Just thought we'd send along a few little updates from our fabulous climate action teams. We've been up to lots of fun stuff together and we're hoping you might get a little FOMO (fear of missing out) and decide you just can't resist joining our team ;)
(FYI if that happens you can join us for a community meeting this Thursday July 19th in Vancouver, a climate solutions workshop on July 23rd, or check out our jam-packed event calendar for more opportunities to plug in!)
Our North Shore team has been on fire this month, collecting over 475 signatures in the last month, which they attribute to their creative ‘face-hole boards’ - huge hand painted art pieces that draws people toward the team during canvassing. It’s a great tactic for getting signatures and building connections in their community!
Vancouver has been meeting and interviewing progressive candidates from across Vancouver's political spectrum, in order to identify which leaders we feel will be strongest and most effective at guiding the city’s transition away from fossil fuels.
With a view to a just transition and the demovictions in their city, Burnaby is meeting with representatives of organizations like Acorn and CUPE to see how best we can collaborate on common values, as well as connecting with Youth Indigenous leader Ernie Cardinal to see if they can promote youth activism.
Our New Westminster team is just getting started, with their first team meeting coming up quickly in early August. Fill out this application if you want to plug in, and someone from our team will be in touch with you shortly.
The Tri-Cities team has been furiously canvassing at festivals, events, transit hubs, farmers markets and people's front doors, and building the kind of people power makes a difference. People in power are listening. Politicians and candidates want to talk to them, local business leaders look to them for help in getting green initiatives going, and governments are following the recommendations in their petitions.
Maple Ridge organized a super successful Moment of Power presentation in mid-June. Although the conversation got a bit sad at some points (climate change'll do that to ya), it was also very productive and exciting. They are especially grateful to special guest Eddie Gardner for opening our event and speaking about his beautiful vision for change.
The newly-minted Richmond team has only had two meetings, but they’re already starting to talk to city councillors and other politicians about issues like protecting the agricultural land reserve, salmon protection, and public transit, and the amazing opportunities for climate action here in our city.
If you’re interested in taking action on climate change, getting folks participating in local municipal politics, and bringing creativity, energy, and excitement to a passionate team working on climate justice, we need you! You can sign up directly through our event calendar or swing by our next community meeting or Moment of Power workshop.
Looking for an even bigger challenge, and have leadership skills you can bring to the table? We're looking for team captains who can contribute 3-5 hours per week volunteering with our executive team. If this sounds like the challenge you've been waiting for, drop me a line at [email protected]
Sincere thank you to the amazing volunteers who created, planned, captained, and joined the 55 Force of Nature volunteer shifts, meetings, phonebanks, and other events, engaging over 500 volunteers, that took place across the Lower Mainland in June; the incredible donors who are making sure we can fund the work we need to do; and the thousands of people who have signed our petitions and supported our work in other ways. You’re all rockstars!
And some good climate news from around the world this week... Costa Rica has committed to phasing out fossil fuels, renewable energy production in Germany has reached a new record, California just passed a law requiring all new buildings to have some form of solar power!, and New Westminster completed its first ever rooftop solar garden!
