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Educating for the Environment

Youth for the Environment and People (YEP!)

Creating a space for youth voices, leadership, and advocacy on issues students care about. Applications open for Fall 2025!

Apply for fall 2025

Calling all high school students in Whatcom or Skagit County interested in collaborating with other youth on a climate action project!

Youth for the Environment and People (YEP!) provides an opportunity for students to share ideas and passions, learn about climate change solutions, engage in local stewardship projects, and work together with other youth in choosing, planning and implementing a group action project. And, of course, have fun!

YEP! participants will:

  • Meet and work with youth in the region to create and implement a student-led action project
  • Discover, empower, and refine individual skills and talents
  • Practice stepping into leadership roles
  • Connect with local organizations working to solve local climate change in our region
  • Learn about local and global climate change solutions
  • Participate in two local field days exploring hands-on solutions

YEP! runs for 10 weeks and is offered both in the spring and fall semesters:

I had never had a chance to join an official group or be a part of a project to make a change and help the community. This was my first time and definitely not my last”

— Ay, 2023 YEP! Participant

Fall 2025 theme: Regenerative Food Systems

We offer two concurrent cohorts — one in Whatcom and one in Skagit — coming together during an outside field day! This fall, students will learn about regenerative agriculture in Western Washington, diving into how farming practices and food systems can be climate justice solutions. From there, we’ll explore local examples, seeing firsthand how we can (and already are) build climate-resilient food systems that support vital farmworkers’ livelihoods and the land itself. On a Field Day, we’ll visit a local farm to experience solutions firsthand. Then, students will design and implement their own solution to the issue through a group action project. Facilitators guide, support, and educate while students lead and work collaboratively on the group action project.

More details about the program
  • Applicants must attend high school in Whatcom or Skagit counties (applicants will form two cohorts consisting of up to 15 students each; one Whatcom, one Skagit)
  • YEP! is co-facilitated by (Whatcom cohort) Zoe Fry Program Coordinator at RE Sources & (Skagit cohort) Eva Araujo, Youth Leadership Specialist at North Cascades Institute
  • This program will run for 10 weeks from September 29th until December 9th (no meeting November 27th for Thanksgiving Break)
  • The Whatcom cohort meets on Mondays from 4:00-6:00pm and the Skagit cohort meets on Tuesdays from 3:30-5:30 pm.
  • Save the date for our joint field day on Sunday afternoon, October 5th.
  • We provide a $150 stipend upon completion of the group project to compensate students for their time and efforts.

We are now accepting applications for the fall 2025 cohorts in both Whatcom and Skagit Counties. Whatcom County applications are due 10:00 p.m. Monday, September 15th, and Skagit County applications are due 10:00 p.m. Tuesday, September 30th.

Submit an Application

**If you want to participate but feel it would be easier to talk to someone over the phone or in person rather than apply through the link, please contact YEP@re-sources.org or call 360-733-8307

Questions? Please contact:

YEP@re-sources.org

Timeline

When are applications due? For those applying to the Whatcom County cohort, the deadline is 10:00 p.m. Monday, September 15th. Applicants will be informed of acceptance into the program between September 16-19th and must confirm their place by September 22nd. For those applying to the Skagit County cohort, the deadline is 10:00 p.m. Tuesday, September 30th and applicants will be notified on a rolling basis as program capacity allows. Please note, all correspondence will happen via email.

Who can participate? Applicants must attend high school in Whatcom or Skagit County. There are 30 total spots available, 15 in each cohort.

How long is the program? Skagit cohort begins September 30th, meeting weekly on Tuesdays for 10 weeks and Whatcom cohort begins September 29th, meeting weekly on Mondays for 10 weeks. Both cohorts come together on Sunday, October 5th for a field day. There is no meeting the week of November 24th for Thanksgiving break. The final meeting is December 8th/9th.

When and where are the meetings? Whatcom cohort will meet Mondays from 4-6 PM at RE Sources for Sustainable Communities in Bellingham (above the RE Store) and Skagit cohort meets Mondays 3:30-5:30 pm at the North Cascades Institute Office .

