Youth Engagement

• Principal Investigator: Laine Bourassa

While evidence exists showing youth environmental programs are able to promote program participant leadership, it is not yet known to what degree these participants are able to improve the environmental engagement of members of their social networks. This “ripple effect” was assessed in this study through the context of the Make-A-Difference (MAD) Youth Sustainability Leadership Program in New Zealand.

The program involves a three-day social gathering (hui) and ongoing support for several following years. The ripple effect of environmental engagement is explored using a four-phased, mixed-methods design with 30 participants of the MAD program and six members of their social networks as participants.

Results indicate that MAD participants undergo transformational changes during the program, including developing an identity of a change agent and becoming a member of the MAD community.

• Principal Investigator: Sara Wicks

The study investigated how to sustain young people’s motivation for environmental action over time through narrative interviews with 11 environmental leaders who attended a conference called IMPACT! Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership in 2009 or 2011. Drawing upon the literature on life paths to environmental action the interviews incorporated an exercise that asked participants to plot important events in their lives and use the events to graph their engagement over time. The data analyzed included interviews that built upon these engagement graphs drawn by participants during the interviews.

The findings indicated that competency (the knowledge of an issue, skill-development and self-efficacy), identity development and relatedness (sense of community) were highest while participants attended university. Competency and identity development were found to be cumulative, but relatedness fluctuated, directly impacting the level of engagement participants had. Developing a supportive community and finding relatedness appears to be important for facilitating sustained engagement in action.

• Principal Investigator: Manuel Riemer

There is a growing understanding that a focus on changing individual-level environmental behaviors, or personal practices, is insufficient to create the societal transformation needed to effectively address anthropogenic environmental degradation including global climate change. Instead, another form of engagement – environmental action – is needed. Several gaps in the empirical research on effective programs for youth engagement in environmental action motivated our multinational group of researchers, representatives of community organizations, and youth environmental leaders to develop Youth Leading Environmental Change (YLEC), a program that is driven by a theory of engagement that combines several youth-engagement strategies with a high likelihood of impact in diverse settings, derived from the current knowledge base in this area.

Coordinated by CEJRG, the collaboration allowed YLEC to maintain a consistent format and approach while remaining adaptable and relevant to the particular features of each country’s environmental, social, economic, and cultural contexts. Just as the issue of climate change is interdisciplinary, so too is our collaboration, involving academic partners from such fields as:

• Community Psychology
• Education
• Sociology
• Economics
• Geography
• Business
• Environmental Studies

Together we conducted a comprehensive longitudinal mixed-method quasi-experimental study evaluating the impact of YLEC on program participants across six countries (Bangladesh, Canada, Germany, India, Uganda and the United States of America). The results showed that the YLEC workshop led to a meaningful personal transformation for participating youth resulting in environmental action.

The project has produced:

• A facilitator’s manual;
• An evaluation of a Psychology, Environment and Action course taught at Wilfrid Laurier University; and
• A special issue of Ecopsychology edited by Riemer and Dittmer called Youth Leading Environmental Change. This journal is the only peer-reviewed journal that places psychology and mental health in an ecological context to recognize the links between human health, culture and the health of the planet.

Publications

• The Youth Leading Environmental Change Project: A mixed-method longitudinal study across six countries by Riemer, M., Van Voorhees, C.W., Dittmer, et al. (2016). DOI: 10.1089/eco.2016.0025.
• A theory of engagement for fostering collective action in youth leading environmental change by Hickman, G., Riemer, M., and the YLEC Collaborative (2016). DOI: 10.1089/eco.2016.0024.
• Fostering systems thinking for youth leading environmental change: A multinational exploration by Sayal, R., Bidisha, S.H., Lynes, J., Riemer, M., Jasani, J., Monteiro, E., Hey, B., De Souza, A., Wicks, S., and A. Eady (2016). DOI: 10.1089/eco.2016.0023.

Other academic outputs include:

