Abstract
Children/youth experience increasing levels of mental health distress from direct and indirect effects of the climate crisis. This underscores the need to work upstream through an intergenerational climate justice, equity, and eco-social lens to promote the resilience, health, and wellbeing of children and youth. Youth are a significant stakeholder in the climate crisis yet continue to be excluded from playing meaningful roles in shaping climate governance and designing sustainable futures. This research, therefore, explores how taking intergenerational approaches to climate change mitigation strategies can foster the co-benefits of creating more equitable, creative, and asset-based sustainability pathways and improving the mental health of youth; and summarize existing principles to guide effective intergenerational climate change collaborations. I will describe findings from a suite of two sub-projects: (1) a scoping review of literature on intergenerational collaborations for climate change; and (2) semi-structured interviews with educators about how to approach grounded hope-based climate change education. Findings from the scoping review and interviews provide insights into how to integrate intergenerational collaborations in climate change decision-making, as well as opportunities for linking art and creativity to environmental efforts to foster co-benefits for youth. This suite of projects moves to action a growing body of evidence on advancing collaborative, intersectoral and governance relevant initiatives that generate meaningful change at the local level through bolstering children and youth’s mental health resilience, intergenerational climate justice, and children/youth in all policies.
Presenters
Angel KennedyStudent, PhD in Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Technical, Political, and Social Responses
KEYWORDS
Co-benefits, Intergenerational Collaboration