What are the benefits? We provide a $150 stipend upon completion of the group project to compensate students for their time and efforts. Must attend 9 of the 12 meetings and participate in the group project to receive the stipend.

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Past YEP! Projects

 

Spring 2025 – Salish Sea Pollution

Whatcom Cohort: Students conducted community outreach about stormwater pollution. They developed a brochure and tabled at Taylor Dock in Bellingham to educate passers by about stormwater pollution impact the very waters beneath them.

Read about their work here. 

Fall 2024 – Ecological Forestry

Whatcom Cohort: Students hosted a letter-writing workshop where participants hand-wrote comments to the Whatcom County Council in support of decoupling school funding from timber sales in favor of more stable, long-term sources of revenue for schools that don’t come at the cost of students’ climate futures.

Skagit Cohort: Planned and taught a classroom lesson to help sixth graders learn about local forests and why they are important.

Read about their work here

 

Spring 2024 – Energy

Students conducted an energy and cost savings analysis of retrofitting Options High School with LED lights and presented their findings to the Bellingham School District’s Sustainability Task Force. Check out their LED retrofit project here.

 

Fall 2023 – Flooding

Whatcom Cohort: Interested in educating the next generation about flooding mitigation, students led 45 Wild Whatcom elementary students in hands-on flooding lessons afterschool, as well as hosted a restoration work party.

Skagit Cohort: To help their community be flood prepared, students designed and distributed a flooding preparedness “how-to” brochure to neighbors and community members, alongside homemade baked goods.

Read more about their projects

 

Spring 2023 – Fast Fashion

Interested in helping their peers ditch fast fashion, students hosted an outdoor clothing swap to raise awareness of the impacts of fast fashion and keep textiles out of the landfill.

Learn about how students addressed fast fashion.

 

Fall 2022 – Food Waste

Whatcom Cohort: Following their passion for food justice, students held an educational event at the Bellingham Farmers Market and hand-painted 36 ceramic bowls that they sold to raise over $900 for the Bellingham Food Bank.

Skagit Cohort: For their action project, the Skagit cohort decided to focus on improving food composting at their local schools, as well as educating the local community about the importance of composting and its effect on reducing climate change.

Learn more about how students tackled food waste on our blog.

 

Fall 2021 – Carbon Sources and Sinks

Whatcom Cohort: YEP! students partnered with NSEA to co-host a tree planting work party along Squalicum Creek and planted 28 trees just after historic flooding in November with the help of other passionate youth from Ferndale High School.

Skagit Cohort: Through exploration of carbon sinks (a natural system that can limit climate change by storing carbon from the atmosphere) the Skagit students discovered the Kulshan Carbon Trust and decided to create a well-researched brochure for the non-profit that would educate stakeholders on their programs.

Check out their carbon-sequestration projects

 

Fall 2020 – Environmental Justice

Whatcom Cohort: After deciding to center their project around food inequity, students sewed 20 bags out of old t-shirts and filled them with food, a gift card to a local food establishment, notes of encouragement and a list of helpful resources and donated them to NorthWest Youth Services.

Skagit Cohort: In a two-part project, students donated COVID-19 safety supplies to those in need, and created a website that included helpful COVID resources, highlighting the link between a healthy environment and healthy people, while providing important background information about environmental justice.

Find out more about how these teens worked for environmental justice.

Spring 2019 – Orca Health

Whatcom Cohort: Students channeled their passions with paint to raise awareness about the perils facing the Southern Resident Orcas of the Salish Sea through making an art mural on the side of the RE Store.

See their mural and the work they accomplished

 

Spring 2018 – Pilot Program

Whatcom: This cohort marks the launch of YEP!. RE Sources partnered with Sahar Arbab, a WWU grad student, to design, trial, and evaluate the first iteration of Youth for the Environment and People! Students in this cohort explored climate solutions, participated in focus groups, and planned a letter-writing event.