• Sharing research results through a panel discussion called Transforming culture towards sustainability: An Empirical exploration of engaging young people in meaningful environmental action at the 2015 Biennial Conference of the Society for Community, Research, and Action, Lowell, MA.
• Dittmer, L., Mugagga, F., Metternich, A., Schweizer-Ries, P., Riemer, M. (2017). Building action competence through environmental justice education in Uganda and Germany. Local Environment, 23(2). Published online October 26, 2017, 10.1080/13549839.2017.1391188.
• Riemer, M., Lynes, J., and Hickman, G. (2013). Engaging youth in environmental change. A model for developing and assessing youth-based environmental engagement programmes. Journal of Environmental Education Research.
• Schweizer-Ries, P., Metternich, A., Wessela, R., and Riemer, M. (2013). Sustainability communication & sensitisation: The example of the Youth Leading Environmental Change project. Paper presented at the International Symposium on ‘Sustainable Environments in a Changing Global Context: Identifying Opportunities for Innovative Spaces and Practices in Contexts of Crisis, Coruña, Spain, June 25- 28, 2013.
• Riemer, M. (2013). The Youth Leading Environmental Change Program: Theory, programme and research. In Riemer, M. (Chair). Engaging young people internationally in environmental action: The Youth Leading Environmental Change Project. Symposium conducted at the Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological Association, Quebec City, Quebec. June 13-15, 2013.
• Gibson, S. and Riemer, M. (2013). The role of risk perceptions in critical-consciousness raising for global climate change among youth: Preliminary results from the Youth Leading Environmental Change (YLEC) project. In Riemer, M. (Chair). Engaging young people internationally in environmental action: The Youth Leading Environmental Change Project. Symposium conducted at the Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological Association, Quebec City, Quebec. June 13-15, 2013.
• Alisat, S., and Riemer, M. (2013). The Impact of Participating in Youth Leading Environmental Change Workshops on Student Engagement in Environmental Activities and Actions. Poster presented at the Conference of Emerging Adulthood, Chicago, Illinois, October.

• Principal Investigator: Manuel Riemer

This research focused on the long-term impacts of a workshop called "Camp Suzuki in the Rouge," which was conducted by our partner, the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF). The main purpose of the workshop is to mentor and support community leaders in engaging their own communities to use the park. With our research study we explored how this workshop is impacting the long-term environmental and community engagement behaviours of participants. We also wanted to understand how the community they are trying to engage is impacted by their engagement efforts. We used a complex mixed-methods, longitudinal design to assess the impact on both the participants and the community members.

• Principal Investigator: Radha Sayal

This study examined the factors that sustain and disable one’s long-term motivation after attending an environmental engagement program. The study examined the Camp Suzuki in the Rouge program, which was facilitated by the David Suzuki Foundation. The program goal was to raise awareness about Rouge Park, which is Canada’s first urban national park. The study employs a mixed method design where both surveys and interviews are used to better understand participants’ program experiences in terms of their change in motivation towards the environment, the actual commitment to the environment and engaging their community, and the overall impact of the program. The aim of the study is to gain a better understanding of what factors contribute to long-term motivation in order to make environmental engagement programs more efficient and effective.

Publication

• Sayal, R., Bidisha, S.H., Lynes, J., Riemer, M., Jasani, J., Monteiro, E., Hey, B., De Souza, A., Wicks, S., and A. Eady (2016). Fostering systems thinking for youth leading environmental change: A multinational exploration. Ecopsychology. 8(3), 188-201. DOI: 10.1089/eco.2016.0023.

• Principal Investigator: Manuel Riemer

Reduce the Juice (RTJ) is a youth-driven community education initiative in Waterloo Region. They employ high school students during the summer to canvas their neighbourhoods and persuade local residents to reduce their carbon footprint and air pollution by changing their transportation and energy-intensive household behaviours.

This evaluation of their 2009 campaign includes a pre-post comparison group design to evaluate the impact of the high school students on residents. In addition, qualitative interviews were conducted with residents to explore the type of challenges they experienced in trying to change their behaviours and habit and what has helped them along the way.

Publication

• Lynes, J. & Riemer, M. (2009). Developing a framework for effectively engaging youth in conservation issues: a case study of Reduce the Juice. Poster presented at the Behaviour, Energy & Climate Change Conference, Washington, D.C. Nov 15-18, 2009.

• Principal Investigators: Livia Dittmer and Manuel Riemer

Building on pilot research that indicates the importance of complex interventions for environmental change, this case study investigated the efficacy of a workshop-style intervention on raising critical consciousness of environmental factors on students employed by Reduce the Juice (RTJ).

These four workshops conducted over the summer, each focused on a particular theme (e.g. the ecological model, urban planning and design, government and policy, and environmental justice). The workshops were designed to help the students develop an understanding of the multiple levels of influences that impact individuals’ environmental and transportation choices.

This intervention intended to help the students develop knowledge and skills to help them in the short term, with their RTJ work as community educators, and in the long term as environmentalists. The students’ experiences were explored phenomenologically through recordings of the workshops, qualitative interviews, journal entries from the RTJ team leaders, and questionnaires regarding the students’ previous environmental and general community involvement. 

Puublication

• Dittmer, L.D. & Riemer, M. (2013). Fostering critical thinking about climate change: Applying Community Psychology to an environmental education project with youth. Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice, 4(1).