement. Youth environmental rallying voices are currently spearheading two ground-breaking lawsuits (Mathur v. Ontario and La Rose et. al v. His Majesty the King) playing out in the courts around climate concerns, the latter of which has a trial scheduled in Vancouver in October 2026.
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Increasingly so, young voices are helping chart new courses in Canadian environmental policy and practice, and AWARE is there to help foster local interest and participation. AWARE’s approach is encouraging and inspiring as they seek methods to meaningfully engage a wide range of perspectives to address issues that affect young and older, alike; issues that affect us all.
Check out the AWARE website for how to become a member, donate or participate in an event.
