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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 2026!

Apply now!

Calling all high school students in Whatcom 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 in both 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 2026 theme: Sustainable transportation

This fall, both the Whatcom and Skagit cohorts will learn about sustainable transportation. Students will explore our local transit infrastructure, how we can make environmentally friendly commuting easier to access, and how to prioritize sustainable transportation in our communities. Students will get the opportunity to tour Whatcom Transit Authority (WTA)’s bus barn and learn about the sustainable transportation services WTA offers during our field day on Wednesday, October 14th (4-6 p.m.). Then, both cohorts will design and implement their own solution to reducing dependence on fossil fuel-based transportation 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 county 
  • YEP! is facilitated by Zoe Fry, Program Coordinator at RE Sources. This program will run for 10 weeks, from September 28th to December 8th (no meeting November 23rd for Thanksgiving Break)
  • The Whatcom cohort will meet on Mondays, from 4-6 p.m., and the Skagit cohort will meet on Tuesdays, from 3:30-5:30 p.m.
  • We provide a $150 stipend upon completion of the group project to compensate students for their time and efforts
Apply now!

**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

Frequently Asked Questions

Applications are due by 10 p.m. on Monday, September 14th.
Students will be informed of acceptance into the program between September 15th and 17th. You must confirm you want to accept the offer by September 21st.
Note: all of the above correspondence will happen via email.

Applicants must attend high school in Whatcom or Skagit County. Each cohort has 15 spots available.

The Whatcom cohort begins September 28th, meeting weekly on Mondays for 10 weeks. The Skagit cohort begins on September 29th, meeting weekly on Tuesdays for 10 weeks. Both cohorts will attend the Wednesday, October 14th field day. There is no meeting the week of November 23rd for Thanksgiving break. The final meeting is December 7th/8th.

The Whatcom cohort will meet Mondays, from 4-6 p.m., at RE Sources in Bellingham (above the RE Store) and and the Skagit cohort will meet Tuesdays, from 3:30-5:30 p.m., at the North Cascades Institute main office in Sedro Woolley.

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

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Past YEP! Projects

Fall 2025: Regenerative Food Systems

Whatcom Cohort: Utilizing knowledge learned from community partners like Whatcom Food Network, Community to Community, City Sprouts, and Viva Farms, students decided to create two short social and one long-format video to inform viewers about food systems and put out a call to action to help keep the free community fridges (freedges) in Whatcom County stocked. 

Skagit Cohort: After connecting with partners from around our food system, students decided to interview local farmers about how they fit into our community and the challenges they face, which turned into a video they shared with their schools and local news stations.

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.

 

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